Issue 336 - 14/02/2020

26 14/02/2020 NEWS LITERATURE POLITICS FASHION ART & CULTURE KIDS RELIGION FILMS
www.samajweekly.com
Una taluka of the Gir Somnath
district in Gujarat is notorious for
the violence against the Dalits. Most
of them actually are landless and
work as farm labours. It is this economic
dependence that keep them
tied to the oppression. This model of
dependence on the Savarna kept
flourishing and any attempt to
empower Dalits in the rural Gujarat
is met with stiff resistance.
On July 11th, 2016, a mob of
over 45 persons mostly belonging to
the oppressive Brahmins, Patel,
Darbar, Aheer castes attacked a
family of Dalit community in village
Mota Samadhiyala. The family
was actually skinning the Caracas of
a dead cow which has been the traditional
occupation of Sarvaiyas of
the village, about 350 kilometers
from Ahmedabad city. The terrorists,
who claimed that they were
doing all this to ‘protect’ cows and
claimed to be ‘cow protectors’ or
‘Gausevaks’, a very similar religious
police in the other theocratic
countries. The Thugs in the name of
Hindutva blamed that these people
had killed cows, which was prohibited
legally and then they decided to
‘teach’ them a lesson. Vasram,
Ramesh, Ashok, Bechanbhai and
three others were brutally flogged in
full public view and when they fell
unconscious, they were tied to an
SUV and dragged to the street of
Una, with crowd, making videos
and just standing as onlookers,
many appreciating and participated
in the flogging. Vashram, his brother,
cousins and his parents, all were
beaten up mercilessly. They fell
unconscious but the people were
enjoying their flogging and making
videos and no one attempted to stop
that. Most of the perpetrators were
Brahmins, Patels, /Aheers, Kolis but
most of them have got bailed. 6
accused in the jail now are
Brahmins.
As the video became viral, Una
incident reached all over the world
and exposed the hidden apartheid
that exists in India. It also revealed
the dirty realities of the village in
Gujarat and how the Hindutva terror
agents were targeting the Dalits in
the villages of Gujarat in the name of
cow protection. Political leaders
went there and express solidarity.
Right from Rahul Gandhi to BSP
leader Mayawati, all expressed solidarity
with them. Even Anandi Ben
Patel, the then chief minister of
Gujarat visited them and promised
fullest support. A new Dalit leadership
also emerged from the Una flogging
incident. As the Dalit groups
were uniting, a young dynamic
speaker Jignesh Mewani became
voice of the community and attracted
attention of all those who felt that the
time of the youthful Dalit face who
can influence Indian politics has
finally emerged. The imagination of
the group was that along with
Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and
Chandrasekhar Azad, Jignesh
Mewani will be the new force against
the Hindutva. I would not like to
speculate on anything except for the
fact that these emerging leaders need
more focus on the ground and less on
‘event management’ things.
Una’s Dalit fighters were left to
fight their battle alone. No politician
including Jignesh Mewani visited
them ever, said Vashram, who is
SOCIAL BOYCOTT, a powerful
oppressive tool to perpetuate caste
hierarchies in GUJARAT Part II
fighting for justice day in and out.
We are frustrated with politicians as
they don’t anything. Vashram wrote
a letter to the President of India to
deport the family out of India as
they don’t know what is citizenship
as they still face the huge boycott.
The villagers don’t talk to them.
After much fight a special court
was formed for the trial but on July
23rd, 2019, the Public Prosecutor
Deependra Yadav wanted to withdrew
citing lack of security to all
including witnesses. 43 accused
were charge sheeted in which 35
have already got bail from the
Gujarat High Court emboldening
them that they can do anything and
law can’t really trace them. Six
accused are in police custody at the
moment. Prime accused was already
got bail from the court while one
police men accused of dereliction of
duty died. Most of the accused
belong to Darbar community who
are the most violent against Dalits in
the Saurashtra region, apart from
Kolis and other landed communities.
