Sunday, May 2, 2010

[ZESTCaste] BSP men with criminal antecedents expelled

http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article419545.ece

Published: May 2, 2010 01:49 IST | Updated: May 2, 2010 01:49 IST
LUCKNOW, May 2, 2010 500

BSP men with criminal antecedents expelled
Atiq Khan

In a bid to refurbish the image of her party, Uttar Pradesh Chief
Minister Mayawati on Saturday expelled nearly 500 Bahujan Samaj Party
workers with alleged criminal antecedents and directed the party
coordinators to submit another list containing the names of tainted
persons on May 13 for further action.

Those ousted from the party belong to 17 divisions of the State as the
list of partymen with alleged criminal record from there was found to
be correct after a thorough verification of their crime record by the
Chief Minister's own sources.

No action has been taken on the list from Mirzapur division, which has
been kept in abeyance. But the BSP coordinator for Mirzapur, Narayan
Das Ahirwar, was expelled from the party for not complying with the
Chief Minister's directives on identifying criminals and anti-social
elements in the BSP. He was charged with taking action against party
workers without verifying their alleged criminal background.

It is not known whether the 500 party workers expelled by Ms. Mayawati
also include some of the "big fish", but an official statement issued
late on Saturday evening said she has directed the party coordinators
to "re-examine" the list of big criminals and mafia elements in the
BSP and submit it to her on May 13.

She warned the coordinators that persons with a criminal background
would not be tolerated in the party as the BSP enjoys a relatively
clean image in contrast to other political parties. Ms. Mayawati's
action followed a two-hour meeting with zonal party coordinators at
her 5 Kalidas Marg official residence. Earlier in the day the Chief
Minister had addressed a meeting of her ministers, MLAs, MLCs and
party office-bearers. After the meeting with the zonal coordinators,
Ms. Mayawati held a separate meeting with senior office-bearers of the
BSP Brahmin "Bhaichara Samiti" (Brahmin brotherhood committee), which
also continued for close to two hours. BSP general secretary and Rajya
Sabha MP Satish Chandra Mishra was present.

According to an official spokesman, Mr. Mishra apprised the Chief
Minister of steps taken to expand party's Brahmin support base as per
her directives.


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[ZESTCaste] Dalit Mitra awards function after three years, on May 4

 

http://www.sakaaltimes.com/SakaalTimesBeta/20100502/5687420047098985427.htm

Dalit Mitra awards function after three years, on May 4
PTI
Sunday, May 02, 2010 AT 08:08 PM (IST)

NAGPUR: The annual Dalit Mitra awards meant for institutions and
individuals working in the field of welfare of dalits which could not
be given for last three years, will be presented on May 4.

The awards will be presented at a function at Ravindra Natya Mandir,
Mumbai. Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, Deputy Chief Minister
Chhagan Bhujbal will be chief guests at the function, State Minister
for Social Welfare, Shivajirao Moghe, told PTI. "It was unfortunate
that these awards were not given during the last three years and his
first priority was to revive the awards", Moghe said.

The award consists of cash of Rs 15,000, a shawl and citation to
individuals and Rs 25,000 to the institutions. A total of 51 awards
have been instituted.

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[ZESTCaste] Dateline Hisar

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Dateline-Hisar/613706

Dateline Hisar

The Indian Express Posted online: Saturday , May 01, 2010 at 0233 hrs
After a Jat mob set fire to a Dalit settlement in Mirchpur, in Hisar
district, killing a polio-stricken girl and her father among others,
Haryana's dysfunctional politics has drawn national attention. Rahul
Gandhi's sudden visit to the victims' families, and his assurance that
the Congress president would keep tabs on the state government's
handling of the affair, is clear reproof to the Congress
administration in the state. It is also an acknowledgment that such
narrow caste exploiting politics can't coexist with the party's plans
to draw Dalits under its social umbrella.
Haryana is among the states with a larger concentration of SC
populations, at almost 20 per cent. In recent years, caste identities
have become sharper and more aggressive, encouraged by a political
class that feeds on these divisions. In the last few years, Dalit
assertion has been accompanied by convulsions of inter-caste violence
— in Gohana, in Mohamedpur, in Kila Jafargarh, now in Mirchpur. These
old hatreds just need an excuse to burst into flame — and as in
Mirchpur, there is no answer to the Dalit villagers' anguish, their
fear at staying on in the same area. Let down by the police, they are
insecure and disillusioned with the state.

