The suicide case of Rohith Vemula, a research scholar at University of Hyderabad, was not a “Dalit versus non-Dalit issue”, and there was a “malicious attempt to project it as a caste battle”, human resource development minister Smriti Irani said on Wednesday. “This is not a Dalit versus non-Dalit issue as being projected by some to ignite passion,” Irani said in Delhi while rejecting allegations that her ministry had put pressure on Hyderabad Central University to suspend Vemula.