Monday, August 23, 2010

[ZESTCaste] Raped repeatedly, Naxal leader quits Red ranks

 

Raped repeatedly, Naxal leader quits Red ranks

 
Maoist area commander Uma
There's a wide gulf between what Naxals practise and preach, says Uma. (TOI Photo)
Somewhere On The Bengal-Jharkhand Border: The eerie calm in the dense sal forest is deafening. Walking along a snaking dirt track, a clear patch appears. Sitting on a rock, hidden by thick, emerald green foliage, is the diminutive figure of a woman, a gamchha (thin towel) covering her head. Her blue salwar-kameez meld with the surroundings. Her eyes dart around at the slightest hint of sound. Shobha Mandi, alias Uma, alias Shikha, gives a searching look and then smiles. The 23-year-old CPI-Maoist Jhargram area commander says she was expecting us.

From commanding 25-30 armed Maoist squad members, Uma turned a fugitive four months ago. She fled her command post on the plea of seeing a doctor. She hid with her aunt for a short while; and now she says she wants the world to know her story. She wants to surrender and is likely to give up Naxalism on August 26.

Why did she decide to shed her battle fatigues seven years after she joined the Naxals? "They committed injustices against which they claimed they were fighting," said Uma. "As a recruit, I protested against the habits of some leaders in the presence of Kishanji. Nobody liked it. The leaders instructed the squad members not to speak to me. I was isolated and warned of dire consequences if I protested," she said.

What didn't she like about the leaders? "They rape," she shot back, eyes flashing with rage. "After about a year of joining Naxals, I was put on night-long sentry duty at a forest camp in Jharkhand. Suddenly, out of the dark, Bikash (now, head of the state military commission) came up and asked me for water. As I turned to fetch it, he grabbed me and tried to do 'kharap kaaj' (indecent acts)." When she objected, Bikash threatened to strangle her. After forcing her into submission, Bikash raped her, she said. She was 17 then.

"He warned me against telling anyone about this. But, I told Akash (Kishanji's confidant and a state committee member). He said he would look into it but did nothing. In fact, Akash's wife, Anu, lives with Kishanji," Uma said.

Most women recruits are exploited by senior Maoists. Senior women leaders, too, have multiple sexual partners, Uma said. "If a member gets pregnant, she has no choice but to abort: A child is seen as a burden that hampers the agility of guerrillas."

Uma has heard tales of brutalization of other women Naxals, too. "Seema (then a recruit) told me that Akash raped her as well. Rahul (alias Ranjit Pal) raped Belpahari squad commander Madan Mahato's wife, Jaba. In this case, the party punished Rahul, who is a key weapons trainer at Maoist camps. He was removed from the regional committee for three months," said Uma.

State committee secretary Sudip Chongdar, alias Goutam, was also punished for similar acts, she said, and transferred to Jharkhand's West Singbhum district. Maoists divide time between forest camps and hideouts in villages. Villagers can't refuse shelter to gun-toting Maoists. Also, they must keep all night vigil to alert them against police raids. "When Sudip took shelter in villages, he raped women in their homes. They were too scared to protest," said Uma.

Many of her senior leaders exploited her sexually. One day, says Uma, Kamal Maity, who is a Bengal-Jharkhand-Orissa regional committee member, came to her rescue. At a meeting attended by Kishanji and other top Maoists, Kamal proposed a relationship with Uma. The leaders agreed. "After Jaba's incident, I learnt that a woman cadre is protected against sexual exploitation only if she is with a senior leader," she said. That was a turning point and she rose steadily in Naxal ranks.

Uma is on the police's most wanted list. She is suspected to have planned and executed a series of attacks, including the massacre of 24 EFR jawans in Silda (February 2010); a raid on Sankrail police station in which two policemen were killed and an officer abducted (October 2009). She is also one of the suspects in Jharkhand MP Sunil Mahato's murder in 2007.

