Latest News Update: Jul 17, 2010

Saturday, July 17, 2010

[ZESTCaste] Re: [The Buddhist Circle] Crisis in Dalit movement [2 Attachments]

[Attachment(s) from Satinath Choudhary included below]

Dear Gail,

You have said all that I would have liked to say, but in a much better way. In particular, Martin Nicolaus's thinking: "we need to study the ruling classes for the sake of the working class!" is very enlightening. The truth behind their supposed effort to achieve a casteless society by "being blind to caste" is that the ruling class wants to hide how much of power is concentrated in the hands of 3% Brahmins and 10-15% upper caste.

In the deceit of the conservative upper caste individuals the supposed liberals are no less complicit in the name of their longing for a casteless society. In response to "race problem" in the US and elsewhere no one sought for a "race-less" society. It is neither necessary nor possible – we can't make the Africans or African Americans white, nor can we make the Europeans or European-Americans black. Yet in response to the "caste-problem" in India most liberals seem to long for a "casteless" society.

The truth is that among the upper caste individuals the conservative ones are always going to feel proud of their caste lineage and proudly pronounce the same at the earliest occasion. For the lower castes, hiding their castes would be psychologically damaging for them, hence they should pronounce their caste whenever occasion arises for the same. The liberal minded upper caste to should also declare their caste, lest others may feel that s/he is hiding his or her caste to ingratiate himself or herself among the lower caste groups. In other words, hiding caste is not good for anyone, even for those who do not believe in it and wish caste system were never invented. In view of the above and other facts of life it is not only pointless and futile but detrimental to strive for a casteless society. What we need to strive for is when caste labels and caste-indicative last names mean no more than what Smith, Blacksmith, Goldsmith, Fisher, Shhoemacher, etc. mean for the Western society – hardly any significance is attached to these last names.

However, to reach that stage wherein caste or caste-indicative last names do not have any significance, these castes will have to be statistically equalized in the socio-political-economic power structure, just the way German, French and Italian speaking Swiss are equalized in their social, bureaucratic, military, judicial structures in Switzerland.

Take a look at what a couple of Swiss authors say in the attached paper called "Power Sharing in Switzerland."

At this point allow me to mention here that Switzerland appears to be the best example of multi-cultural society living in peace and amity, rather than the USA, which only grudgingly accepted affirmative action (which is nothing but a loose form of quota or reservation system) during the Civil Rights movement, which was eventually rejected by its conservative Supreme Court but then brought back for practical reasons in a further weakened form of reservation, rechristened as Diversity! Of course the Swiss did not have to face the difficulties presented by racial prejudices in arriving at their equitable and fair power sharing institutions and culture – they only had to overcome linguistic prejudices.

I am also attaching a longer article on "Women's Reservation" for your perusal and critical analysis.

Best regards,

Satinath

=====================

--- On Fri, 16/7/10, Gail Omvedt <gailomvedt@gmail.com> wrote:

From: Gail Omvedt <gailomvedt@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [The Buddhist Circle] Crisis in Dalit movement [1 Attachment]
To: BuddhistCircle@yahoogroups.com
Date: Friday, 16 July, 2010, 3:38 AM

The Khairlanji decision has been a real blow. It shows the backwardness and casteism in the judiciary. I would join in the protest!

I am attaching a copy of my recent "Durgabai Deshmukh Memorial Lecture" on "Caste in the Census" given on July 15 at India International Centre in Delhi. Mostly an elite crowd, but the hall was overflowing.

On Thu, Jul 15, 2010 at 5:09 PM, Mangesh Dahiwale <mangesh.dahiwale@ gmail.com> wrote:

Crisis in Dalit movement

In Khairlanji, on 26^th September 2006, Surekha Bhotmange, her daughter, Priyanka and her two sons, were killed by a frenzied mob. In total four people were killed. They would have been just killed like any other killing. But before they were killed, the women were stripped naked, and humiliated and maybe raped (the evidence of which is very difficult to establish due to lapses in the postmortem procedure and reporting, but circumstantial evidences prove beyond doubt that their modesty was outraged as the bodies were found naked). One of the men (one among the two brothers) was blind. The mob didn't spare even a blind and helpless person. The whole incidence did not get much press, and whatever it space it got in the newspapers whose front pages are adorned with scandals and gossips, painted this heinous incidence as just another scandalous murder by the mob.

Due to alertness of a few local activists, the case came into public after one month. And the demonstrations were held everywhere, not only in the state of Maharashtra, but also all over India, and world. Hundreds of peaceful demonstrations took place, which were suppressed by the violent and brutal police action. Thousands of people were baton by the Police and in some cases the peaceful demonstrators were branded as seditious and anti-national. Still hundreds of cases are pending in the court of law. For the first time in Indian history any case raised such a fury for justice, and this fire for justice was finally extinguished by the infamous judiciary in India, which instead of acting as the custodian and guardian of Justice favored the perpetrators by invoking the decision of the lower court.

The Dalits in India, who constitute almost a quarter of India's population and five percent of the world's population, are wondering about their fate after this infamous reversal of justice. What is their fault? Why is justice denied to them? Why they have to eat rats? Why do they have to clean human excreta? Why they are forced to the life of subordination? Why their humanity and dignity is snatched? How long will it take to end their plight? How long it will take to send their children to good schools?