And the Congress has been only too complicit in this arrangement. Its
state government strains mightily to look away from the social
intimidation and rough justice practised by Haryana's khap panchayats.
Its only real intervention, in fact, has been to claim that
prosecuting khaps would be a rash and destabilising step. With a state
government that can't square up to its responsibility towards
Haryana's Dalits, the Congress's fine-sounding words about Dalit
welfare seem empty. If the party's plans for a grand social coalition
are to work out, it needs to reach out and reassure Haryana's
vulnerable Dalits that these incidents will be met with swift
punishment. If the Congress wants to reclaim the grand social
coalition in north India, sustain its hold over Haryana, it must
articulate a brave and inclusive alternative to the petty math of
playing caste tensions against each other.


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[ZESTCaste] Slain Dalit's family refuses govt job, aid

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Slain-Dalits-family-refuses-govt-job-aid/articleshow/5882024.cms

Slain Dalit's family refuses govt job, aid

TNN, May 2, 2010, 03.15am IST
HISAR: After UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's terse snub, Haryana chief
minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda faced another embarrassment when the
family of a Dalit, burnt to death along with his physically challenged
daughter in caste violence in Hisar's Mirchpur village last week,
refused to accept a government job and ex gratia relief. Valmiki
community members also refused to return to the village.

Tara Chand's son, Pradeep, said the family refused compensation in
protest against the government't failure to protect the community.
"We've informed Rahul Gandhi and will ask the UPA chief to dismiss the
government for its failure," he said. Family members also alleged that
officials were forcing the victims's elder son to accept the job.

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[ZESTCaste] Dalit families flee Haryana village,vow not to return

 

http://news.chennaionline.com/national/Dalit-families-flee-Haryana-village-vow-not-to-return/4b2b6a81-1b67-42d0-be47-45a83775cd09.col

Sun, May 02

Dalit families flee Haryana village,vow not to return

Mirchpur (Haryana), May 1 "I will rather die than return to the
village," murmurs Kamla Devi, still in shock after her husband and
physically challenged daughter were burnt alive in caste violence here
on April 21.

Devi, 45, along with her two sons, who are pursuing graduation, has
been camping at the district headquarters at Hisar, about 60 km from
here, along with nearly 30 dalit families which fled the village after
houses belonging to the community were torched.

The affected families have been demanding rehabilitation outside Mirchpur.

Devi's polio-stricken daughter Suman and her aged husband were trapped
inside their burning house when about 18 dwellings were set ablaze
allegedly by members of the dominant community over old enmity.

"I have lost everything. No one can compensate my loss," says the
distraught woman about the monetary relief announced by the Haryana
Government to her family.

- (Agencies)
May 01, 2010

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[ZESTCaste] Mirchpur incident: Two officials arrested

 

http://www.ptinews.com/news/636037_Mirchpur-incident--Two-officials-arrested

Mirchpur incident: Two officials arrested

STAFF WRITER 18:49 HRS IST
Hisar (Haryana), May 2 (PTI) A policeman and a revenue official were
arrested today in connection with Mirchpur caste violence in which a
physically challenged girl and her aged father were burnt alive and
several dalit houses were torched.

Police arrested Narnaund Police Station SHO Vinod Kajal and Naib
Tehsildar Jage Ram and produced them before a court which which sent
them to 14-day judicial custody.

Accusing police of inaction, the agitated dalits had been demanding
the arrest of the two officials, who they alleged, remained mute
spectators when the caste violence rocked Mirchpur, 60-km from here,
on April 21.

The arrested officials had been booked under various sections of the
IPC including 302 (murder) and 307 (attempt to murder).

So far, 31 people had been arrested in connection with the violence,
police said.

The affected dalits, demanding their rehabilitation outside the
village, continued their sit-in before the mini secretariat.

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[ZESTCaste] Buta to hear SC/ST forum plea on Dinakaran

http://expressbuzz.com/cities/bangalore/buta-to-hear-scst-forum-plea-on-dinakaran/170110.html

Buta to hear SC/ST forum plea on Dinakaran

Express News ServiceFirst Published : 02 May 2010 05:21:00 AM ISTLast
Updated : 02 May 2010 08:28:25 AM IST

BANGALORE: Buta Singh, chairman of the National Commission for
Scheduled Castes, on Saturday promised that he would take note of the
outcry raised by the SC/ST Advocates' Forum regarding the transfer of
Chief Justice P D Dinakaran from the Karnataka High Court.


After participating in a meeting with the representatives of SC/ST
Employees Association, Singh told Express, "I have taken note of the
issue raised by the forum of SC/ST advocates.

