Agitation against the torture dalits faced at the hands of the higher castes, says Dalit Independent MLA Mevani
By Abdulhafiz Lakhani Ahmedabad
The 2016 Una torture of Dalits may have all but forgotten, but at least one recent incident has brought to light that the torment that the community suffers in Gujarat is far from over.
Hundreds of Scheduled Caste men and women from all over the State last week gathered at Sanodar village in Bhavnagar district last week to mourn the death of a fearless farmer who was done to death by headstrong Darbars on March 2. But they also took an oath of sorts to fight for justice.
A s t r o n g l y – wo r d e d memorandum demanding one-acre land and lifetime pension for 50-yearold Amra Boricha’s family was handed over to the district police chief immediately after the prayer meeting. But they didn’t stop at that.
They repeated these demands at another large gathering of Dalits at Sanand near Ahmedabad on Saturday. And on Monday, the Dalits, who are angry over Boricha’s daylight brutal murder inside his own house by 10 higher caste men with swords, spears and steel rods, plan to assemble at the Bhavnagar district collector’s office to submit another memorandum of demands, including a licence for a revolver for protection of the lone Dalit family in the village.
Independent Dalit MLA Jignesh Mevani also raised the murder issue in the State Assembly last week and demanding to know why the negligent and irresponsible police sub-inspector, an accused in the case, had not been arrested so far. The angry Dalits have decided not to stop at even these memorandums.
On Ambedkar Jayanti on April 14, as many as 3,000 Dalits have threatened to take out a ‘Lalkaar Yatra’ (Challenge March) to agitate against the torture they faced at the hands of the higher castes. Jignesh Mevani asserted that, “On April 14, we will take out the rally and will try to get the possession of 14 land parcels in Gujarat which have been allotted to landless Dalits but have been wrongfully occupied by uppercaste people.”
He pointed out that Boricha was attacked not only because he was a Right To Information (RTI) activist, but also constantly complained against the attempts of the Darbar community to usurp his land and house. He was assaulted as many as 13 times, allegedly thrice in the presence of policemen. Mevani says, “That Boricha was assaulted as many as 14 times shows that there is blatant disregard for the rule of law under the Vijay Rupani regime, which calls itself a sensitive administration.”
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सत्य को ज़िंदा रखने की इस मुहिम में आपका सहयोग बेहद ज़रूरी है। आपसे मिली सहयोग राशि हमारे लिए संजीवनी का कार्य करेगी और हमे इस मार्ग पर निरंतर चलने के लिए प्रेरित करेगी। याद रखिये ! सत्य विचलित हो सकता है पराजित नहीं।
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Abdulhafiz Lakhani
editor@siyasat.net, Ahmedabad. Gujarat