She mentored PCPA members, including Bapi Mahato who is in jail for the Jnaneswari train sabotage. Last year, when the joint central and state forces advanced into Lalgarh to break an eight-month siege, she along with other Maoists fired at the police. In Jhargram, she is known as didi. According to a source, Uma single-handedly built up the PCPA at Jhargram.

Uma joined the rebels in 2003. CPI-Maoist hadn't been formed then. "I joined the People's War (PW) which later merged with MCC in 2004 to form CPI-Maoist," she said. She was given a new name, Uma. "I was plump. Anu (Akash's wife; Kishanji's companion) said I looked like Uma Bharti. So, she named me Uma."

Maoist leaders spotted her organizational skills. She was asked to mobilize tribals women at Jamboni and Dahijuri in West Midnapore. She also underwent three-month arms training at Jharkhand's Gorabandha forest. "First, we are taught with dummy weapons using tree branches. All recruits have to fire three bullets in their first session. Those who hit the target are picked for armed squads," she said.

In spite of guns and guerrilla warfare, the woman in her sometimes longs for simple pleasures like painting her nails or wearing earrings. But, she says, "We were not permitted to use even fragrant soaps, lest we get detected. Only Lifebuoy is used by cadres."

Did she join the rebels of her own free will? Circumstances, she said. Uma is second of four siblings. Along with their parents, they worked as wage earners on farms or collected sal leaves, mahua and red ants (kurkut) to sell. "I was good in studies but weak in math. I worked all day and studied at night," the girl from Khayerpahari village in West Bengal's Bankura district recounted. "I couldn't pass the Class X board."

This was in 2002. Younger brother Sanjay, who was in Class VIII, was already taken away by the extremists. He became a Lalgarh squad member and is in jail now. "My father, Jamadar Mandi, was an alcoholic suffering from tuberculosis. There was no money to buy him medicines. We sold our land and also borrowed money," Uma said.

While the family struggled, some "party" members offered help. "They gave my father some money and told me to join them. They said I could leave if I didn't like working with them," said Uma. The prospect of a job spurred her.

But only after she signed up did she realize she could never go home. "Whoever comes here, never returns," a senior leader told her. She wanted freedom from poverty but found herself chained to an ideology she couldn't understand.

After seven years of witnessing bloodletting, she has no fear of death. She now hopes the state she has fought against will rehabilitate her. "There are many in the Maoist ranks who would flee given half a chance," she said.
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An educated man without character and humility was more dangerous than a beast. If his education was detrimental to the welfare of poor, he was a curse to society.
-Babasaheb Dr B R Ambedkar

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[ZESTCaste] Mayawati backs demand for amendment of Land Acquisition Act

 

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/mayawati-backs-demand-for-amendment-of-land-acquisition-act/663567/

Mayawati backs demand for amendment of Land Acquisition Act

Agencies Posted online: Mon Aug 23 2010, 23:56 hrs

Lucknow : Under fire on the issue of land acquisition for an
Expressway project, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati today backed
the demand for amendment to the Land Acquisition Act while blaming
"shortcomings" of the legislation for the recent farmers' agitation in
the state.
"Mayawati has said her government and party supported the demand of
farmers regarding amendment in the Land Acquisition Act 1894," Cabinet
Secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh told reporters here.

She has also backed the proposed plan of farmers to gherao Parliament
on August 26 on the issue, he said.

Meanwhile Mayawati, in a statement, claimed the farmers were forced to
take to the streets "every now and then due to shortcomings in the
Act".

"Since long the farmers had been demanding to redefine public purpose
in the act, but pro-industrialist governments at the Centre kept mum
on the issue," she said in a statement.

Mayawati alleged that in the name of SEZ 50,000 hectare land of
farmers was acquired and handed over to industrialists across the
country.

"Due to the anti-farmer policy of the UPA, they are forced to agitate
in several states in the country," she alleged.

The CM further charged that lakhs of acres of forest land were
acquired in the name of industrialisation due to which tribals were
dislodged from their native place and "have now taken to naxalism".

She alleged that during its six-year regime even the previous NDA
government overlooked the problem of the farmers.

"The BJP leaders, instead of wasting time in giving speeches during
farmers agitation, should create pressure on the Centre to amend the
act," she said.