I will take a decision soon in this regard." K P Venkatesh, president
of the SC/ ST Advocates' Forum, had earlier submitted the memorandum
to the commission, stating that Dinakaran was being made a scapegoat
though he had proved his honesty and integrity.

Vested interests had targeted Dinakaran and the Supreme Court had not
taken any action against the advocates who wrongly targeted the
judiciary, he said in the memorandum.

"The collegium of the Supreme Court should take the appropriate
decision in this matter as Justice PD Dinakaran was appointed by the
apex court," Singh added.


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[ZESTCaste] Digvijay thanks and praises Maya for her support in LS

 

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/95314/India/Digvijay+thanks+and+praises+Maya+for+her+support+in+LS.html

Digvijay thanks and praises Maya for her support in LS
Piyush Srivastava
Lucknow, April 30, 2010

Ever since Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati had extended
her support to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) on the cut
motions in the Lok Sabha, there has been a definite shift in the
Congress' stance towards her.

Till recently, the Congress in Uttar Pradesh had been going hammer and
tongs at the state chief minister and blaming her for the misrule.
Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi had even flagged off 10 Rath
Yatras in Uttar Pradesh to bring to light the plight of the common man
under Mayawati's rule.

But all that has changed and going by the tone of Congress general
secretary Digvijay Singh, confrontation has now given way to
appreciation and indulgence. " I thank her for supporting us and
standing with the secular forces," Singh said in Lucknow on Thursday.

The support of her 21 MPs had been crucial as the UPA government at
the Centre defeated the BJP- sponsored cut motions on the price rise
on Tuesday.

Earlier, Singh had blamed the BSP for its anti-farmer attitude and
criticised Mayawati for misusing public money in parks and memorials.
But he has suitably toned down his rhetorics and suggested ways at
improving her governance.

"We will support her if she takes up public issues. We welcome her for
taking up the issue of criminalisation of politics and support her
effort to clean the BSP of criminal elements. We want to say that she
should try to improve the law and order situation in the state,"
Singh, the Congress leader in charge of UP, said.

Singh made an appeal to the CM to protect the rights of peasants and
tried to alert her that mine and mineral mafias are stripping the
state of crores of rupees.

Singh, though, claimed that Mayawati's support to the UPA would not
dilute the spirit of the Rath Yatras. " Don't forget that the BSP has
been supporting us since 2009.

There is nothing new in Mayawati's fresh support to the UPA," Singh said.

Regrets Maoist remark:

Digvijay Singh on Thursday expressed regret over causing embarrassment
to the party and the government with his newspaper article on the
Naxal menace in which he had criticised home minister P. Chidambaram's
handling of the issue.

"He (Chidambaram) has been my friend for a long time and still remains
so. The timing of the write- up was such that the government and the
party both faced embarrassment for which I express regret," Singh
said. In a strongly- worded article, Singh had earlier this month
questioned Chidambaram's strategy of treating the Naxal issue as a law
and order problem and described the minister as " extremely rigid and
having intellectual arrogance".

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[ZESTCaste] UPA wins vote, loses credibility

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/features/the-sunday-et/as-you-like-it/UPA-wins-vote-loses-credibility/articleshow/5881902.cms

UPA wins vote, loses credibility
2 May 2010, 0103 hrs IST,Raghu Krishnan,ET Bureau

The Congress-led UPA coalition government has defeated the cut motion
moved on the finance bill by a majority of over 80 votes in the Lok
Sabha.
However, in the process, the Congress appears to have struck quite a
few back-room deals with regional parties.

Consequently, 21 MPs of the Bahujan Samaj Party voted with the UPA
even while AICC(I) general secretary Rahul Gandhi has launched a
campaign in Uttar Pradesh against the government of Chief Minister
Mayawati who has been spending thousands of crores of rupees of public
money on putting up statues of herself along with icons like Ambedkar
and Kanshi Ram.

Media reports talk of a deal being struck whereby the Central Bureau
of Investigation would go slow on the disproportionate assets case
against Mayawati in return for her party's vote against the cut
motion.

Even more bizarre, however, was the appearance in the Lok Sabha of
Jharkhand chief minister Shibu Soren to vote against the cut motion.
It has been four months since Soren was sworn in as the chief minister
of Jharkhand at the head of a coalition including the BJP.

The Congress had then assumed the moral high ground by stating that it
could have formed the government if it had wanted to but that it had
refused to get into a deal with Soren who had had to resign from the
UPA national government a few years ago after being convicted on a
charge of murder.

