DALITS/SCHEDULED CASTES - 2009 - Indian Social Institute

police Wednesday managed to arrest two men, Dhananjay and Rajaram. Chief Minister Mayawati's
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) espouses the cause of India's Dalits or socially marginalised communities.
(Zee News 17/6/09)
Kewat’s fangs blunt UP Police teeth (2)
Lucknow: What is higher on the priority list of the Mayawati government —- crime against Dalits or crime
against the state. A lone dacoit with a motley goup of untrained street smart men is holding back a strong
army of UP Police comprising trained commandos of Special Task Force and Provincial Armed
Constabulary (PAC) beside the police from four districts for more than 36 hours in an obscure Chitrakoot
village. In the encounter, the brigands have gunned down three policemen besides critically injuring over
a dozen others, including an IG and a DIG. All this with a miniscule armoury pitted against the state’s
sophisticated and unliited arsenal in the hands of trained personnel. But for the state government and the
DGP, rushing to districts where crimes are perpetrated against Dalits, supervising arrest of accused and
distributing compensation is more important, at least in the present dispensation. Or else, why would the
top cop, who is expectantly looked upto by his men did not care to visit troubled Chitrakoot district or the
scene of encounter like his more prodigal predecessors JN Chaturvedi, Prakash Singh, Sri Ram Arun and
the likes, who believed in leading from the front and motivated the men in khaki. In fact, the DGP has
reached several scenes of encounters like the proverbial filmi policewallah, after the operations were
over, results notwithstanding. Be it the felling of Dadua, Nirbhay, Thokiya or Jagjeevan Parihar, the DGP
was there only for the showering of goodies. Yes, he did go to Banda to pay homage after dacoit Sapola
waylaid and killed six STF commandos. What is of more serious concern is the question that this holed up
gang has raised over the competence of UP Police personnel by keeping them at bay for a day-and-a
half. Going by the DGP’s version, the gang was in possession of a dozen outdated weapons except for a
303 rifle and four hand grenades, so what are the cops, who have access to sohisticated weaponry and
training, doing. \If this be the situation in handling a group of hot headed ravine rangers, where would the
UP Police personnel and its top brass hide, if there were an immaculately planned fidayeen attack carried
out by armed-to-the-teeth ultras in any corner of the state. The self-hyped ‘teeth’ of the UP Police lay
badly exposed by the operation against holed up Kewat in Jamrauli village of Chitrakoot. The DGP, on
the other hand, seems more preoccupied with meetings and issuing circulars and complying with the
government’s Dalit agenda. In the last fortnight, Singh has visited Lakhimpur Kheri, Ghaziabad, Hardoi,
Azamgarh, Sultanpur etc where Dalits were either murdered or female members were raped. In several
sensational crimes, he never cared to even crosscheck with the district police chief concerned. Even after
the three cops perished in the face-off with Kewat and more than dozen are injured, the DGP has not
cared to visit the scene himself. What is more surprising, the best operational teams of STF led by SSP,
STF, Amitabh Yash, Additional SP Anant Deo, Inspector Anil Singh who were rewarded Rs 3 lakh each
for eliminating dacoit Thokia were not sent. Not only this, even IG (STF) KL Meena, and ADG, Law &
Order, Brij Lal were held back and instead, IG (PAC) VK Gupta was sent for monitoring the situation. It
was only after an IG and DIG suffered bullet wounds that Brij Lal was sent to Chitrakot on Wednesday
afternoon and SSP STF, Amitabh Yash was asked to join him. (Pioneer 18/6/09)
BJP flays Maya govt’s false concern for Dalits (2)
Lucknow: Ridiculing the Mayawati government for its false concern for Dalits, the BJP on Wednesday
alleged that atrocities on people of the Scheduled Castes had gone up to an all-time high during the
current regime. State vice-president and spokesman of the BJP HN Dixit told reporters that never before
had the Dalits in the state faced such atrocities and BSP MLAs and the ministers were using the police to
settle personal scores. He said that the role of the police was even worse as it was registering cases
against the victims instead of the perpetrators.“Women and girls are the worst sufferers as complaints of
rape and other crimes against women are pouring in from every part of the state. Not only anti-social
elements but even the police are torturing them in the most inhuman way,” he said. He added that the
recent Shahjahanpur incident was an example of the atrocities against Dalits. Dixit said the BJP had
received reports that Dalits were victimised in Jaunpur, Pratapgarh, Sitapur, Azamgarh and Unnao but
police failed to book the culprits in any of the cases. He said that the DGP’s spot visits could not do any
good as the incidents of crimes against Dalits were on the rise. He said that the BJP would raise the issue
in the House and would also agitate against the state government on the streets. (Pioneer 18/6/09)
Spanish messiah of Anantapur’s poor dies (2)