Mayawati said her party was of the view that farmers land should be
acquired only with their consent.

"To protect the interest of the farmers, in 2007 the BSP government
implemented a new policy wherein land would be taken as per the
agreement rules," she said.

Mayawati claimed that as far as issue related to farmers land in
Aligarh and Agra was concerned, it had been resolved.

"Anti-government elements were trying to disturb law and order
situation in the state in the name of this issue," she alleged.

"Instead of visiting these places, people of various political parties
should create pressure on the Centre for permanent solution to the
problem of the farmers and ensure amendment in the Act," she said.

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[ZESTCaste] Caste Away

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/08/caste-away.html

Caste Away

21 Aug 2010 03:05 pm

by Zoe Pollock

Namit Arora writes on caste privilege:

An early goal of British imperialists in India was to create a class
of local elites in their own image. They would be, wrote Macaulay,
'interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of
persons Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, in
opinions, in morals and in intellect.' An elite class did emerge, not
surprisingly from the socially dominant upper-caste Hindus of urban
India...

It is often said that caste is to India what race is to America. Yet,
the attitudes of the dominant social class in the two countries
couldn't be more different...

Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat, continues to thrive after
calling the Dalits [formerly the untouchables] 'mentally retarded
children' who gain 'spiritual experience' from manual scavenging. The
media has little interest or insight into Dalit lives, nor hires
low-caste journalists. Major atrocities against Dalits still go
unreported. Law enforcement is often indifferent or worse. There is no
effective prosecution for discrimination in employment and housing. A
Dalit politician can't get a majority of upper-caste votes even in
South Mumbai. Even among those few elites who read books, how many
have read a single novel or memoir by a Dalit? In what is perhaps the
most diverse country in the world, there is no commitment to diversity
in the elite institutions that decide what is worthy art, music, and
literature, or what is the content of history textbooks. In book after
book of stories for children, both the protagonist and the implicit
audience are elite and upper-caste. Much the same is true of sitcoms,
soap operas, and commercials on TV. Dalits are invisible from all
popular culture that gets any airtime. The Indian army still has many
upper-caste-only regiments. There is nothing like an Indian ACLU. Or a
Dalit history month on public TV, or exhibits in museums, that seek to
educate the upper-castes about a long and dark chapter of their past
(and present).


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[ZESTCaste] Teachers turn devil for a nursery boy & Dalit kids

 

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/109858/India/teachers-turn-devil-for-a-nursery-boy-&-dalit-kids.html

Teachers turn devil for a nursery boy & Dalit kids

Akash Vashishtha
Ghaziabad, August 22, 2010

Bihar: 8-yr-old thrashed for Rs 2 The principal of a Ghaziabad school
allegedly beat up a Class I student for stepping out of the classroom.

Sanjog Kumar (5) sustained an injury in his head that needed a visit
to a hospital and seven stitches.

The student of Brightland Public School in Govindpuram started
bleeding profusely after the principal slapped him and hit him with a
stick, his family alleged.

"During recess, the principal, Balvin Khandelwal, reportedly came to
the nursery class and found my son outside the room. She slapped
Sanjog and asked him to go back to the class," Sanjog's father,
Sanjay, an electronics dealer, said.

But Sanjog, it appears was in no mood to listen to the teacher. "After
a while, Sanjog went out of the class again. But when the principal
caught him standing outside the classroom again, she got annoyed and
hit him with a stick. The force of her blow threw Sanjog against the
corner of a wooden bench and his head hit one of its edges," Sanjay
said.

According to the boy's parents, they received a call from the school
around10.30 am.

They were told Sanjog had taken a fall while indulging in some
mischief and was injured.

" We immediately rushed to the school and were surprised to see that
the school had kept him as he was. They had not even administered
first aid," Sanjay said.

The parents also found that Sanjog had bled profusely from the cut and
his uniform was blood- stained. "The school staff had changed his
dress as it was completely soaked in blood," Sanjay said.

The boy's father also alleged that he was initially not allowed even
to meet the principal.

