http://www.countercurrents.org/gatade070510.htmWhere Is Brahmeshwar Singh 'The Great'?
By Subhash Gatade
07 May, 2010
Countercurrents.org
Myth of the Misuse of Laws meant for the protection of dalits and tribals
Whether the laws supposedly meant for the protection of dalits and
tribals are put to misuse ?
It is a theme which recurrs regularly in the discussions engaged in by
the chattering classes of the country. While nobody can deny that
frivolous cases are not filed under this act the manner in which the
issue gets raised creates an impression that the only 'use' of this
law is its 'misuse.' Neither the polity nor the articulate sections of
our society seem ready to go for a reality check. In fact, as a marker
of these classes 'sensitivities' towards this delicate issue, even Ms
Mayawati in her earlier incarnations as Chief Minister of UP had
cautioned the police about its 'misuse'. She is also reported to have
issued G.O.s (government orders) to use this law only in cases of
rapes and murders of the dalits.
The issue also came up for discussion in the parliament recently when
a member raised query dealing with the theme. As reported in a section
of the press, while replying to this query the minister for social
justice and empowerment Mr Napoleon told the house that there were
6,564 false cases in 2008 across India under the Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, called the PoA
Act. It is widely known that this Act provides for a sentence of up to
five years for atrocity committed or humiliation heaped on a Dalit,
and provides for the setting up of special courts for trial of cases.
(Hindustan Times, 27 th April 2010)
A break up of the figures cited by the said minister is quite
revealing. Of these, 2287 false cases came from one state: Rajasthan.
Andhra Pradesh followed at 1,577 false cases. Uttar Pradesh, the state
with the largest Dalit population (21 per cent of the state's 160-70
million and which stood at no. one as regards cases of atrocities
against these sections are concerned), was third with 843 false cases.
Punjab - the state with the highest proportion of SCs at 29 per cent
of the population - has had just 52 false cases registered and last
and not the list Delhi is the last in the list with three cases in
2008.
A quick analysis of these figures shows that around 75 per cent of the
cases have been reported from three states only. What does the
marginal presence or near absence of other states in this breakup
tells us ? Madhya Pradesh, which happens to be the state which has
'consistenly stood at no. 2 as regards atrocities against dalits are
concerned' does not even find a mention the newspaper report. Of
course, it does not mean that there were no false cases from the
state. The point is that there is no uniformity in the no of false
cases registered and nor are they directly proportional to the actual
situation of dalit atrocities as it exists in the particular state.
Gross generalisations would be too simplistic in the case.
Secondly, the discussion around the alleged misuse of this act has
another negative fallout. The question of more objective analysis of
its implementation does not receive the prominence it deserves.
Take the recent case of Mirchpur ( district Hissar, Haryana) where the
dominant castes ( namely the Jats) attacked the houses of the Valmikis
in a preplanned and premediated manner and burnt them with the
district administration especially the police personnel turning a
blind eye to this gory act. (21 st April 2010) A handicapped girl
Suman and her father Tarachand also died in the arson. A few of the
arsonists were arrested by the police, but neither the S.H.O. or the
Tehsildar, who were mute witness to this act were touched. As the
issue snowballed into a major embarassment for the Congress government
at the centre with the parliament in session, then only the infamous
S.H.O. and the Tehsildar were put behind bars.
It is clear to even a layperson that despite the PoA act making it
mandatory (article 4), to take action against the government officials
for dereliction of duty, it required Ms Sonia Gandhi's strong
disapproval over the turn of events and Rahul Gandhi making a trip to
the village, to take this step.
Any close watcher of the human rights situation in Haryana would vouch
that this case is no exception. In fact Haryana has been witness to n
number of attacks on dalits in the outgoing decade, many of which
reached national headlines. People can narrate you incidents after
incidents where an unholy alliance between a callous polity, inhuman
law and order machinery and desensitized civil society has made the
life of dignity for the dalits a challenging task in itself.
One still remembers the forcible expulsion of 250 Dalits from
Harsoula, District Kaithal, Haryana (February 2003). The local
landowning people, mainly the Jats, objected to the Dalits celebrating
Ravidas Jayanti. And the ensuing fight culminated in the forcible
expulsion of dalits from the village, with the police once again
turning into mute spectators.
