Friday, August 27, 2010

[ZESTCaste] SC flays Haryana govt for not protecting Dailts

 

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/sc-flays-haryana-govt-for-not-protecting-dailts/129650-3.html?from=tn

SC flays Haryana govt for not protecting Dailts
CNN-IBN
Posted on Aug 26, 2010 at 17:12

New Delhi: The Supreme Court came down heavily on the Haryana
government on Thursday for not doing enough to protect Dalits. The
court made the stinging observation while hearing the case related to
the attack on Dalits in Mirchpur village of Haryana on April.

The court said that the state government had been protecting those
involved in attacking the Dalits instead of arresting them and warned
that if the police did not take any action in 48 hours, the
paramilitary would step in.

The court also slammed the state Director General of Police, saying he
had no right to continue in his post if he cannot protect the Dalits.

"If police do not arrest the accused in next 48 hours we will to ask
paramilitary force to arrest them. What is the DGP doing if the police
cannot execute non-bailable warrant what right does he have to
continue as the DGP. Should we ask neighboring states to accommodate
them because you are not able to protect them," the court observed.

An 18-year-old physically challenged Dalit girl and her
70-year-old-father were burnt to death when some men reportedly
belonging to the Jat community set their home on fire on April 21,
2010. At least 15 Dalit homes were also set on fire in the riot
exposing the deep rooted caste tension in Haryana.

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[ZESTCaste] Dalits take out procession, stage dharna in Bijapur

 

http://www.hindu.com/2010/08/14/stories/2010081452250300.htm

Karnataka - Bijapur

Dalits take out procession, stage dharna in Bijapur

Staff Correspondent

IN PROTEST:Members of Karnataka Rajya Dalit Sangharsh Samiti staging a
dharna in Bijapur on Friday.

Bijapur: Members of the Bijapur district unit of the Karnataka Rajya
Dalit Sangharsh Samiti staged a dharna in front of the Deputy
Commissioner's office here on Friday urging the authorities to fulfil
their various demands, including a hostel for all eligible Dalit
students in the district.

The agitators took out a procession from Gandhi Chowk through the main
streets of the city to the Deputy Commissioner's office. They raised
slogans against the State Government and Chief Minister B.S.
Yeddyurappa for not fulfilling their demands even after their repeated
pleas.

The agitators demanded that the authorities concerned should take
steps to construct new hostel buildings in the district depending on
the increasing strength of Dalit students and provide them with
necessary facilities. The loans taken by Dalits from the Dr. B.R.
Ambedkar Development Corporation should be waived and all backlog
posts be filled in the State, they said.

The other demands of the agitators include providing permanent below
poverty line cards to all Dalits in the district, construction of Dr.
B.R. Ambedkar Bhavans in all Assembly constituencies, municipality
limits, city municipal council areas, town panchayats and gram
panchayats and handing over the illegal mining issue to the Central
Bureau of Investigation.

The agitators submitted a memorandum to Governor H.R. Bhardwaj through
Deputy Commissioner S.S. Pattanshetty. The agitation was led by
district convener Suresh Mannur, Harish Natikar, Ravut Talakeri and
Kamesh Bhajantri.

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[ZESTCaste] SC slams Haryana for not arresting Hissar culprits

 

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/sc-slams-haryana-for-not-arresting-hissar-culprits/672567/

SC slams Haryana for not arresting Hissar culprits

Agencies Posted online: Thu Aug 26 2010, 19:09 hrs
New Delhi : The Supreme Court today directed the Haryana government to
make all possible efforts to arrest by September 10 those involved in
the murder of two Dalits and the destruction of 150 houses in Mirchpur
village, Hissar on April 21.
The violence was allegedly orchestrated by people belonging to the
upper castes.

The Court also slammed the Haryana government for its failure to
provide relief and rehabilitation measures to the affected families
and directed authorities to provide two quintal of wheat to each
affected family.

"Some people are not being arrested. They should be arrested before
the next date of hearing," a Bench comprising Justices G S Singhvi and
A K Ganguly said while posting the next date of hearing for September
10.

The apex court perused the over 100-page report submitted by the state
government in a sealed cover along with the fact-finding report
prepared by a team of lawyers representing the victims.

"We have seen the report (of state government) which is contrary to
the report of the other side," the Bench said while expressing
dissatisfaction over the steps taken by the state government and
directed it to file a fresh affidavit.

The fact-finding report submitted by senior advocte Colin Gonsalves,
who is representing the victims, said the state government failed to
keep its promise of providing adequate relief and rehabilitation.