"When we sought their permission to take our son to a hospital, they
prevented us from doing so and said the school would do it," he said.

The parents also alleged that the principal was rude when they met
her. " When we told the principal we were paying the fees to get our
child educated and not to get him beaten up, she told us she would
issue us a transfer certificate," Sanjay said.

Sanjog was taken to the MMG Hospital where he the injury was stitched
and dressed. Sanjay later lodged a complaint with the Kavi Nagar
police, who have registered a case against the principal.

SSP Raghubir Lal said: "We are probing the incident. It cannot be
allowed to recur. We will also send a report to the district
administration about the incident." The principal denied she had hit
the boy or that the school had ignored the boy's injury. " Sanjog got
injured when I was taking him to his classroom," Balvin said.

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[ZESTCaste] To instil consciousness on Dalit human rights, legal rights

http://www.hindu.com/2010/08/23/stories/2010082358690600.htm

Tamil Nadu - Madurai

To instil consciousness on Dalit human rights, legal rights

Staff Reporter

Atrocity cases happen when Dalits try to avail themselves of legal resources

"History shows that where ethics and economics come in conflict,
victory is always with economics. Vested interests have never been
known to have willingly divested themselves unless there was
sufficient force to compel them." - B.R.Ambedkar

MADURAI: It is a well known fact that the consciousness about
Constitutional provisions and law enforcement agencies among the
Dalits is indeed low and that is one of the reasons which remains as a
stumbling block to their emancipation.

Moreover, startling evidence reveal that the empowerment of Dalits has
always resulted in a concurrent increase in their opposition as well.

Atrocity cases happen when Dalits try to avail themselves of legal
resources; assert their right over common property resources, their
occupation, right to participate in cultural life, their right to vote
etc.

This being the reality, Dalit Foundation, India and Peoples Watch
(NGOs which work among Dalits) have been for so many years organising
a National Training Programme on Dalit Human Rights Monitoring.

It is one such effort to instil and inculcate the legal as well as
human rights aspects among grassroots activists and campaigners of
Dalit cause.

The ten-day training programme is under way at PILLAR centre in
Nagamalai Pudukottai here in Madurai where 56 members from Madhya
Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka
Orissa Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu are participating.

All the members are basically Dalit activists who are working at a
grassroot level in theor respective states and this training programme
provides them a chance to become "informed Dalit activists," said
Pandian, Coordinator, Dalit Foundation, India.

The members had interactive sessions on Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled
Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989.

However the salient feature of the training programme is going on a
fact finding mission to get experienced in a professional way to
handle atrocity cases.

Sisir, from Orissa, went to Namakkal district to investigate an
alleged case of forceful displacement of Dalits where the local
panchayat council had decided to socially ostracise a Dalit family
which questioned their rights over land. Sisir says, "Cases have been
filed under SC/ST POA, 1989 but there has been no progress."

Swaranjali, of Maharashtra, went to Goundanallur village in Erode
district to investigate a case of a murder of dalit youth. She found
how the victim's mother fearing backlash has restrained herself from
even filing a complaint.

Indira of Tuticorin district went to Nedungulam in Virudhunagar to
investigate an alleged case of caste clash between Dalits and caste
Hindus.

Using her gained experiences as a trainee she was able to gather
information from the police and question them on the sections under
which cases have been filed.

Murugesan, Jessintha, Esakkimuthu, Jegadeesan (from Tamil Nadu),
Prakash (Maharashtra) and Manjula (Karnataka) also shared their
experiences of being part of this training programme and how
significant is it for the Dalits and Dalit activists to be conscious
about the legal aspects. Many activists shared that "Even if they
lodge a complaint under the S.C. /S.T. Act, the police ask the caste
Hindus to lodge a counter complaint so that a criminal case is filed
against the Dalits, too.

Henri Tiphagne, Executive Director, Peoples Watch, who imparts
training to the members, said that the essential aspect of this
training is to make 'human rights defenders out of Dalit activists.'
Dalit activists are members who have experienced some sort of
discrimination and the protest element is there within them but the
effort is to make them think beyond their own experience and to form a
pattern where they could think about discrimination from a wider
perspective.