The police filed cases against
accused under sections 307 (
attempt to murder), 397, Robbery,
365 Kidnapping, 342 wrongful confinement,
147 Rioting, 324 Causing
hurt, 120B, criminal conspiracy.
There are other sections related to
Information Technology Act as the
accused made video and circulated
it widely. The aim of the accused
was open challenge to the Dalits
that if they have to live in the village,
they will have to live as per the
fancies of these Gau-thugs who
don’t care for the constitution of
India. The family of the victimized
and tortured has not got any justice.
The government promised five
acres of land to them but nothing
happened. There was many other
promises particularly related to their
safety yet nothing happened. Most
of the goons are already on bails
while false cases have been filed
against Dalits who participated in
the protests demanding justice for
the victims. The family of the victims
is actually facing all kind of
harassment even to fight the case as
their major demands have not been
accepted. Except for the compensation,
they have not got anything and
in the absence of any viable
employment, the family is suffering
and is now frustrated with all kind
of efforts to scuttle the justice.
According to a report in the Indian
Express on November 28th, 2018,
under headline : Una Dalit seek
mercy killing : write to President
say Government did not fulfill
promises.
“ Our case is being heard by a
court in Veraval. Despite our plea to
the state home department, neither
we nor the witnesses have been
given armed police protection. Nor
are police arranging any vehicles for
ferrying witnesses to the court. On
the other hand, the accused are getting
bail. They are violating their
bail conditions and indulging in
other offences. Despite all this, the
state government has done nothing
to get bail of such people cancelled.
So, the state government has failed
to meet our demands. Our lives
have become miserable now. We do
not want to live longer and hence
are seeking permission for mercy
killing,” Vashram, who has studied
till Class X, wrote.
Nothing happened and the suffering
the family continued. They lost
what they were doing earlier i.e.
skinning of the dead cows which
used to fetch them good money but
now that too is gone. Vashram tells
me that they are not capable of
doing any other work as because of
heavy flogging, all of them have
health issues. The government did
not even give them enough treatment.
After the incident, the government
had promised that all of
them will get 5 acres of land and
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
social and human rights activist
housing and job but nothing is
there. Out of 25 families of the
Dalit community in that village only
15 have been given land which does
not include this family of Vashram
who converted to Buddhism along
with other members of the community
but he says that still they are
considered as untouchable In the
village. The change of religion has
not change the attitude of the people
in his village so far.
He was not aware of Dr Baba
Saheb Ambedkar but after the brutal
assault on them, he started reading
about Dr Ambedkar and his work.
Now, Vashram feel that Dr Baba
Saheb Ambedkar has become part
of his life as he only has given them
strength and confident to fight
despite all kind of betrayal.
The biggest irony is that the government
and the authorities working
under it are supposed to protect constitution
and work according to it
but what is happening in Gujarat is
that the officers are hand in glove
with the caste forces and that is why
most of those who attack the Dalits
and socially boycott them remain
untouched. Even if they happened
to be arrested for some time, there
are enough members of their fraternity
in the legal profession who are
ready to fight their cases and get
them bail. Can you imagine, 35 out
of 41 accused are already on bail.
The main accused too is out on bail.
What can you expect from the lower
court when the high court is acting
so fast? The government did not
challenge the high court order in the
Supreme Court ? That has proved
dangerous as the victim’s family are
facing threat and social boycott continues.
They don’t have anything to
work and no money to survive now.
This absolute isolation and boycott
which Gujaratis have got expert
in have created a potentially dangerous
situation. Vashram who is married
and unemployed but determined
to fight his case, has written
again to the President of India ( I
don’t know why so much of hope
when no response came from their
earlier letter written in 2018 about
mercy killing) asking him to deport
these victims to other country as
they don’t feel they are being treated
as citizens in this country.‘ We
are not considered as citizen in
India. Dalits are discriminated
against in the Hindu Community. So
we request President Ramnath
kovind to send us to a different
country where we wont face discrimination’.
