Latest News Update: Feb 20, 2010

Saturday, February 20, 2010

[ZESTCaste] BJP opposes caste-based reservation for minorities

http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article109951.ece

BJP opposes caste-based reservation for minorities
Neena Vyas

The Bharatiya Janata Party has opposed reservation for Scheduled Caste
Muslims and Christians.

In a resolution decrying the recommendation of the Ranganath Mishra
Commission on reservation for minorities, the party's Indore conclave
said this would be contrary to the Koran and the Bible. Parliament had
no jurisdiction to change the basic tenets of the Christian and
Islamic faiths that do not recognise the existence of caste in their
communities.

Party leaders described the move as a "conspiracy" to divide the country.

The BJP said the step was "not only unconstitutional but would also
create bad blood between minorities and Hindu Dalits and other
backward classes."

"The Ranganath Mishra Commission cannot dictate or thrust its opinion
on the Christian Pope or Muslim maulvis…reservation would amount to a
formal introduction of a caste system in Islam and Christianity, thus
changing the basic tenets of these religions, which is outside the
jurisdiction of both Parliament and the judiciary and also contrary to
the provisions of the Koran and the Bible," the resolution said.

One party leader claimed that "70 per cent of Muslims were already
covered by the 27 per cent OBC quota." The party is apparently
objecting to the creation of a quota within that quota for OBC Muslims
and other minorities.

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[ZESTCaste] Dalits oppose cow slaughter Bill

http://www.thehindu.com/2010/02/20/stories/2010022052920300.htm

Karnataka - Hassan

Dalits oppose cow slaughter Bill

Staff Correspondent

Say it is an attack on their culture

HASSAN: Several Dalit organisations took out a rally here on Friday
protesting against the Government's decision to introduce a revised
Bill on the cow slaughter ban. They presented a memorandum addressed
to the Chief Minister through the Deputy Commissioner demanding that
the move be dropped.

'Secular country'

The Dalita Sanghatanegala Samyukta Vedike stated in its memorandum
that India was a secular country where people from all communities
lived, following their own customs.

'Hindutva agenda'

But this Government was trying to bring in a revised form of The
Karnataka Prevention of Cow Slaughter and Cattle Preservation Act,
1964, in pursuance of its Hindutva agenda.

The vedike said the enforcement of the Act would be an assault on their culture.

The federation feared that if the new Bill was introduced, then it
would breed enmity between people of different communities.

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[ZESTCaste] Caste-bound tension continues in Kendrapara

http://www.kalingatimes.com/odisha_news/news2010/20100219-Caste-bound_tension_continues_in_Kendrapara.htm

Caste-bound tension continues in Kendrapara
KalingaTimes Correspondent
Kendrapara, Feb. 19: A day after the bloody clash, gun-totting
policemen hang around the remote Rankala village. The residents
regardless of caste affiliation are in a state of panic. The ransacked
houses in the village, that was witness to bloody caste-bound battle
yesterday, remind one of the scenes of devastation of 1999
super-cyclone days.

At least 23 persons mostly dalit women were injured yesterday
afternoon as armed upper caste groups had launched a murderous attack
on their houses.

As upper caste groups resorted to dig earth from a government grazing
land in close proximity to dalits' place of inhabitation, the dalits
offered resistance and stopped the digging work. The upper caste who
were lifting the earth for construction work in the local lord
Hanumanjew temple were deeply enraged and attacked the other groups.

An armed mob comprising over 300 people from the group barged into
dalits' settlement and had let loose vandalism spree. After beating up
the families, they targeted their houses and caused damage to 33
houses and household articles. The incident occurred when the male
members of the victimized families were away from their homes as most
of them were daily wagers.

Three persons involved in yesterday's violent attack have been taken
into custody. A platoon of armed police is camped in the troubled
village as a precautionary measure. Situation is fast returning to
normality in the affected village, said Kendrapara Superintendent of
Police, Narasingha Bhol.

However the ground realities speak altogether different story. Tension
has taken firm grip in the village with majority of upper caste male
members have fled the village fearing arrest and retaliatory attack
from the other group.

Deafening silence prevails the village that has about 600 population.
The upper caste community comprising two-third of the population
outnumbers the dalits.

Everybody in the village prefers to prefer to remain tightlipped and
their reply to outsiders is mostly in monosyllables. It may take
considerable time for the wound of caste divide to heal despite
administrative effort to broker out an amicable settlement to the
dispute.

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[ZESTCaste] Dalit woman beaten up by police officer

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/beatihg-of-dalit-woman-by-the-police-inspector/581344/

Dalit woman beaten up by police officer
Agencies Posted online: Thursday , Feb 18, 2010 at 1100 hrs
Sultanpur : In an instance of police brutality, a Dalit woman accused
of murdering her husband was beaten up by an inspector, prompting
authorities to suspend him.
The incident occurred yesterday in Manyari village in Aliganj area
here after Deepak Kumar was found strangulated following which his
mother lodged an FIR and the police started looking for his wife
Sangeeta.