In the summer of 1999, the NDA national government led by Vajpayee had
been defeated by just one vote in the Lok Sabha. At that time,
Giridhar Gamang had cast the crucial vote even though a week or two
had elapsed since he had been sworn in as chief minister of Orissa.

In the uproar which followed, India's Grand Old Party had claimed that
Gamang's vote was in order since his resignation from the Lok Sabha
had not yet been accepted. Ethical standards appear to have further
nose-dived over the last decade as indicated by Soren voting in the
Lok Sabha almost four months after he was sworn in as the head of the
JMM-BJP government in Jharkhand!

The Congress claim that Soren was part of the UPA pre-poll alliance
which was re-elected in the Lok Sabha polls of 2009 sounds not just
hollow but schizophrenic! At least Gamang was part of the Congress.
Whereas Soren voted with the Congress-led UPA national government
while heading the BJP-supported ruling coalition in Jharkhand!

When the UPA resumed office in the summer of 2009, TV news-channels
quoted sources in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) as indicating that
the new government would not include ministers who had come under a
cloud of corruption during their first tenure. However, when push came
to shove, the DMK had its way. Since then, there have been reports
that the PMO was itself monitoring the auctioning of 3-G spectrum to
ensure a fair and transparent process. Hopefully, there will be no
further dilution of norms in the wake of last Tuesday's defeat of the
cut motion!

The Congress could say the BJP did worse when it was in power.
However, ruling party ministers have taken a Constitutional oath to
serve the people of India. If soldiers can die for the country, why
can't politicians live honourably!


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[ZESTCaste] Political opportunism

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/editorial/Political-opportunism/articleshow/5879093.cms

Political opportunism
1 May 2010, 0612 hrs IST,ET Bureau

The juggling act that attended the government's cut motion triumph,
and the deal-making shenanigans in Jharkhand underscore the rank
opportunism
that is accepted as the natural and normal way of conducting politics.
It often becomes all too clear that notions like transparency and
accountability are mere catchphrases in our political culture.

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati's critical support to the UPA on
the cut motion, for instance, was passed off as a common attempt to
keep 'communal forces' (read: BJP) at bay. It perhaps isn't even
necessary to judge the piousness of that sentiment on the basis of
allegations that it had more to do with the CBI easing off a bit on
some cases against Mayawati in return. Rather, one can remember not
just the declaration of support, but active campaigning the BSP
supremo did for Gujarat CM Narendra Modi during the 2002 Gujarat
assembly elections. Granted, the BSP has an unabashed and open policy
of political opportunism, stemming from the political belief that
Dalit politics can gain only by having no permanent allies or foes.
But, clearly, the appellation 'communal forces' is as convenient a fig
leaf for the political class as 'minority appeasement'.

Events in Jharkhand could also be ascribed to the political churn, or
rather the chronic instability the state has witnessed since its
inception in 2000 — what with seven different governments (with one
led by an independent MLA) since then. That has meant issues of
governance being subservient to the scramble for power. It is true
that Shibu Soren represents the current sorry state of the strong
tribal movement for the creation of the state. The frantic attempt to
maintain a toehold on power by the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha offering to
let the BJP take the chief ministership, as well as the latter party's
abrupt halting of its withdrawal of support move reflects the
'politics is self interest' paradigm. Not long ago, political parties
were calling for accountability and transparency in the IPL. But those
concepts seem markedly absent when it comes to practicing them
politically. Capturing and retaining office is all that counts. And
the larger problem is that our polity holds that truth to be
self-evident.


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[ZESTCaste] India's Government By Quota

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703871904575215810722146240.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines

OPINION MAY 1, 2010

India's Government By Quota

The affirmative-action plan to eliminate caste discrimination was
supposed to last 10 years. Instead it has become a permanent, and
divisive, fact of life.

By SHIKHA DALMIA
For nearly half a century, group or racial preferences have been
America's prescribed remedy for racism and other -isms standing in the
way of social equality. But anyone wishing to study the unintended
side-effects of this medicine on the body politic need only look at
India. There reactionary groups are trying to co-opt a women's quota
bill, not to create an egalitarian utopia, but its opposite.

India's ruling secular Congress party has joined hands with Hindu
nationalist parties on a bill to guarantee 33% seats in the parliament
and state legislatures to women. This is on top of a similar quota
that women enjoy at the local or panchayat level. The bill sailed
through the upper house but has met stiff resistance by India's
lower-caste parties. Why? Because it threatens their monopoly on the
country's quota regime.