He said in the report it is clearly mentioned that the authorities
have not properly implemented the MNREGA.

Further, the dwelling houses for Dalits in the village are made of mud
and not cement, the report said adding even the district collector did
not visit the village, and instead, only met the victims at the
Valmiki Temple in the capital where they were given shelter.

The apex court had on June 2 warned that it would "take a very serious
view" if such incidents recurred.

"Such incidents of killings are taking place for the last five years,"
the Bench said during the hearing while expressing anguish that the
administration was not doing enough.

During the previous hearing, the court had pulled up the state for its
failure to prevent the incident -- reportedly a fallout of a dog of
the (Valmiki) Dalit community barking at upper caste Jat boys. A
paraplegic girl was burnt to death, trapped inside her burning home.
Her father, who tired to save her, later succumbed to injuries.

The apex court had recorded an undertaking from the Haryana government
that it would rebuild some of the houses damaged in the arson and
provide employment to at least one member of each affected family
under the MNREGA or other government-sponsored schemes by the next
hearing.

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[ZESTCaste] Haryana told to arrest all Dalit attack accused by Monday

 

http://sify.com/news/haryana-told-to-arrest-all-dalit-attack-accused-by-monday-news-national-ki0ukojiecg.html

Haryana told to arrest all Dalit attack accused by Monday

2010-08-26 20:10:00

The Supreme Court Thursday slammed the Haryana government for its
failure to arrest all those who looted and burnt Dalit houses in
Mirchpur village in Hisar district April 21 and told it to arrest by
Monday all accused who are on the run.

If those responsible for committing atrocities could not be arrested
then what right does the director general of police have to continue
in office, asked an apex court bench of Justice G.S. Singhvi and
Justice A.K. Ganguly.

If Haryana police is incapable of arresting those wanted in the
Mirchpur case, 'then we will ask some paramilitary force to arrest
them', the court said.

The court also wanted to know what the chief secretary of the state
was doing. The court said that all those wanted in Mirchpur attack on
Dalits should be arrested by Monday.

The court said that all those who have committed the crime should be
brought before the law and be made to account for their sins.

It may be recalled that April 21 this year people from the dominant
caste attacked and burnt the houses of Valmiki community in Mirchpur
in which 70-year-old Tara Chand and his disabled daughter Suman were
burnt alive.

This led to an exodus of Dalits from the village.

Taking note of the failure of the government to rehabilitate the Dalit
victims, Justice Singhvi told the Advocate General of Haryana H.S.
Hooda: 'You do not allow them to live then should we direct the
neighbouring state to accommodate them.'

The court also took note of the fact that things have come to such a
pass that Dalit children of Mirchpur were not going to school.

Senior counsel Colin Gonsalves told the court that a 14-year-old Dalit
girl died of shock after she was scolded and humiliated in the school.

Directing the government to provide two quintal wheat to each of the
Dalit family in the village within seven days, the court asked the
state to furnish all the records in support of its claim that it had
given 65 people hundred days' employment under a central government
scheme.

Justice Singhvi told Haryana's advocate general that 'apart from legal
issues we are concerned with the humanitarian aspect of the plight of
the victims'.

Justice Singhvi further said that 'all the people who are uprooted
should be settled and protected. They should not live under threat'.

The court was told that 52 people involved in the Mirchpur incident
have been arrested and remaining would be arrested soon.

This prompted Justice Singhvi to ask if the remaining accused have
gone to Dubai or fled to other states in the country.

The court was also given a report by the advocates from the office of
the advocate general on Mirchpur incident. The court said that the
copies of the same should be given to all the parties in the case.

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[ZESTCaste] Comrade, whither goest thou? (Kancha Ilaiah)

http://www.asianage.com/columnists/comrade-whither-goest-thou-027

Comrade, whither goest thou?

Aug 27th, 2010 - Kancha Ilaiah

The extended central committee meeting of the Communist Party of India
(Marxist) in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, has not thrown up any radical
formula to revitalise the party. This is disappointing since the
battered and bruised Communists of India are in the worst shape
possible in their entire history.

