Social boycott of 40 dalit families in Belagavi village – The Times Of India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hubballi/Social-boycott-of-40-dalit-families-in-Belagavi-village/articleshow/49232581.cms
Mumbai: BJP hops onto Bhim Rath to shed anti-Dalit tag – Mid Day
http://www.mid-day.com/articles/mumbai-bjp-hops-onto-bhim-rath-to-shed-anti-dalit-tag/16587166
‘Ensure Quota for Dalits in Private Sector’: Sitaram Yechury – The New Indian Express
http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/andhra_pradesh/Ensure-Quota-for-Dalits-in-Private-Sector-Sitaram-Yechury/2015/10/06/article3065233.ece
Dalit forum flays failure to allocate office to prosecutor – The Hindu
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/dalit-forum-flays-failure-to-allocate-office-to-prosecutor/article7729014.ece?ref=tpnews
‘Law to curb honour killings needed’ – The Hindu
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/bangalore/law-to-curb-honour-killings-needed/article7730183.ece
Dadri lynching has raised troubling questions on India’s ‘secularity’ – The Hindustan Times
http://www.hindustantimes.com/columns/dadri-lynching-has-raised-troubling-questions-on-india-s-secularity/story-DoXSDHS3wz4twGN2F4WG5L.html
U.P. to have separate police stations for SC/STs – The Hindu
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/up-to-have-separate-police-stations-for-scsts/article7727984.ece?ref=tpnews
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The Times Of India
Social boycott of 40 dalit families in Belagavi village
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hubballi/Social-boycott-of-40-dalit-families-in-Belagavi-village/articleshow/49232581.cms
Ravindra Uppar,TNN | Oct 5, 2015, 09.35 PM IST
BELAGAVI: Team of officials led by Belagavi assistant commissioner Rajashri Jainapur visited the Kasaba-Nandgad village in Khanapur taluk on Monday, in the backdrop of social boycott of dalit families in village by upper community people.
Around 40 dalit families have been socially boycotted in the village since past one and half year and restricted from buying commodities of livelihood in local shops, entry at flour mills, entering the religious places and getting potable water. Following this, dalit families had posted memorandum to CM Siddaramaiah, home minister and district administration. They filed complaint in local police station against nine people and also announced of launching indefinite dharna in the premise DC’s office in Belagavi from Monday.
Following the development, AC Rajashri Jainapur, Khanapur tahasildar M N Baligar, district social welfare department officer Uma Saligoudar visited Kasaba-Nandgad village and held meetings with dalits and upper caste people. In a meeting with upper caste people, they made them aware about the consequences of social boycott on the bases of caste. Officials gave them one month time to withdraw boycott.
Meanwhile, boycotted dalit families explained their plights in-front of the officials. Later, officials held one more meeting with nine people at 7pm whose against dalits filed complaint. Speaking to the TOI, AC Rajashri Jainapur, said all nine people have given in written about withdrawing social boycott. “We also warned them with registering atrocity case, if the boycott is continued further”, officer said.
Mid Day
Mumbai: BJP hops onto Bhim Rath to shed anti-Dalit tag
http://www.mid-day.com/articles/mumbai-bjp-hops-onto-bhim-rath-to-shed-anti-dalit-tag/16587166
By Varun Singh |Posted 4 hours
The chariot will travel across the city to garner support and invite Ambedkar followers to the bhoomipoojan of the Ambedkar Memorial at Indu Mills on October 11
In what looks like an attempt to garner the support and votes of the Dalit community, the city unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) inaugurated a Bhim Rath yesterday.
The purpose of this chariot is to travel across Mumbai and invite Ambedkar followers for the bhoomipoojan of the Ambedkar Memorial at Indu Mills. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will perform the ceremony at 4 pm on October 11.
Insiders claim it is an attempt made by the party to shed the anti-Dalit tag. Also, the BJP has put Bhai Girkar, a Dalit leader from the party, in charge of the rath to attract mass participation from the community. The rath was unveiled in the presence of Ashish Shelar, BJP city president.