Just as racism is the bane of America, caste is the bane of India; its
rigid strictures for centuries sustained a stratified society where
birth is destiny. Although caste has declined in India's large,
cosmopolitan cities, elsewhere this system still restricts social
mobility for the country's 100 million dalits (untouchables). They are
not only consigned to demeaning jobs but they're not even allowed to
pray in the same temples as upper castes.

But the scheme that India's founders devised to eradicate the caste
system has actually deepened the country's caste divide, and created
several more. The women's quota bill is only the latest development in
the competition for victimhood status that has pitted every group with
any grievance, real or imagined, against every other.

India's founders began on the right track, constitutionally banning
untouchability in 1950 and, just as in America, guaranteeing equal
treatment under the law for everyone regardless of caste, sex,
religion or race. But then came the fatal leap. They created a list or
"schedule" of all the dalit sub-castes deserving preferential
treatment and handed them 17.5% of the seats in the parliament and
state legislatures. They also gave them 22.5% of all public-sector
jobs and guaranteed spots in public or publicly funded universities.

The scheme was supposed to last 10 years. Instead it assumed a life of
its own, making scheduled-caste status a bigger driver of success than
individual merit (at least before liberalization opened opportunities
in the private sector).

The tipping point came in the late 1980s when the government's Mandal
Commission. This body, charged with examining the plight of the poor
and disenfranchised, concluded in its final report that the original
list of scheduled castes was too short. It recommended a new,
catch-all category called Other Backward Classes covering over half
the population and called for reserving 49.5% government jobs and
university seats for these groups

The report caused an uproar. Hindu students from nonscheduled castes,
particularly from modest backgrounds, exploded into riots. Already
rubbed raw from the existing quota regime which allowed academically
inferior, scheduled-caste candidates to breeze into the best
universities and land secure government jobs while they struggled,
they took to the streets. A few immolated themselves, one big reason
why the government collapsed in November 1990. But the quota system
survived, and post-riot governments have slowly expanded it.

Quotas have become a fact of life in India because they are the major
currency with which Indian politicians buy votes. In a few states with
their own quotas, almost 70% of government jobs and university seats
go to the reserved castes.

The major political resistance to the quota regime during the Mandal
riots came from Hindu nationalist parties—but that was before they
found a way to make it work for them. In some states like Rajasthan
they have actually instituted quotas for the poor "forward
castes"—code for upper-caste Hindus.

And these parties wholeheartedly back the latest women's quota bill
because it will simultaneously allow them to: establish their
progressive bona fides; once again stick it to Muslims, arguably the
only genuinely disenfranchised minority without its own legislative
quota; and consolidate their power base in parliament since the women
elected are likely to be relatively well-off Hindus.

A tragi-comic note in this drama is Raj Thackeray, an ultra-nativist,
Hindu politician from Mumbai who wants to chase all out-of-state
residents out of his city. He is warning the lower-caste leaders to
show respect for women by supporting this bill or else "they will be
given a lesson on it."

Protests have broken out in the country, with Muslim and lower-caste
women opposing it as currently written and urbane, city feminists
demanding its immediate passage. But the lower-caste parties' only
objection is that the quota bill doesn't contain a sub-quota for
lower-caste women. In other words, the debate in India is no longer
about using quotas to redistribute opportunity—it is about
redistributing the quotas themselves. No politician or party is
opposing this bill on principle.

It would be tempting to blame the abuse of quotas on the degraded
state of Indian politics. But, in reality, India is demonstrating the
reductio ad absurdum logic of quotas.

Progressives in India—as in America—believe that equal protection of
individual rights is insufficient to create equality because it does
nothing to address private discrimination. Protecting the property
rights of persecuted castes is hardly enough if they can't get jobs in
the first place. Hence, in their view, government has to give
persecuted groups a leg up to equalize opportunity.

But this turns the system into a zero-sum game, triggering a race for
the spoils in which powerful groups can seize the advantage. Because
quotas or preferences don't originally apply to them, they become the
new aggrieved—victims of "reverse discrimination." And it is easy for
them to mobilize this sentiment into a political movement precisely
because they are powerful.

India's lesson is that abrogating individual rights through group
preferences or quotas institutionalizes the very divisions that these
policies are supposed to erase. Human prejudice can't be legislated
away. That requires social activism to coax, cajole and shame people
out of their intolerance. There are no short cuts.

Ms. Dalmia is a senior analyst at the Reason Foundation and a Forbes columnist.


