Jats crush three dalits under tractor in Rajasthan

crush three dalits under tractor in Rajasthan

Incident Leads To Exodus Of Minority Community
Hundreds of dalits from Nagaur district's Dangawas and surrounding villages fled for their lives on Friday after the region's dominant upper caste, the Jats, mowed down three dalits under tractors, and grievously wounded a dozen others following the flaring up of a decades' old land dispute.
The Jat violence followed firing by dalits in which one dominant caste member was killed on Thursday . Heavy police was deployed at Dangawas, around 250km from Jaipur, to enable the funeral rites of those killed but no arrest was made despite some horrific crimes committed against dalit women, including their molestation, beating, and repeated attempts to disrobe them.

Many of them are battling severe injuries and are admitted to in different hospitals. The dispute relates to a 20ha farm land claimed by dalit families of Ratnaram Meghwal, Gutaram Meghwal and Khemaram Meghwal, but disputed by the family of Chimnaram Jat.The dispute has been pending in court for years.

Matters reached a head on Thursday when Dangawas's Jats held a panchayat and summoned the Meghwals. The dalit families, fearing that the Jats were assembling to attack them, fired shots at the two men sent to call them.

One Rampal died on spot. The crowd at Jat panchayat then went berserk, attacking the Meghwals, bulldozing their houses, assaulting their women and chasing the fleeing men on tractors.

Ratnaram Meghwal, 65, Pancharam, 60, and Pokaram, 45, were crushed to death while 14 others, including six women, were injured.

On Friday, armed attackers reached the hospital at Merta City and surrounded it to prevent doctors from treating the injured da lits. Police from half-a-dozen police stations had to be called to ensure medical treatment to the injured, some of whom were later shifted to Ajmer.

Dangawas's six dalit women are being treated in Ajmer's JLN hospital alleged that the attackers molested them. Some of them suffered multiple fractures in hands and legs.

A 25-year-old woman wept in the hospital speaking about how the attackers tore off her blouse and tried to strip her on the disputed land. She got 15 stitches on her head. “They tried to rape me and abused me,“ the woman said.

Another woman said, “Four attackers tried to remove my `ghaghra' (skirt) and tried to thrust a stick inside.“ A third woman said, “They pulled me by my hair for about 50 metres, tore off my clothes and hit my legs with ironrods.“ A DSP with a police team is now deployed to secure the injured dalits women.

Kishan Meghwal, the brother of one of the injured women, said, “We identified 13 among the 200 attackers, but the police hasn't acted so far.“ He added, “We've been suffering Jat atrocities for decades.“

Source: The Times of India dt 16-5-15 page No 12( Chennai edition)

Dhananjay Mahapatra
AjmerJaipur

Both BJP and Congress have used Ambedkar

Interview with noted policymaker Narendra Jadhav

Economist and educationist Narendra Jadhav has written and edited 35 books. Four years ago, Mr. Jadhav was asked by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to chair a committee and prepare a master plan for a memorial and an international centre for B.R. Ambedkar. The committee finalised its report on September 12, 2012, and waited for things to move. They never did. As political parties clamoured to honour Ambedkar on his 125th birth anniversary that went by recently, Mr. Jadhav spoke to Anuradha Raman on how the Congress frittered away an opportunity to work on the master plan, and how the Bharatiya Janata Party has, in turn, also let him down. Excerpts:

When Mr. Modi laid the foundation for the Ambedkar International Centre on April 20, what was going through your mind?

I was very happy that Mr. Modi has carried on from the earlier proposals of the previous government to create an international centre in honour of Dr. Ambedkar.

You were the chairman of a committee set up by Dr. Singh four years ago, to do exactly what Mr. Modi did a few days ago. Why didn’t the Congress act before?

That it has taken so long hurts. In 1991, Ambedkar’s birth centenary was celebrated. He was also given the Bharat Ratna posthumously. Two very important projects were discussed then — one, to create a National Memorial at the place where Ambedkar lived and breathed his last 

in a bungalow on 26, Alipore Road. He had moved in after resigning from Nehru’s Cabinet in 1951 and stayed in this house till 1956. A lot of Dalits, including me, regard the place as Nirvana Bhumi. The second idea was to have an international centre in Lutyens’ Delhi, which could become a place for scholars to come together and share thoughts and ideas dear to Ambedkar, particulary in the area of social justice. There were many movements and agitations in the Congress regime by several pressure groups to get the projects started. Not much happened.

Mr. Modi said it’s taken 20 years for the Ambedkar centre. The Congress was in power for 15 of those years.