Addressing the crowd, Shelar said, “The previous government never offered the Indu Mill land. It was the BJP government who did it, now followed by a bhoomipoojan.” Shelar added that the BJP government has quashed all the cases filed against Ambedkarites during the protests held by them demanding Indu Mill for constructing the Ambedkar memorial.
A senior BJP functionary said, “We already have certain segments of the community with us. While Dalits form a major community, it is fragmented. They lack a prominent leader. This is the right time for the BJP to take charge. Moreover, the Indu Mill issue is an emotional one. Ensuring a memorial will help the party shed its anti-Dalit image.” Dalits have fought hard to get Indu Mill allocated for the memorial.
Connection
BJP’s attempt to woo the Dalit community can be likened to that made by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). In the past, RSS, in its mouthpiece Organiser, had stated that ‘Ambedkar was never against Hinduism, instead he was against only a few dichotomies that existed in the religion.’ The article further read, ‘Ambedkar was fighting against these dichotomies, contradictions and evils of the Hindu society and not the Hindu society and civilisation itself.’
Earlier this year, at a gathering of RSS ideologues held at Dadar’s Savarkar Smarak, RSS General Secretary Bhaiyyaji Joshi likened Ambedkar with Sangh founder Dr K B Hedgewar and even referred that both were born in the same year and worked for the same cause. Besides raking up the Ambedkar issue, the RSS is now running a One Temple, One Well, One Crematorium programme to attract the Dalit community.
The New Indian Express
‘Ensure Quota for Dalits in Private Sector’: Sitaram Yechury
http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/andhra_pradesh/Ensure-Quota-for-Dalits-in-Private-Sector-Sitaram-Yechury/2015/10/06/article3065233.ece
By Express News Service Published: 06th October 2015 05:49 AM Last Updated: 06th October 2015 06:15 AM
HYDERABAD: Implementing reservations for Dalits in private sector is the only way to ensure equality guaranteed by the Constitution, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury has said. Private sector which holds majority of jobs is still in the hands of upper castes and Dalits are often discriminated in the sector. Only reservation in the private sector would prevent economic exploitation and social oppression of Dalits, he said.
Speaking at a workshop on ‘Right to reservations in private sector as a human right,’ here on Monday, Yechury said around 93 percent of labourers in India are in the private sector and only 7 percent of them are organised labourers. When such huge number of manpower is concentrated in the private sector, the reservations provided by the Constitution must also be applied there, he said.
Yechury demanded the Central government to call a special session of Parliament to discuss the issues related to Dalits including reservations for them in private sector. If the government proposes a bill in this regard, CPM will support it, he said. “We have already written to the Prime Minister to take the initiative for the special session, but we are yet to receive any response,” he added.
The demand for reservations in private sector was raised by the CPM in the past too. On Monday, the Private Reservation Porata Sangam (PRPS) and the Osmania University Post Graduate College of Law jointly organised the workshop to highlight the demand ahead of the upcoming parliament winter session.
Kaki Madhava Rao, former Chief Secretary to Andhra Pradesh government, who was also present at the programe, felt that the privatisation of education is reducing opportunities for Dalits. He said the state governments should take an initiative towards implementing reservations in private sector.
Prof. Gali Vinod Kumar, Principal, OU PG Law College, former High Court judge, Justice Chandra Kumar, CPI leader, Chada Venkata Reddy were also present at the programme.
The Hindu
Dalit forum flays failure to allocate office to prosecutor
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/dalit-forum-flays-failure-to-allocate-office-to-prosecutor/article7729014.ece?ref=tpnews
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
Failure on the part of the government to allocate an office and staff for the prosecutor of the Special Court at Kottarakara to try cases of atrocities against Scheduled Communities is tantamount to discrimination, P. Ramabhadran, State president of the Kerala Dalit Federation, has said.
“The Special Court was inaugurated with much pomp and show three months ago,” he told a district-level convention of the party here on Monday.
Mr. Ramabhadran said that because there was no office for the prosecutor, Dalits who were victims of atrocities had to stand on the road and verandas to discuss case aspects with the prosecutor.