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[ZESTCaste] Opposition conspired to push criminal elements into BSP: Mayawati

http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article419755.ece


May 2, 2010 15:52 IST | Updated: May 2, 2010 17:15 IST Lucknow, May 2, 2010

Opposition conspired to push criminal elements into BSP: Mayawati
PTI

BSP Chief Mayawati claimed that Opposition parties had conspired and
managed to push criminal elements into her party just before the last
assembly polls that forced her to launch a drive to expel a large
number of such leaders.

The UP chief minister yesterday ousted 500 party leaders and workers
with criminal antecedents and also sought a second list of "criminals"
still left in the party who, she said, will be expelled before May 13.

"As part of a conspiracy, Opposition parties specially SP, which dream
of gaining power with the help of criminals, managed entry of such
elements into BSP before the assembly election," Mayawati told
reporters here.

"The party has launched a drive to oust criminal elements from the
party as a result of which 500 people having criminal antecedents have
been expelled from the party," she said.

Mayawati claimed that immediately after forming a majority government
in the state, the BSP launched a special drive to end "Jungleraj" in
the state under the previous SP regime and started a crackdown against
criminals.

"SP and other political parties became wary of the crackdown as they
felt all their criminal elements would be put behind bars and they
would not be able to gain power in the state. They then started
sending their criminal elements into the BSP as part of a well-planned
conspiracy," she said.

"When such elements gradually established their position in the BSP,
they once again started 'Jungleraj' in the state," she said.

Mayawati said after the March 15 rally, some senior leaders pointed
out about the criminal elements in the party.

"I took a report from my own sources and found this to be true. On
April 17, I held a meeting of core leaders and directed them to expel
such people by April 29," she said.

Mayawati said her directives were followed strictly and 500 people
having criminal antecedents have been expelled from the party.

"Now stern action will be taken against such elements on the basis of
criminal cases against them. The party leaders have been asked to
prepare another list of such elements still left in the party and to
expel them before May 13," she said.

To a query, Mayawati said the list of ousted people is yet to be
screened but it may include some MLAs and ex-MPs.

"I don't pay attention on how influential a person is because a
criminal have no caste or religion, he is merely a criminal," she
said.

The BSP supremo said the party wanted to assure the people that mafias
and criminals will not be able to call the shots during its regime.

"The DGP, Principal Secretary Home and ADG have been asked to launch a
special state-wide drive against criminals and put them behind bars,"
she said.

Accusing the Opposition parties of attempting to engineer communal and
caste related violence in the state, Mayawati claimed that BSP is the
only party which does not hesitate to act against its own leaders if
found involved in any criminal activity.

Ridiculing Opposition's allegation of rising number of criminal cases
in the state, Mayawati said she does not believe in figures.

"It was me who told the officers not to go by figures and to lodge FIR
of needy person reaching a police station. They have been told that
their performance would not be assessed on the basis of figures, but
the action on the FIRs lodged," she said.

"As the Opposition is unable to raise fingers on the law and order
situation, it is unnecessarily raking up the issue," she said.


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[ZESTCaste] Maya’s decision a death kiss for Congress

http://expressbuzz.com/nation/maya%E2%80%99s-decision-a-death-kiss-for-congress/169838.html

Maya's decision a death kiss for Congress

Santwana Bhattacharya

First Published : 01 May 2010 03:04:00 AM ISTLast Updated : 01 May
2010 02:20:52 PM IST

NEW DELHI: Mayawati's decision to support the UPA Government to help
pass the Finance Bill as well as defeat the Opposition-moved cut
motions, could prove to be a death kiss for the Congress. Its grand
plan of wresting the BSP's core vote-bank, the Dalits, before the 2012
Uttar Pradesh elections seems to be the first casualty.


That Mayawati may have got more than her pound of flesh (that is,
relief in the CBI cases) in exchange of BSP's support to the Manmohan
Singh Government, is becoming quite apparent by the day.

First, Congress general secretary in-charge of UP, one of Mayawtai's
staunchest critics, Digvijay Singh, refashioned his political agenda
by actually acknowledging the good turn she did to the Congress-led
government in the Centre.

Toning down his harsh rhetoric, Singh also went on to appreciate her
recent pro-farmer initiatives as he almost benignly advised her to
give some more attention to the state's law and ordered situation. It
was not so long ago that he called Mayawati, 'Daulat ki beti' and 'Not
Dalit ki Beti' after she was garlanded with currency notes allegedly
worth Rs 22 crore.

Sources in the Congress say, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee
vigorously defended Mayawati's garlands while he was convincing the
skeptical Congress floor managers to play footsie with the BSP before
the cut-motion voting.