The woman was rounded up after some time and allegedly confessed to
the crime, SP, Sultanpur, Satyendra Veer Singh said. Despite the
confession, the Inspector Kailash Nath Dubey beat her up as a
subordinate lady officer looked on.

Condemning the incident, Singh said, "This kind of behaviour was
really uncalled for. The lady had already confessed to the crime that
she had murdered her husband....There was absolutely no need of
beating up this lady so mercilessly."

"It was total brutality on part of the inspector. Finding him guilty,
we have put him under suspension. A departmental inquiry is on. We
will take necessary action against him," Singh said.

Asked about the presence of a lady police personnel at the time of the
incident, Singh said, "She is a subordinate officer.

"When the inspector is doing something, she is not supposed to
(interfere). What I can say is that there was absolutely no need for
this kind of attitude on part of the police. We have found him
(inspector) guility of absolute misconduct," he said, adding such kind
of incidents will not be tolerated.

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[ZESTCaste] Congress ridicules BJP’s dalit policy

http://www.asianage.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3153:congress-ridicules-bjps-dalit-policy&catid=35:india&Itemid=60

Congress ridicules BJP's dalit policy

Saturday, 20 February 2010 02:55
New Delhi, Feb. 19: The Congress on Friday ridiculed the BJP's new
found love for dalits and asked why the party did not take action
against its leader and MP Arun Shourie for criticising dalit icon Dr
B.R. Ambedkar in his book.

Referring to Mr Shourie's controversial book on Ambedkar, Worshipping
False Gods, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said the BJP had
neither taken any punitive action against the author of the book which
"demolished the principles of Ambedkar" nor distanced itself from its
content then.

He said BJP leader M.M. Joshi even opposed reservation for dalit
Muslims and Christians.

Saying that the BJP's new love for dalits is to get political mileage,
Mr Singhvi wondered on why the main Opposition did not even sought
clarification from Mr Shourie.

BJP president Nitin Gadkari's visit to the birth place of Dr B.R.
Amedkar exposes the "double-facedness and hypocrisy" of the main
Opposition party, views the Congress.

"They have done it for cheap electoral gains," Mr Singhvi said and
described the move as a "crude" attempt to seek votes. He said voters
will give a "resounding reply" to the BJP by rejecting it.

"When Congress does it they say it is a photo opportunity and when
they do, it is sincerity. Imitation is the best form of flattery and
BJP is indulging in flattery without limitation," he said, taking a
jibe at the "new-found love of BJP for dalits".

He also pointed out the BJP's Opposition to reservation for dalits who
have converted their religion.

On the other hand, the Congress has been committed to the upliftment
of dalits, he said and drew attention to how Dr Ambedkar was
associated with the Congress.

He said it was during Congress rule that a dalit became President, the
head of the judiciary and the first woman Speaker, adding "Congress
stood in word, spirit and letter" for dalit empowerment.

The Congress also took potshots at Mr L.K. Advani for his remarks that
it would badly lose if Lok Sabha polls are held now, terming the
senior BJP leader a "perennial Prime Minister-in-waiting" who is
living in a "dream world".

"Advaniji is again living in his dream world. He would like election
to happen every week because he still dreams of becoming the Prime
Minister, which he could not. He is a perennial Prime
Minister-in-waiting," Mr Singhvi said at the party briefing.

He said Mr Advani should realise that he would never become Prime
Minister even if elections are announced once again.

Age Correspondent

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[ZESTCaste] Sarpanch removes religious flag, protest turns violent

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Sarpanch-removes-religious-flag--protest-turns-violent/582029

Sarpanch removes religious flag, protest turns violent
Amrita Chaudhry Posted online: Saturday , Feb 20, 2010 at 0044 hrs

Tension gripped this small village on Friday evening after sarpanch
Lakhwinder Singh allegedly removed the religious flag of the Ravidass
community.

The situation turned volatile after leaders of the community, backed
by members of the Ambedkar Sena and Bahujan Samaj Party, poured out on
the village streets and the GT Road in protest.

Lakhwinder Singh along with two other persons has been arrested while
the religious flag has been reinstalled at the village dharamshala.

It has been learnt that attempts were being made by the sarpanch for
over a month to remove the flag which has been flying high over the
dharamshala for over 40 years now. As the news spread, people from
nearby towns and cities also began to pour in and the protest soon
turned violent.

People threw stones and broke the shop owned by the sarpanch and also
pelted stones at this house.

Protestors laid siege on the national highway for over two hours and
threatened to launch a stringent protest if the police did not arrest
the sarpanch.

The police, meanwhile, were forced to resort to lathicharge to
disburse the crowd, which left more than five people injured. They
have been rushed to Ludhiana for medical aid.

Commissioner Ludhiana (Urban) Ishwar Singh said, "We have taken
appropriate action to the satisfaction of the protestors. The
situation is under control."

Meanwhile, SHO Devinder Gurjar said, "We had warned the village
sarpanch last month against taking any such step. He had assured us
that nothing would happen. Lakhwinder had claimed that the dharmshala
is a common place for all communities had hence the Ravidass community
flag should be removed. But we knew that the situation would turn
volatile if any such thing happened. We have arrested the sarpanch and
the flag is also back in its place."