For other courts at Kottarakara, the prosecutors were given office accommodation in the court complex itself.
He said that the special court had been allocated a building of the Revenue Department.
Though the building had space to house an office of the prosecutor, it had not been allocated.
To move court
Mr. Ramabhadran warned that if the office and required staff were not allocated immediately, the KDF would launch an agitation for it and even move the High Court.
KDF district president K. Madanan presided over the function.
The Hindu
‘Law to curb honour killings needed’
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/bangalore/law-to-curb-honour-killings-needed/article7730183.ece
STAFF CORRESPONDENT
Karnataka Advocate-General Ravivarma Kumar has opined that stringent legislation is needed to curb honour killings and moral policing in the State.
Speaking at the inauguration of a two-day national seminar on the premises of Tumkur University on “Gandhi philosophy and recent trends in India”, he said that untouchability and inequality are still alive in society. Terrorism has spread even to the villages. Parents killing their own children for marrying from other castes is a matter of concern. Such “terrorist activities” are condemnable.
Speaking on reservation, he said that since untouchability is being practised, reservation has to be given. There are 27,000 villages with separate Dalit colonies. This shows that Dalits are not allowed to enter the villages even today.
The Hindustan Times
Dadri lynching has raised troubling questions on India’s ‘secularity’
http://www.hindustantimes.com/columns/dadri-lynching-has-raised-troubling-questions-on-india-s-secularity/story-DoXSDHS3wz4twGN2F4WG5L.html
Harsh Mander, Hindustan Times
Updated: Oct 05, 2015 23:26 IST
The hate-lynching of a Muslim man in a Uttar Pradesh village by his unrepentant neighbours for allegedly eating beef raises once again troubling questions.
On what terms can Muslim minorities live in India today? Must they subordinate themselves to what Hindu nationalists propound to be majority Hindu sentiment as the condition for being accepted as Indian? Or are they free to remain themselves, in worship, dress, diet and language, and still qualify in every way as fully Indian?
India’s secular idea rests on the foundational principle that India belongs equally to people of diverse faiths and belief systems, cultures and languages. It prohibits the religious, cultural, legal or moral dominance of any one religion or culture over any other. Unlike many European countries that require residents from distinct cultures and faith-systems to absorb and adapt themselves to the dominant language, culture and practices of the country, the essential secular idea of India does not require any kind of conformity of faith, culture, diet, dress or language to qualify as a fully-equal Indian citizen.
It is this uniquely Indian secular idea that Hindu nationalists challenge, by demanding that non-Hindus conform to what they claim to be the majority faith. There is no doubt that many Hindus revere the cow. Munshi Premchand’s great novel Godaan endearingly recreates the life-long yearning of peasants Hori and Dhania to own a cow. But campaigns against cow slaughter that we witness are not about love for the cow, but hate for fellow Indians. And a chillingly similar horrific mob lynching 12 years earlier in Jhajjar in Haryana of five Dalit men on the charge of killing a cow are a reminder that not all Hindus worship the cow. Many Dalit, tribals, Christians and Muslims eat beef.
The Constituent Assembly debates about cow slaughter are instructive about ways that Hindu majoritarian sentiment was negotiated by tall leaders of the freedom struggle. Some members passionately demanded that cow slaughter prohibition be included as a Fundamental Right. But both BR Ambedkar and Jawaharlal Nehru insisted on a compromise of including cow protection instead as a non-binding Directive Principle, with carefully-crafted language. Article 48 of the Constitution reads, ‘The State shall endeavour to organise agriculture and animal husbandry on modern and scientific lines and shall in particular, take steps for preserving and improving the breeds, and prohibiting the slaughter, of cows and other milch and draught cattle’. The reference to scientific animal husbandry rather than Hindu sentiment about cow slaughter was a salutary enunciation of the principle that the State in India must not privilege the religious or cultural sentiments of one section of people over any other.