Documenting

This includes documenting the discrimination and human rights
violation, handling cases in a professional way, fact finding
experiences and recording the statements of victims and perpetrators,
which would provide a broader understanding.


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[ZESTCaste] DUSU: NSUI reserves seats for woman, SC/STs

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/DUSU--NSUI-reserves-seats-for-woman--SC-STs/663343

DUSU: NSUI reserves seats for woman, SC/STs

Deepu Sebastian Edmond
Posted: Mon Aug 23 2010, 00:19 hrs


Ahead of Delhi University Students' Union (DUSU) polls on September 3,
the National Students' Union of India (NSUI) has announced that it
will reserve a seat each for an SC/ST and woman candidate.The DUSU
elections will see contestants running for president, vice-president,
secretary and joint secretary.

The move is unprecedented, especially since DU students have of late
shown a tendency to vote individuals based on their caste and regional
identities.

"We know it is a risky move. However, someone had to take the
initiative against caste politics. We are attempting to democratise
the DUSU election," said NSUI national president Hibi Eden.

Also from this year, instead of being nominated, candidates for the
four DUSU posts will be chosen by an electoral college of NSUI
delegates from various Delhi University institutions.

"Nominations are to be filed by aspiring candidates on Sunday. About
400 delegates from various DU colleges will vote for their candidates
on Monday," said NSUI general secretary Mohd Shahnawaz Choudhary, who
looks after the Delhi State Unit. The last date for filing nominations
for the DUSU elections is August 24.

The delegates were chosen last November when the elections to the
NSUIs Delhi state unit had taken place. An observer from the J M
Lyngdoh-headed Foundation for Advanced Management for Election, which
supervises NSUI and Youth Congress elections, will be present during
the Monday's election.

However, the delegates will elect four individuals without
recommending who will run for which office. A committee formed by the
NSUI will have the final say on the matter. The current DUSU, with
Manoj Choudhary as the president, has girls occupying the three other
positions.


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[ZESTCaste] ‘Union not for SC/ST only’

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/chennai/%E2%80%98union-not-scst-only%E2%80%99-432

'Union not for SC/ST only'

August 22nd, 2010
DC Correspondent Share Buzz up!Aug. 21: The Madras high court has held
that simply because the name of Dr B.R. Ambedkar, a champion of the
backward classes, has been used in the name of the state cooperative
bank employees union (Tamil Nadu State Apex Co-operative Bank Dr
Ambedkar Employees' Union), it cannot be said that the trade union
represents SCs and STs.

Allowing the petition filed by Tamil Nadu State Apex Co-operative Bank
Employees Union (TNSACB), challenging the allotment of a room in the
bank premises to TNSACB-Dr Ambedkar EU, Justice S. Nagamuthu directed
the TNSACB to withdraw the allotment and take possession of the room.
When the union is recognised by the TNSACB management, it could enjoy
the benefit of a room in the premises of the bank, the judge made
clear.

The judge said, "V. Prakash, senior counsel for the petitioner
submitted that simply because the name of Dr Ambedkar, has been used
in the name of the trade union, it cannot be said that the trade union
represents SCs and STs, so that the National Commission for SC and ST
could interfere."


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[ZESTCaste] Govt to bring bill to codify ST/SC reservation rules

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Govt-to-bring-bill-to-codify-ST/SC-reservation-rules/articleshow/6388596.cms

Govt to bring bill to codify ST/SC reservation rules

TNN, Aug 22, 2010, 05.16am IST

NEW DELHI: The government on Saturday assured the Rajya Sabha that it
would bring a Bill in Parliament to codify reservation rules to enable
effective implementation of the SC\ST quotas in government jobs and
educational institutions.

Responding to the issue raised by LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan, junior
parliamentary affairs minister Prithviraj Chavan said, "The government
intended to bring a law to codify everything properly because all the
reservations are now been done on the basis of executive orders."