In Parliament, the new bonhomie between the two parties is visible in
more ways than one. They are certainly not keeping each-other at arms
length. The Congress-BSP together picked on the issue of Gujarat Chief
Minister Narendra Modi's 'derogatory' comments on the Dalit community,
in the Rajya Sabha.

Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the Congress, the BSP MPs exhibited
their lung power in the Upper House leading to two adjournments on the
Dalit issue.

After the recent voting, the UPA Government's numbers in the Lok
Sabha, without the support of the 21 BSP MPs, no longer remains a
secret; it stands at 271 (on the cut-motion day, three absent MPs
brought the count down to an embarrassing 268).

Under the circumstance, the grand old party can hardly take on the
temperamental UP Chief Minister in her own bastion.


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[ZESTCaste] Now Ambedkar inspires a ‘Babasaheb Charit Manas’

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/now-ambedkar-inspires-a-babasaheb-charit-manas_100356653.html

Now Ambedkar inspires a 'Babasaheb Charit Manas'
May 1st, 2010 - 12:20 pm ICT by IANS -

Lucknow, May 1 (IANS) Inspired by B.R. Ambedkar's fight against social
discrimination, a senior official in Uttar Pradesh has penned
"Babasaheb Charit Manas", a collection of poems on audio CD eulogizing
the Dalit icon and architect of the Indian constitution.
"I have been deeply impressed by the great Indian thinker who spent
his entire life fighting social discrimination. 'Babasaheb Charit
Manas' is a small initiative from my side to honour Ambedkarji for all
that he did for the poor and the downtrodden," Raj Kumar Sachan, chief
development officer (CDO) of Etah district, told IANS on telephone.

Sachan is not a Dalit, but that has not stopped him from launching the
audio CD of his poems.

He also plans to get a book published soon. "I will definitely publish
a book on my poems dedicated to Ambedkar. I believe in six months or
so, the book would have around 450-500 pages," he said.

The three-hour long CD has several songs in honour of Ambedkar. In his
poems, Sachan has equated Ambedkar with the Hindu gods.

It took over three years for Sachan to write poems that cover
different phases of Ambedkar's life and family.

Asked what made him write poems on Ambedkar, he replied, "It happened
three years ago while I was in Lucknow. One day when I was meditating
with closed eyes, I felt Ambedkarji speaking in my ears that I should
write poems on him."

"Thereafter, I took up the writer's job and even took leave on several
occasions to write the poems. During the period, I went to Ambavade
town in Maharashtra, where Ambedkar's family lived."

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which espouses the cause of Dalits, is
in power in Uttar Pradesh. But Sachan said his compilation should not
be linked to any political party nor should it be viewed as an attempt
to appease any political outfit.


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[ZESTCaste] Ensure fundamental rights of Dalits

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=136586

Friday, April 30, 2010

Metropolitan

Ensure fundamental rights of Dalits
Speakers tell roundtable
Staff CorrespondentSpeakers at a roundtable yesterday stressed the
need to ensure fundamental rights of backward people, including
Dalits, and introduce social security scheme for them.

"Members of the Dalit community have been living in different cities
of the country over the last 100 years, but they are deprived of
various facilities in society," said Adan Islam, executive director of
Dhoritri Foundation, in her keynote speech.

Dhoritri Foundation and Bangladesh Unnayan Parishad in association
with Oxfam jointly organised the roundtable at the auditorium of
Bangladesh Economic Association in the city, with Dr Quazi
Kholiquzzaman Ahmad in the chair.

There are three types of barriers to the progress of Dalit such as
behavioral barrier, institutional barrier and environmental barrier,
Adan Islam said at the roundtable on 'Economic Justice for Dalit'.

Providing special allowance or monthly allowance would not solve the
problems of Dalit community, she said, adding that social security
scheme should be introduced for them, she said.

Allam, a leader of Dalit community in Gabtoli City Colony, said their
colony does not have facilities for drinking water or gas and that
even a single room has to house six families due to lack of
accommodation facilities.

Speaking as the chief guest, Chief Whip Abdus Shahid said the
government would take proper steps to ensure the rights of Dalit and
housing projects for them would the implemented in Manikganj.

Lawmaker Junayed Ahmed Palak said only 25 lakh people, out of 15 crore
people, belong to Dalit community, but it is not possible to ensure
development of the country keeping them backward.

Expressing solidarity with the demand for their fundamental rights, he
said a colony with facilities for water and gas would be built in his
constituency for Dalit people.