Vashram Sarvaiya,
Victim. He is further quoted in the
Quint that, ‘ There has been no
action taken against those who beat
us up in 2016. The perpetrators are
out on bail. We were promised
agcultural land, plots
but none of them have
been kept.” He also
said, “Anandiben Patel,
who was the then CM
of Gujarat and is now
the Uttar Pradesh governor
had visited us in
2016 and had promised jobs. She
had said she will visit us again in a
month. But neither did she come nor
did she give us any jobs.”
Gujarat’s model of Dalit oppression
is now being followed elsewhere
too. This is the saddest aspect
that the government has not been
very forthcoming to support the
Dalits. The biggest violence is the
social violence where the government
institutions are only failing and
adding miseries to the victims. Una
case also highlight the issues as how
we jump up and look towards
‘heros’ who emerge from some campaign
and then forget their own people.
It is also a reality heroes come
and go but the people have to fight
their own battle. Politics, they say, is
good for all and empower us but it is
the grim reality that people are just
victimized by the ambitious politicians
and once the issue is used the
people are left to fetch themselves.
We all take the name of Dr Baba
Saheb Ambedkar but fact is this
could not have happened if those
who benefitted politically from Una
incident had taken pain to be with
people and fought for their rights.
More than three years have
passed and nothing has happened on
the justice front. The pain and
anguish is too big to write here.
When I met Vashram, I realized how
barbaric the system is which perpetuate
the oppression and does not
care as if some people are born to
get the pain and oppression. It is
time, that Supreme Court and our
national parliament if it really care,
come out against serious measures
on such issues of social boycott.
Una case is a blot but what is bigger
blot to our system is that the victims
are left to fetch themselves, they are
feeling deeply disappointed and
betrayed while those accused and
the perpetrators of this crime are
now roaming free and their release
has not been challenged. It shows
clearly how the government function
in double speak as on the one
side it claim to work for the uplift of
the Dalits and on the other side, it
refuses to act against the dominant
casteist communities who violate
law of the land. In the 70th year of
our Republic, this is the biggest
betrayal to the ideals of the founding
fathers of our republic who
worked so hard to give us modern
nation but the Manuwadis are determined
to convert it back to their
‘dream project’ of hierarchical society
based on principles of caste system.
It is a wakeup call. We must do
whatever possible to expose the sinister
caste forces working in Gujarat
denying Dalits their dignity and
self-respect. We hope our friends in
Gujarat will take up this issue to the
Supreme Court and fight against
this bail order to terror accused of
Una. During my recent visit to
Ahmedabad, I had an opportunity to
speak to young Vashram, who was
tortured brutally along with his
brothers and cousins on July 11th,
2016 in Una. Vashram is not well.
He can’t do hard work as because of
the flogging, he and his family now
have health issues. In 2019 he sat
on 56 days Dharana but the
Government is not ready to give
them land, not ready to listen. The
dominant community here is Patel
and Koli. People are trying to use
OBCs against Dalits and this is the
conspiracy says, Vashram. We want
caste discrimination end. We want
rule of the constitution. We want
discrimination end here.
Government must give them justice.
People are roaming here and there
but they have not got justice. I will
follow Baba Saheb lifelong.
Initially, I did not know how to
speak to a police man but now I
have learnt. How can you speak to
an officer, or a police? Now
Ambedkarite movement has given
me understanding. We have
embraced Buddhism in 2017 but the
Manuwadi government has not
given our document. We have got
certificate given by Bharatiya
Baudh Mahasabha but the government
is not ready to accept. People
are not ready to accept us as they
don’t want to get away with caste
system. We embrace this in 2017
along with 300 Dalit families and
that time they were threatened and
attacked but the court is a slow
process and it look so difficult and
will take minimum two years.
Listen to my conversation with
Vashram, who still is hopeful
despite all the despair. We hope that
he and his family will get justice.