Ms Sonia Gandhi, the then leader of the opposition, had even raised
the issue in the parliament also. She had lambasted the then Chautala
government - a partner in the NDA then - for its failure to provide
security and safety to the dalits. It has been more than six years
that Congress itself wields power in the state but dalits from
Harsoula are still condemned to live outside their ancestaral village,
somehow managing their lives in Kaithal and other places.
These days there is much talk about 'Internally Displaced Persons' the
world over. One does not know whether Dalits from Harsoula could be
included in the list. In fact one can find many villages in Haryana
similarly emptied of their dalit population under one pretext or the
other by the local dominant castes. One also comes across a village
named 'Devipuniya' in the state which came up when dalits from a
village were similarly expelled from their village when Devi Lal
happened to be the Chief Minister and P.L. Puniya, happened to be a
well-known dalit leader. As of now a majority of the dalits in
Mirchpur, who are camping in Hissar town are also contemplating
leaving the village for good and shifting to a new location.
The National Human Rights Commission documents the state specific
situation in very many ways. According to it evey year six dalits are
killed, twenty four dalit women are raped and 51 houses of the dalits
are set on fire in Haryana. ( Year 2002) Looking at the travails and
tribulations faced by the dalits at various levels most of which go
unreported it can be construed that the figures presented by NHRC are
just the tip of the iceberg. This is also evident from the no of cases
registered under SC and ST ( Prevention of Atocities) Act 1989. While
the no of cases registered were mere 32 in 1998, the figures shot up
to 43 by the year 2003.
Apart from growing landlessness and continued denial of basic human
rights the most disturbing thing is that social and political
visibility of dalits is minimal. It hardly makes any difference that
they are around one fifth of the total population of the state (19.8%)
Contrast looks much sharper if one looks at neighbouring UP where
Dalits are today the main fulcrum of the state politics.
Gohana, a town around 75 kms away from Delhi, had witnessed an
organised attack on the dalit (Valmiki) basti led by the son of the
local BJP MP ( 31 August 2005) had culminated in the burning down of
around 50—60 houses of the dalits. The attack was a fallout of the
death of a Jat youth in a scuffle with the dalit boys. The caste
council ( Khap Panchayat) of the Jats had played a very dubious role
in the whole affair. Here also the police which was in good strength
did not act to stop the arsonists. Later it patted itself on the back
as 'no lives were lost'.
We had rushed to Gohana (4 th September 2005) as part of a fact
finding team - comprising of writers, journalists, social activists -
to get first hand details...Haunted houses, barren faces, fear still
lurking in their eyes...only some old people or relatives of the
inhabitants were visible there who were roaming there. None of those
photographs which we had taken convey that people residing in those
houses themselves undertook all that exercise supposedly to get
compensation (as the experienced officers of the CBI 'discovered' in
their enquiry later).
Making an editorial comment about the growing dalit atrocities in the
state some time back, 'The Tribune' ( 30 th August 2007) had
underlined how the state seems to be least bothered about the security
and safety of the lives and properties of the dalits. According to it,
most of the times their houses come under attack, they are looted and
burnt and the administration becomes active only when the damage is
done. It also emphasised the fact that the dalits are neither properly
represented in the police and administration nor is any special drive
conducted to cover the backlog.
The developments in Mirchpur bear witness to the fact that despite the
prodding by the media there is no difference on the ground level
situation. And denial of human rights to the dalits (and the tribals)
is a 'national phenomenon'.
Recently the Supreme Court also expressed concern over the fact that
in most of the cases of violence against dalits, even the necessary
investigations are not completed in stipulated time. It also asked the
Solicitor General Mr Gopal Subramaniam to give concrete suggestions to
the courts so that necessary orders are passed for effective
implementation of law. ( Hindustan, 5 May 2010, SC-ST mamlon kee
jaanch mein deri par chinta)
According to the courts, it is mandatory that such investigations are
completed within three month period when cases are lodged against
SC-ST act, 1989, by an officer not below the rank of DySP. The courts
observed that in many cases the investigations linger on for more than
three years which results in cases further getting delayed for years
together. In a strong indictment of the functioning of the state
machinery, when it comes to providing justice to the dalits, it said
that in many of the states have not even bothered to establish special
courts for speedy trials of these cases. The delay in completing
necessary investigations, the absence of proper witnesses apart from
many contingent factors results in acquittals of the accused in 75
percent of the cases.The Supreme Court bench concluded that delay in
investigations results in denial of justice to the dalits which in
fact defeats the whole purpose of the law itself.
