Canadian Parvasi Issue 22 November 2019

The International News Weekly November 22, 2019 | Toronto 08
Jagmel’s murder a reminder of
Malwa’s brutal caste oppression
Bathinda: The gruesome,
near unbelievable
murder of Jagmel Singh,
a Dalit from Changaliwala
village in Sangrur, is
a sordid reminder of the
brutality of caste oppression
in Punjab’s Malwa
region.
Like Jagmel’s case,
which hit the headlines
a week ago just out of the
sheer violence involved,
four incidents rocked
the state over the past 12
years — of Gurdev Kaur
and Sukhchain Singh in
2016, Bhim Tank
in 2015, and Bant
Singh in 2006. Only Bant
continues to live to tell
the tale of how his seven
upper-caste men pinned
him down in a field, and
kept dropping a handpump
on his legs to reduce
them to pulp, so he
could never walk again.
He was rushed from Burj
Jabbar in Mansa to 200km
away to PGIMER, Chandigarh,
where his arms and
a leg were amputated.
Cut to Jagmel, the attack
was no different, at
least in its mindlessness.
To avenge a spat they
had with him on October
23, four upper-caste men
from Jagmel’s village
took him to the house of
main accused Rinku and
his father Amarjeet Singh
on November 7 by promising
to get him a medicine
he needed. They tied their
victim to a pole, rained
lathi blows on his legs,
poured acid on them, and
left him for the dead by a
roadside.
He died due to multiple
organ failure on November
16.
An academician at
Panjab Universit says
even today, many people
from upper caste communities
feel Dalits are
not equal to them. “When
Dalits try to assert their
rights, members of upper
castes feel their authority
is being challenged,”
says Prof Ronki Ram of
PU’s political science department.
He says though
the highest concentration
of Dalits in Punjab is in
Doaba, fewer attacks take
place there as the community
is more united in
that region of the state.
Lachhman Singh
Sewewala, the general
secretary of Punjab Khet
Mazdoor Union who continues
to fight for Dalit
rights, says there is an attempt
by some people in
upper caste communities
to ensure Dalits’ social
status was never equal to
theirs.
Bant (50), now an icon
of the Dalit struggle, says
members of the community
were still treated like
second-class citizens.
He is now getting a
disablility pension of Rs
750 per month. “They
have not even provided
me a wheelchair,” he
says. “Politicians look to
us only during elections.
It is only an illusion that
society’s perception has
changed. Look at Jagmel’s
case.”
All in a day: Farm fires in Pb
dip from 1,036 to 151
New Delhi: With increase
in paddy stubble
burning incidents in last
three days in Muktsar, the
district administration officials
visited various villages
with fire tenders and
claim to have doused farm
fires at couple of places.
The officials also recommended
registration of
cases where farmers were
burning stubble.
The Muktsar district,
which till November 18,
had recorded much less
stubble burning incidents
as compared with previous
year, saw a surge in
stubble burning incidents
in the last three days. The
stubble burning incidents
remained high in Muktsar
on November 19, 20 and 21.
On November 19, it recorded
343 incidents of 1,036
incidents in Punjab. On
November 20, 380 incidents
of 1,036 and on November
21, it recorded 42 incidents
of the total 151 recorded in
Punjab. Last year, Muktsar had recorded 31 incidents on November 19 and 71 on November 20. However, in Muktsar the burning incidents
as compared with
previous year is still less
(4,271 recorded till November
21 whereas there were
5,381 stubble burning incidents
till November 21,
2018).
However, Punjab recorded
52,154 stubble burning
incidents till November
21 up from 50,829 in the
previous year. Combined
with wheat stubble burning,
Punjab recorded 63,852
burning incidents till November
20, up from 61,497
in the previous year.
Muktsar deputy commissioner
M K Aravind Kumar
said, “Action is being
taken against the farmers
burning stubble which include
registration of cases
and imposing of fines apart
from making red entries in
the land records.
The farmers who have
not burnt stubble will be
provided compensation of
Rs 2,500 per acre after verifying
the facts from panchayats.”