"But last time, we could not arrive at a consensus. The government is
still trying to build a consensus. Paswanji should help in this," he
added.

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[ZESTCaste] Congress dubbed enemy of Dalits

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Mangalore/article586069.ece

Congress dubbed enemy of Dalits

Staff Correspondent Share

Nagaraj Molladi, vice-president of the BJP's SC Morcha, said on Friday
that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh had come in for praise from Dalit
icon and architect of the Constitution B.R. Ambedkar.

Mr. Molladi was addressing Dalit party workers here.

However, some workers pointed out that Ambedkar had urged Dalits to
convert to Buddhism. They accused Mr. Molladi of distorting facts and
overlooking Ambedkar's opposition to the RSS concept of Hindutva. Mr.
Molladi, however, dismissed these contentions and said that Ambedkar
had been wrongly projected by vested interests.

Exhorting party workers to free their community from the
"stranglehold" of the Congress, he said that the true enemy of Dalits
and Ambedkar was the Congress.

Ambedkar was curtailed at every step during his fight for social
justice and political renaissance. However, he conceded that the BJP
had a lot of catching up to do with the Congress, which had a deeper
footprint and resonance among Dalits, Adivasis and large sections of
the Backward Classes.

Chairman of the Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Development Corporation A.R.
Krishnamurthy urged party workers to spread awareness about the
anti-cattle slaughter Bill. "It is time Dalits stopped beef eating and
alcohol abuse. You must take this message to the people in your
community and garner support for the Bill," he said.

He asked the workers to create awareness about the "dangerous
recommendations" made in the National Commission on Religious and
Linguistic Minorities led by Justice Ranganath Misra.


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[ZESTCaste] NSUI to reserve seats for SC/ST, woman

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/NSUI-to-reserve-seats-for-SC/ST-woman/articleshow/6399890.cms

NSUI to reserve seats for SC/ST, woman
TNN, Aug 23, 2010, 04.12am IST

NEW DELHI: With just two days left for the last date for filing of
nominations for the Delhi University Students' Union, students
organization are busy preparing their new game plans. While Akhil
Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), which managed to wrest the post
of president in 2008 is yet to reveal its strategies, the National
Students' Union of India (NSUI) on Sunday announced that it would
field its four candidates who are democratically selected and not due
to any patronage of the Congress leadership.

NSUI sources said that in what could be dubbed as an extension of
reforms initiated by Rahul Gandhi last year, the union in order to
ensure fair representation will reserve one seat for a SC/ST candidate
and another for a girl. This decision is unprecedented as reservation
in students politics is unheard of so far.

NSUI has invited the aspiring candidates for DUSU election for a
speech competition on Monday. The candidates will speak on their
agenda for Delhi University and an electoral college of NSUI delegates
will vote for the best four to represent the union. By the end of
Sunday, the last day for registration, fourteen aspirants applied for
a chance to represent NSUI during the DUSU 2010 elections. The chosen
candidates will contest for the posts of president, vice president,
joint secretary, and secretary of the students union.

The DUSU polls are scheduled on September 3. "We are moving towards
achieving complete internal democracy. Last year, for the first time,
we elected our college committee members. Now we intend to field
democratically-chosen election candidates too. So an ordinary student
with leadership qualities, who otherwise would have been ignored in
the nomination process, can have a chance to represent the group and
even win the DUSU polls,'' said Shahnawaz Choudhary, head of the Delhi
unit of NSUI.

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[ZESTCaste] Because Khairlanji is not just another murder story!

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/article586610.ece

Published: August 22, 2010 00:02 IST

Because Khairlanji is not just another murder story!
Avinash Pandey Samar

PTI


A recent verdict of the Bombay High Court in the Khairlanji massacre
case convicting all accused to life imprisonment could have been a
welcome one and gone a long way in restoring the common man's faith in
the judiciary and the rule of law. It could have marked a historic
juncture in the life of the nation announcing that the rule of law has
firmly established itself despite all the inadequacies the country's
judicial system demonstrates in both crime investigation and trial. It
could have ensured that Dalits and other underprivileged groups will
face no discrimination at least within the judicial system.