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[ZESTCaste] Angst of the outcaste

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/83597/Leisure/Angst+of+the+outcaste.html

Angst of the outcaste
Mark Tully
February 11, 2010

POST-HINDU INDIA

by Kanchailaiah
Sage
Price: Rs 295, Pages: 295

This is a startling book, revealing the extent of the anger and hurt
of the author, a well-known OBC academic and social activist. It's a
polemic on what his experiences as an OBC as well as his academic
research on Dalit and tribal communities have led him to see as a
centuries-old Brahmin conspiracy. The conspiracy to subjugate the
Dalits, the tribals and the Shudras too. Kancha Ilaiah equates
Hinduism with Brahminism. He says, "For any external observer Hinduism
is nothing but an institutionalized image of the Brahmin self;
although some people say it is a religion that encompasses all the
castes."

Ilaiah attacks what he considers to be Hinduism for imposing an order
on society which is neither egalitarian nor pluralist. The caste
system is responsible for this imposition, and it is still in place,
he says, because democracy hasn't affected the domination of the upper
castes. They are accused of being "spiritual fascists", and
"intellectual goondas". Ilaiah maintains that the spiritual fascism
was so constructed by Brahmins that those who were its victims could
not comprehend its essence. In other words, a confidence trick has
been played on them.

He calls the Dalits, tribals and the Shudras Dalit-Bahujans and sees
them as the productive sections of society while regarding the upper
castes as mere parasites. If they had not fostered the caste system
and prevented intermarriage, Ilaiah believes there would have been an
interchange of the technology practiced by different castes in their
professions and India would have become a scientific society. He
quotes as an example of the Dalit's technology of tanning animal skins
and manufacturing shoes and other leather products. Brahminism is seen
by him as anti-scientific, and disinterested even in such basic
subjects as agriculture. He accuses it of seeing "knowledge as
ignorance, and ignorance as knowledge", and doesn't credit it with a
single scientific discovery. In fact he believes the position is even
worse than that. The Brahmins are accused of stealing the discoveries
of the Dalit-Bahujans. Ilaiah maintains that zero was discovered by
cattle herders and many Ayurvedic medicines by Shudras, Dalits or
tribals, but Brahmins have claimed them as their own.

"The Indian nation is on the course for a civil war; a civil war that
has been simmering as an undercurrent of the caste-based cultural
system."
Ilaiah does not merely concentrate on the economic and other material
problems created by the caste system. He believes it is essential for
the Dalits, tribals and Shudras to acquire a spirituality which is
egalitarian and pluralist. He says, "The first major agenda for
post-Hindu India is to build a spiritual democratic basis... A
religious structure that guarantees their right to spiritual
equality." He compares Hinduism with Christianity, Islam and Buddhism,
which he sees as egalitarian and pluralist religions, and lays great
emphasis on Ambedkar's rejection of Hinduism and adoption of Buddhism.
But the repressive role that all these religions have played at times,
and some would argue still do play, particularly their repression of
women, is not taken into consideration.

The last chapter of the book is called Post-Hindu India. Ilaiah
believes Hinduism's days are numbered, and even talks of a civil war
in which Hinduism will be defeated by the combined forces of the
Dalit-Bahujans. When that happens, he believes "the regeneration of
India begins in multiple levels of Indian society. The society and
technology that the productive masses nurtured for so long will take a
new life". But Ilaiah recognises that the Shudras have not yet
rejected Hinduism partly because those he calls the Brahaminic forces
linked Independence and democracy with that religion. So there is
still one major fissure in the Dalit-Bahujan alliance he foresees. Nor
of course is there unity yet within the Dalit, Shudra, or tribal
communities themselves. A recent report from rural Gujarat pointed out
that Dalits of the more highly regarded castes treat other Dalits as
untouchable while the political geography of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh
is evidence that the OBCs are not united.

Because this book is a polemic, it's one-sided and so loses some of
its impact. At one stage Ilaiah suggests that because Hinduism is not
egalitarian and pluralist, it cannot last long. But it has, and that
must surely be because it has positive attributes. Ironically, just at
the time Ilaiah is prophesying the end of Hinduism, admiration of its
spiritual teaching and practices is spreading in other parts of the
world. Admittedly the same cannot be said for the caste system which
has few defenders anywhere, and Ilaiah would argue that the caste
system is the essence of Hinduism. But surely the Gita, revered by
Gandhi as his Bible, and by distinguished thinkers of different faiths
too, cannot be written off just because it is set in the context of a
war.

Now that Ilaiah has got his polemic off his chest, might he not think
of publishing a reasoned dialogue between himself and those who do not
see Hinduism as wholly inimical to egalitarian democracy? The danger
is that many people will write off this book as extremist. It is a
danger because we need to be aware of the depth of anger and hurt it
reveals. I have to say that, when I look back on what I have written,
I have not been as aware of this as I should have been.