The National Democratic Alliance was in power for five years. In 2004, the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government took over the bungalow and converted it into a makeshift memorial.

Was this done to appease the Dalit community before elections?

Possibly. But I don’t think there is anything wrong in that. In a parliamentary democracy, to understand the vote banks of different strata of society is perfectly normal. What makes me a little unhappy was that this was just a makeshift memorial. There was nothing extraordinary about it. It did not do justice to the idea of a memorial. It was like, ‘you want a memorial. Here it is’.

Was that an insult to the memory of Ambedkar?

I don’t see it as an insult. But I saw it as a strategic move and not a move from within. There were some pictures and books of Ambedkar, that’s all. There was no move to work on the international centre. When UPA-I came, nothing happened. There were strong demands, particularly in the early part of UPA- II; so, finally, in 2011, Dr. Singh decided to do something about it and created a high-level committee with me as the chair and other experts, with a mandate to create a master plan for a world-class memorial of Ambedkar. The second [demand] was to create an international centre, which the NDA government had not done. In record time, in September 2012, my committee completed the master plan for both. Regrettably, things did not move as rapidly as they should have even after that.

Did you bring it to the attention of the Prime Minister?

Yes. Time and again. In fact, they could have laid the foundation stone before the code of conduct was announced. They could have done something, which Mr. Modi eventually did.
How do you reconcile the BJP’s attempts to woo Dalits with the party’s stand on ‘ghar wapsi’?
Going by newspaper reports, two things are happening. Some people in the BJP and RSS [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh] are giving an impression that Ambedkar was a hindu sudharak (reformer) and the corollary to that is he was against Muslims and Christians. ‘Ghar wapsi’ is being compared to Ambedkar’s conversion to Buddhism. Both are misleading and untrue. In fact, he took the Muslim League’s support to get into the Constituent Assembly. On Hinduism, Ambedkar said he was born a Hindu, but would not die a Hindu. He made a distinction between Vichar Dharma and Aachar Dharma. The former, the philosophical underpinning of Hinduism, is wonderful. It is the practical aspect — how you practise Hinduism in everyday life — where problems arise. So, in asking Dalits to come into the fold, where is the BJP going to place them in the social structure? Which caste are you going to assign Dalits?

How have the Congress and the BJP treated Ambedkar?

Both parties have made use of Ambedkar and not given him a dignified treatment. In fact, both parties have offended him when he was alive. And these issues range from the Hindu Code Bill, to personal insults, to the non-implementation and diversion of the Tribal and Scheduled Castes sub-plan.
Though the BJP did not have much exposure at the Centre, they still have lots to explain for. What is the attitude of the BJP government to the Tribal and Scheduled Castes sub-plan? During this year’s budget, the Finance Minister has reduced the allocation for the sub-plan by Rs. 19,000 crore. A lot of people feel you have reduced the income tax on corporates [on the one hand], and on the other, you reduce the budgetary allocation [to the sub-plan]. Where Dalits are concerned, there is not much to choose between the two national parties as far as their views on Ambedkar is concerned.

Then how do you say the BJP has honoured Ambedkar?

I will support anyone, including the MIM [Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen] of the Owaisis, if they do something strongly to honour Ambedkar. My loyalty is to Dr. Ambedkar and I will stand by anybody who works to honour his memory and work.

You were once associated with the Congress?

I was never part of any political party. I had the privilege of working with Dr. Singh for nearly 30 years and then, later on, I also had an opportunity to work with Sonia Gandhi as a member of the National Advisory Council. That association makes some people think I am a Congressman, but I am not a formal member of any political party.
Yet, you chose to contest from a Congress ticket?
I was hoping to contest on behalf of the Congress. The BJP, too, has been trying to persuade me to contest from 2004. In 2004, when I was with the RBI [Reserve Bank of India], the Congress approached me. In 2009, I was inclined to contest. I knew nobody in the top level of the Congress. Dr. Singh was the only contact. Unfortunately, he was unwell. I could not connect [with him]. The BJP approached me, but I did not want to betray Dr. Singh, who had been a father figure to me. Then, in 2014, I spoke to Dr. Singh and he was keen that I contest from the Congress. By then, the idea of holding primary elections had come up from Rahul Gandhi. Of 16 constituencies chosen for the primaries, two were from Maharashtra. I thought this was a terrible idea.
They compared it to the American primaries. Not comparable at all. All those elected through the primary process lost their deposits in 2014. That tells you something. So, I didn’t contest, though I was confident of winning the actual elections and losing the primaries. In principle, holding primaries was a good idea but badly implemented.

Source: The Hindu