A much quoted detailed and systematic study of 400 judgements about
cases filed under PoA act in different courts of Gujarat corroborates
the observations of the Supreme Courts. The painstaking study done by
Mr. Vajibhai Patel, Secretary of Council for Social Justice, who was
once a pillar of the Dalit Panther movement in the state, tells us
that utterly negligent police investigation at both the higher and
lower levels coupled with a distinctly hostile role played by the
public prosecutors is the main reason for the collapse of cases filed
under the atrocities act. It is worth noting that he has meticulously
documented these judgements delivered under this act since April 1,
1995 in the Special Atrocity Courts set up in 16 districts of the
state. The study also blasts the common perception is that the
inefficacy of this law is due to false complaints being lodged or
compromises between the parties, in actuality it is a complicit State
that has rendered the Act toothless.
A writeup in the 'Communalism Combat' ( March 2005) by Teesta Setalvad
had presented in a nutshell the main findings of the study :
# In over 95 per cent of the cases, acquittals have resulted due to
technical lapses by the investigation and prosecution, and in the
remaining five per cent, court directives are being flouted by the
government. Often while crimes under the IPC against the accused have
been proved, offences under the Atrocities Act have not, suggesting a
systemic bias against recording and establishing crimes under this
law.
# As a result of the attitude of the state police and the state public
prosecutors, those accused under the Act for criminal acts like murder
(for which life imprisonment is the sentence) and rape are being
allowed to go scot-free.
# Numerous judgements of the special courts set up under the
Atrocities Act in Gujarat — which due to lapses in investigation and
prosecution, have led to the acquittals of the accused —have passed
strictures against the negligence demonstrated by both the police and
the public prosecutors and even summoned time-bound 'action taken'
reports. Often policemen have even resorted to giving false evidence
to protect the accused while prosecutors have attempted to mislead the
courts by arguing that the provisions of the Atrocities Act are not
mandatory.
# Under section 4 of the Atrocities Act, "Whoever, being a public
servant but not being a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled
Tribe wilfully neglects duties required to be performed by him under
this Act, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which shall
not be less than six months but which may extend to one year." In 95
per cent of the judgements studied by the CSJ, courts have passed
strictures against errant police officials invoking provisions of
section 4 under the Atrocities Act, but the government of Gujarat,
instead of taking action against the erring officers, has honoured
them with promotions.
The discussion around the alleged misuse of this act would remain
incomplete if one leaves out the recent conviction in the case of
Bathani Tola massacre. The Ara court in Bihar recently convicted 23
people for the massacre of 21 dalits at Bathani Tola in Bhojpur in
1996.
The carnage occured on July 11, 1996 when marauders of the Ranvir Sena
( a private militia of the upper caste landlords) stormed the hamlet
in Bhojpur's Sahar block and hacked to death 21 dalits. A majority of
the people killed were women, teenage girls and babies less than ten
months old. However much on the lines of the April 7 verdict in the
1997 Laxmanpur-Bathe massacre case, Ranvir Sena supremo Brahmeshwar
Singh "Mukhiya" the prime accused, has been pronounced an "absconder"
by the police. It is a different matter that this dangerous criminal
has been languishing in Ara jail since 2002.
Expressing his clear disapproval of the way in which the Mukhiya
continues to be a non-FIR accused the Special Public Prosecutor told
the reporter "This clearly shows that both the police and the
government are not interested in ensuring that justice is meted out."
(The Hindu, 7 th May 2010) The only explanation offered by the SP
about this strange situation was that Brahmeshwar Singh did not stand
trial as "certain court proceedings initiated against him were yet to
be completed."
Anyone familiar with the pace with which courts deal with cases before
them and the tremendous burden they already have would tell you that
it can take decades for the "certain court proceedings" to be
completed and a day can arrive when with all the witnesses to the case
dead Brahmeshwar Singh 'The Great' may emerge from the jail unscathed
and would be happy to 'express full faith in the wisdom of the
judiciary'.
Contact : subhash.gatade@gmail.com
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