The Communists occupy a political space that is totally opposite to
the one occupied by the Right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party and its
mother organisations, such as the Hindu Mahasabha and the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh. The CPI(M) apparently works on the scientific
theory of Marxism. In accordance with this, it should have played a
sterling role in modernising the country. But in the last 80 years of
its existence, it has not done anything of the sort. In fact, the
Communist leadership now looks as if they are a feudal lot. The
fragmentation within its ranks, and the irrational and unnecessary
breaking up of the movement into three streams — CPI(M), Communist
Party of India, and the Maoists — could be because of its leadership's
feudal and casteist mindset.
Caste as an institution is basically divisive and the Communists too
seem to be victims of such a divisive mindset. That they neither
programmatically nor practically recognise caste does not mean that
they have not become victims of the caste system itself.
Right-wing forces in India are united while the Left-wing is divided.
The Right-wing forces at least respond to criticism, while the
Left-wing does not even bother to respond. For instance, Left leaders
are not able to explain properly the "big differences" between the
CPI(M), the CPI and the Forward Bloc that prevents them from merging.
They got divided in the context of Soviet power and the Indo-China
war. These issues are now passé but they still do not bother to review
their decision.
In fact, one CPI(M) leader of Kerala said two years ago that a merger
with the CPI was impossible since there was no agreement on the
attitude towards other parties after the revolution! Speak about
people living in ivory towers.
The cultural conditioning of the Left leaders is such that they do not
want to criticise their own understanding and actions.
Ideally, the Left should have worked as one party in a parliamentary
democracy to demonstrate their strength and influence politics. But
the Left leaders do not want to do so for no valid reason that the
people of India can understand. The lack of corruption in their
leadership does not make the Left democratic or responsive to the day
to day sufferings of masses that need solutions.
The Communist leaders have proved that they can be Marxist, feudal and
casteist simultaneously. They also impose a discourse that the social
masses of India do not understand. Their Oxford-educated leaders such
as the late Jyoti Basu came back to live in the "dhoti culture" with
one agenda of agrarian reform. But this agenda has reached its
saturation in West Bengal and to some extent in Kerala also.
For the last 80 years, Communist leaders have been saying that India
is a class society. But there are now enough studies to prove that in
India caste is more important than class. Neither the Communist
leaders nor the intellectuals around them want to face this question
squarely.
Recently, there was a fierce debate in Kerala on whether the CPI(M)
should accept caste/religious identities as legitimate. Though some
fellow travellers felt that the party should do so, the leadership did
not agree. According to them, though such identities do have their
place, they are divisive in the long run and the need is to transcend
them and evolve a humanist ethic.
But the Left has consistently refused to explain why they have no
existence in big states such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya
Pradesh where there are toiling masses. The Communists should have
repositioned their agenda and mobilised the masses around caste and
other cultural questions in these places. So far they have no clue how
to do that.
Likewise, industrialisation did not take root in West Bengal, Kerala
and Tripura which the Left has been ruling for years. Their
single-point programme of land reform did not take the West Bengal
society out of semi-feudal living modes. While Left leaders lived
wearing dhoti and kurta, they kept the peasants semi-naked.
While the world has surged to a post-capitalist globalisation phase,
Left leaders have remained stuck in their feudalism-capitalism
discourses. And to add to their troubles, their present JNU-educated
leadership has no idea of the rural masses and their changing
aspirations. They messed up their programmatic agenda during their
UPA-I days and now the masses seem to think that they are incapable of
creative renewal.
The truth is that nowadays classical socialism does not inspire even
the working class masses who are enchained in their own caste-cultural
relationships.
The situation certainly demands fresh thinking on the part of the
Communists. So far they have not produced a moral leader of the
stature of Mahatma Gandhi or B.R. Ambedkar, one who is revered outside
their party fold, though the idea of Communism still inspires many
artistes and writers.
Whether one agrees or not, the Right-wing has a Swami Vivekananda to
claim as a moral philosopher because he looked at many things,
including caste, in his own way. But the Left has nothing to offer on
that count.
Having come from Telangana, where the Left led a massive armed
struggle, I feel that if the Communists had come to power in Andhra
Pradesh it would have remained a feudal dhoti-clad state like Bengal.
I can say with some confidence that an average agrarian labourer —
dalit, tribal and OBC — of this region is certainly in a better
position than his/her counterpart in West Bengal.
It is not enough to criticise existing systems. One should offer an
alternative that can keep improving the lives of vast masses on a
daily basis. So far the Indian Communists have failed in engineering
such a process of democratic change.


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[ZESTCaste] It's mostly Dalits

 

http://www.hindu.com/2010/08/22/stories/2010082253240400.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

It's mostly Dalits

Special Correspondent

Bangalore: Karnataka State Human Rights Commission chairperson S.R.
Nayak was shocked by how strongly the factor of caste is linked to
destitution on Friday.

He asked the warden of a section at Beggars' Relief Centre, which had
108 people, what the caste composition was. he was told 94 of them
belonged to Scheduled Castes while 14 to Scheduled Tribes. He had
sought a report on caste-wise break up of the number of inmates at the
centre.

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