It is this fundamental secular principle that today’s ruling alliance is turning dangerously on its head. When Narendra Modi sneered in his trademark fashion in his 2014 election speeches about the ‘pink revolution’ or the alleged support of the erstwhile UPA regime to beef exports, or his minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi asks Muslims who wish to eat beef to go to Pakistan, what they are ultimately doing is to use cow slaughter to define both difference and what constitutes Hindu, and therefore legitimate Indian, sentiment. They conflate sections of upper-caste Hindu religious beliefs with ‘Indian’ culture, and challenge the rights of Muslims who live in India (and indeed Dalits, tribal people and Christians) to act in ways that differ from practices and beliefs and sentiments of upper-caste Hindus.
If this alternative social contract between diverse people living in India is accepted, this would accomplish two objectives of Hindu nationalists. First, it would effectively reduce non-Hindus, Dalits and tribal people to second-class citizens, who would be ‘allowed’ by the Hindu majority community to live in India only on the condition that they respect the legitimate domination of (upper-caste and militant) Hindu religious and cultural beliefs. And second it would destroy the secular idea of India.
Organisations of the Sangh parivar use the issue of cow slaughter not only to underline difference, but to actively promote hate against Muslims for political benefits to the BJP. In my travels to UP, I find that two issues today most effectively utilised to demonise Muslims. One is love jihad, or the fanciful idea that Muslim boys are trained to sexually attract Hindu girls and trap them into marriage, conversion and producing Muslim progeny. The second is the belief that Muslims continue to kill cows, trade in cow meat, and eat beef, in disregard, defiance or to outrage Hindu sentiment. Together these two ideas transform their Muslim neighbours into hateful and hated ‘others’.
It is these same twin strategies that I found deployed in full throttle the last decade in coastal Karnataka, where Muslim boys seen with Hindu girls in public places are assaulted and dragged to police stations, and Muslims allegedly transporting cattle for slaughter are brutally attacked. In Gujarat, young men in the Bajrang Dal described to me their ambition to protect cows as their major motivation to join this militant Hindu ultra-nationalist formation. The sceptre of cow slaughter and alleged beef exports to Bangladesh is raised in West Bengal and Assam to drum up political opposition to the Muslims. The ghar-wapsi campaign also is built on the premise that ‘home’ in India is the Hindu faith, and those who covert to other faiths have strayed.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s strategic silences constitute a less than subtle encouragement of these divisive hate campaigns. Since he assumed power, we witness a concerted war of attrition waged in alley-ways around the country against the secular lived traditions of peaceful living together of people of diverse faiths and cultures. His government may not ultimately change the language of secular guarantees in our Constitution; but by imposing their interpretations of what constitutes Hindu culture, declaring that this version of Hindu culture is indeed Indian culture, and then demanding that minorities submit to this imposed majoritarian culture, they are reducing minorities to fearful second-class citizens. Most culpably they are eroding the constitutional guarantees of fraternity.
The Hindu
U.P. to have separate police stations for SC/STs
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/up-to-have-separate-police-stations-for-scsts/article7727984.ece?ref=tpnews
With Uttar Pradesh seeing a high rate of crime against SC/ST community members, the state government is mulling a proposal for setting up separate police stations to deal with such cases.
Such police stations already exist in states like Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh, official sources said, adding that UP government plans to set up at least one such police station in every district.
Sources in the state police headquarters said that in the first phase such police stations will be set up in major cities and, thereafter, in the rest of UP.
“The police stations will come up under a scheme in which the Centre and the state will bear the expenditure for setting up of such units,” said a senior officer in the social welfare department.
Once the blueprint is ready, it will be forwarded to the Principal Secretary (Home) for formal clearance and the notification of the police stations.
As per the draft, these police stations will initially come up at the district police headquarters or the reserve police lines and will operate from the office of the Special Enquiry Cell in every district.
The police stations will be headed by an inspector or a station officer. It will have two head constables and constables, apart from women police personnel.
They will also offer counselling when required to find an amicable solution to disputes before going in for registration of a criminal case.
As per the provisions of the draft, there is a proposal to reimburse the victims for conveyance in case they are summoned to the police station in connection with their complaint. – PTI
News monitored by AMRESH & AJEET
