By: OMAR RASHID
Last month, when Shivam Sonkar was denied admission for a PhD course in the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) on technical grounds, he felt distraught. He could not muster the courage to return home to his parents in Unnao and admit that he had failed to qualify again — the first time was in 2022. He felt wronged.
After exhausting all options of redressal and running from pillar to post, Sonkar, who belongs to a Dalit community, decided to sit on a dharna outside the BHU vice-chancellor’s office.
He alleged that he was denied admission despite securing the second rank in the general category in the entrance exam only due to his caste background.
The serious nature of his allegations towards a prestigious central university created a political stir. And within days of his sit-in, the matter snowballed into a political spectacle.
Opposition parties and leaders scurried to the sprawling BHU campus in Varanasi to take up Sonkar’s cause and target the Narendra Modi-led Central government for allegedly discriminating against Dalit scholars.
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