For these reasons, the verdict was long awaited. And in its final
coming, it proved highly inadequate, rightfully outraging civil
society. The outrage, though, is highly misplaced. The failure of
justice is not rooted in the commutation of the death sentence of the
six convicts to life terms for 25 years, as capital punishment is
unacceptable in any civilised society. It is, indeed, painful to see
some of the most genuine civil society members decrying the
commutation and demanding the death sentence to the accused. One,
retributive justice is no justice and no studies have confirmed any
'deterrence effect' of the capital punishment. Rather, any statistic
bears out the fact that it is used mostly against the poorest and
weakest sections of society. In that, it emerges as an official
version of mob-lynching.

For the same reason, the death sentence awarded by the session's court
in this case was no victory for social justice. The judge has held the
case as "revenge murder" and, citing the same, had refused to invoke
the provisions of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes
(Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. The judge was seemingly
convinced by the prosecution's poor case augmented by shoddy
investigation with arguments to pass off the case as one of mere
revenge killing.

The travesty of justice lies here. The 2006 massacre was not just
another among the 32,481 reported cases of murder tucked in the pages
of the statistical records of the National Crime Records Bureau of the
year. Nor was it just one of 19,348 reported cases of rape (though the
charges of rape were not invoked by the court). The gravity of the
case did not lie in its being a gory instance of a mob bludgeoning a
full family to death while raping women and mutilating their bodies.

It was a massacre to uphold the feudal values in a modern, democratic
India. The perpetrators had not massacred the family in a fit of rage.
Their anger was not momentary. It did not emanate from any personal
enmity. The family had not done anything to provoke or to tick them
off. The only 'crime' the Bhotmanges had committed was to make efforts
to escape the low social status ascribed to their ex-untouchable
caste. The fact that they were trying to come out of the dehumanised
existence the Dalits have been condemned to for centuries was a
provocation enough for the killers belonging to the dominant castes.

That the prosecution did not press the PoA Act shows the systematic
and institutionalised nature of casteism. Further, the fact that the
massacre took place in full public view and yet there was no
opposition to the killings shows how deeply ingrained the ideology of
caste is.

Further, not bringing these spectators complicit in the crime by acts
of omission at least, if not commission, to book shows how state
institutions tolerate caste-based atrocities or actually are in
cahoots with them. The case proves that it is in fact the pre-modern,
barbaric and regressive social structure of caste that rules under the
democratic facade of the Indian nation and that the idea of modernity
is a mere superimposition upon this primitive mode of social
organisation. It reminds us that we are decades, if not centuries,
away from achieving the goals we had set for ourselves on the night we
made a tryst with destiny, the goal of becoming a sovereign, secular,
socialist and democratic republic.

In this sense, Khairlanji is a negation of the very idea of India and
its democracy. It is an assault on the basic principles the country is
based upon. It shows what kind of a decayed and deficient democracy we
have evolved into.

Unfortunately, Khairlanji is no isolated case of some rogue elements
in Indian society going insane. Rather, it is just one among the many
like Jhajjar, Haryana, where five Dalits were lynched on the suspicion
of trading in cows to Patan, and Gujarat, where a Dalit girl was
gang-raped and put into submission in the teacher's training school.

But then, till now the response of the Indian state and its civil
society too has remained the same — of getting outraged, making a lot
of noises and then forgetting the issue till another such gory
incident occurs. And precisely because of that, Khairlanji should
shake us out of the deep slumber and make us introspect and act to put
an immediate end to caste-based atrocities. By dealing not only with
the perpetrators but also silent spectators approving the incident,
cracking down on illegal institutions like khap panchayats
legitimising caste. That would serve as a bigger deterrence than the
death sentence, as the caste communities will get to know that all of
them would be punished and not only the 'heroes' carrying out their
dictates!

Killing the demon of caste was the primary wish and clarion call of
Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, the father of our Constitution, lest we
forget.

(The writer is at the South Asia Desk of Asian Human Rights
Commission, Hong Kong.)


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