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[ZESTCaste] UP Cong desperate to cast its ‘maya’ on dalits

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/66325/up-cong-desperate-cast-its.html

UP Cong desperate to cast its 'maya' on dalits
By Sanjay Pandey

The Congress is out of power in UP for the past two decades, but in
the last year's Lok Sabha elections, it was able to make a small dent
in the BSP's vote bank. Congress' victory in dalit-dominated Barabanki
and Unnao constituencies was enough to unsettle the BSP.


When Rahul Gandhi declared at a Congress party rally in Uttar Pradesh
recently that 'ab hum pichey hatne wale nahin' (we are not going to go
back now) and the BSP leaders took a pledge that the Congress must be
'demolished' in UP, it only indicated that the battle for the dalit
votes in this politically crucial state is all set to intensify in the
days to come.

Although the next Assembly polls in UP is a good two years away, the
Congress and the BSP have already sounded the election bugle and begun
their preparations.
Buoyed by its 'unexpectedly good showing' in the 2009 general
elections in UP, the Congress feels that it could spring a surprise in
the 2012 polls in the state if it is able to wean away a sizeable
portion of the dalit votes, which constitutes about 21 per cent, from
the BSP fold.

The Congress is out of power in UP for the past two decades, but in
the last year's Lok Sabha elections, it was able to make a small dent
in the BSP's vote bank. Congress' victory in dalit-dominated Barabanki
and Unnao constituencies was enough to unsettle the BSP.

In the name of Ambedkar
The BSP is also perturbed over the Congress' attempt to woo the dalits
in the name of their icon B R Ambedkar. The Congress' decision to
launch the statewide 'chetna yatra' on 125th birth anniversary of
Ambedkar and that too from a town named after him was a pointer in
this direction. For the first time in decades, a photograph of
Ambedkar found its place on the Congress platform.

Incidentally, the BSP also launched its nationwide protest against the
Women Reservation Bill on the same day. The BSP's programme in
Ambedkar Nagar was held at a venue barely yards away from that of the
Congress.

As the race to project themselves as the true followers of Ambedkar
heats up, the BSP has accused Congress of 'back stabbing' Ambedkar and
never according him the respect he deserved. The Congress has hit back
at the BSP, saying that Mayawati was projecting herself as a taller
leader than Ambedkar as her statues dotting the state were bigger than
that of the dalit icon.

Besides, much to the discomfiture of the BSP, Rahul Gandhi has been
visiting dalit households regularly and trying to 'expose' the
Mayawati government on its alleged failure to properly implement the
Centre's flagship MNREGA scheme.

Political pundits believe that the BSP knows too well that any dent in
its vote bank could cost it dearly in the 2012 Assembly polls and
hence, after the defeat in the Lok Sabha polls, it has gone back to
its dalit agenda with a vengeance.The state government has directed
its officials to speed up development works in 'Ambedkar Villages.'
The party's most visible Brahmin face, S C Mishra has been sidelined
and made chairman of the party's legal cell. He has been asked to
focus on the court cases faced by Mayawati.
Recently, around 75 government lawyers who were Brahmins, were sacked
triggering speculation that the BSP was distancing itself from the
community. Party general secretary Naseemuddin Siddique has, however,
claimed that the BSP continued to hold the community in due respect.

It was the formidable Brahmin-Dalit combination, which the political
experts termed as a clever mode of 'social engineering,' that saw the
BSP catapult to power in the 2007 Assembly polls with an absolute
majority in UP for any single party after a gap of 17 years.

But the combine failed to work its magic in the subsequent Lok Sabha
polls, leading to apprehensions among the BSP leaders that the dalits
were turning away from the party owing to its 'pro-Brahmin stance.'

While the BSP appears to be totally confused at the moment, there is
no such predicament before the Congress, which is focussed on the
dalit voters. As the assembly poll date nears, the tug-of-war between
the two parties is bound to escalate.


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[ZESTCaste] Alleged attack on four Dalits

http://www.thehindu.com/2010/05/01/stories/2010050152410400.htm

Tamil Nadu - Madurai

Alleged attack on four Dalits

Staff Reporter


MADURAI: Four Dalits were allegedly attacked by a group of persons
during a ritual procession taken out in connection with Chithirai
festival at Keezhadi village of Sivaganga district.

The Dalits, many of whom dressed like 'Chella Alagar,' took out the
procession on Tuesday last (April 27). When a few Dalits were
returning to the village from Silaiman bus stand, a 12-member group of
caste Hindus questioned their entry into the caste Hindu areas. This
resulted in a quarrel.


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