There is a crisis in the Dalit movement. The movement that Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar started facing infinite series of hurdles is in crisis. The Dalits as it were are treated with tokenism, tokenism as a technique to blunt the movement of Dalits includes offering one post here and another post there, and in reality not doing anything to solve to solve the problem of caste discrimination and the practice of untouchability. The tokenism as a technique is not only used by the governments, but also by the established national and regional parties to just show that they care for Dalits, but in reality they do not do anything to end it.

The laws that are made in this country are also against the Dalits, even if they look effective on paper, they don't do anything in reality to stop their plights. The example of this is infamous Prevention of Atrocities Act of 1989, which looks such a great social legislation on papers, but the conviction rate is less than half a percent. If this is not the mockery of the law, what else can it be!!

The Dalits in India are the poorest of the poor, and in some situations their condition is so pitiable that they have to eat rats to survive (The Mushahars). In several cases their condition is so pitiable that even the rats may be eating them.

The techniques that Babasaheb Ambedkar used need to be revisited. In Dalit community, there are people with varying mentalities, and some of the politicians act as the brokers, some people willingly sale the community interests for their private gains. This doesn't mean that the majority of the Dalits do not want change or bring in revolution. This is very much evident in case of Khairlanji agitation during which thousands of people came on the streets to express their feelings and their willingness to work and sacrifice for the society.

As a technique to take the fight further, we have to try to reach to individuals of the community. We have to find means to reach the people through various media like pamphlets, emails, cell phones and new papers both our newspapers and mainstream newspapers.

The message can be simple.
We condemn the decision of the High Court to reduce punishment of the casteist perpetrators who massacred and raped mother and her daughter and her two sons.
We demand reopening of Khairlanji case.
We demand application of Atrocity act on the killers.
On the internet forums:
We can express our feelings through writing on our blogs, writing emails to as many people as possible.

--
The five unsatiated Senses will remain, the sixth insatiable Sense (of Vanity); the whole daemonic nature of man will remain,-hurled forth to rage blindly without rule or rein; savage itself, yet with all the tools and weapons of civilization: a spectacle new in History.
-Thomas Carlyle in The French Revolution

__._,_.___

Attachment(s) from Satinath Choudhary

2 of 2 File(s)

Power Sharing in Switzerland.doc

Women's Reservation.doc

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[ZESTCaste] Increasing attacks on Dalits worrisome, says sene

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/article516521.ece

Increasing attacks on Dalits worrisome, says sene
Special Correspondent

Gulbarga police accused of failing to curb attacks

Against violence: Dalit Sene members picketing the office of the
Deputy Commissioner in Gulbarga on Wednesday.
The district unit of the Dalit Sene has accused the police in Gulbarga
district of failing to control the attacks on Dalits and said that the
low conviction rate was due to lack of commitment by the State
Government to pursue the cases.

The sene members, led by president Dattatreya R. Kudaki and general
secretary Vijaykumar Kamble, came in a procession from Sardar
Vallabhbhai Patel Chowk to the Deputy Commissioner's office and staged
a rasta roko for about 30 minutes before picketing the office of the
Deputy Commissioner for about an hour.

In a memorandum addressed to Governor H.R. Bhardwaj and submitted to
the district authorities, the sene pointed out that attacks on Dalits
had increased after the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power. Of the
4,299 cases filed, only 40 had ended in conviction, they said.

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[ZESTCaste] SP says Maya forcing its leaders to join BSP

http://expressbuzz.com/nation/sp-says-maya-forcing-its-leaders-to-join-bsp/190128.html

SP says Maya forcing its leaders to join BSP

Anand Raj Singh

First Published : 16 Jul 2010 03:11:44 AM ISTLast Updated : 16 Jul
2010 09:03:54 AM IST

LUCKNOW: In the wake of the murderous attack on the Uttar Pradesh
Minister for Institutional Finance, Stamp and Judicial Tax, Nand Gopal
Gupta 'Nandi', in Allahabad on July 3, many musclemen political
leaders belonging to the Samajwadi Party have disclosed that there is
tremendous pressure on them to join the ruling party, or face
unpredictable consequences in the coming days.

The SP leadership has also alleged that BSP supremo and Chief Minister
Mayawati was abusing her powers to arm-twist MLAs with criminal record
to bring them to the BSP fold.

Senior SP leadership claims that over 10,000 party members have been
forced to join the BSP.

The police implicate SP leaders in false cases and then force them to
join the BSP, the leadership claims.

"Mayawati believes that she can win 2012 Assembly elections by taming
the SP leaders. But that is not going to happen," Mulayam's brother
and SP legislature party leader Shivpal Singh Yadav told Express.

SP spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said, "We have met Governor B L
Joshi twice in the last two months and apprised him how the state
government is trying to blackmail our leaders."

SP leaders claim Mayawati has employed a carrot-and-stick policy to
tame her political rivals across the state and get them to dump her
bête noire, Mulayam Singh Yadav, to gain political mileage.

And, not very surprisingly, quite a few are very much inclined to
curry favour with the ruling party regime, to ensure security of
freedom from the law at least till the dispensation changes. The
Special Task Force (STF) in January registered a case against Sultan
Beg, the SP MLA from Kawar in Bareilly district, for allegedly running
a gang of vehicle thieves.

He was later arrested under the Gangster Act. With the police
vigorously pursuing the case against him, Beg is now set to join the
BSP in the hope of getting the investigating officers off his back.
Beg's wife Dilshad Jahan Begum, sister-in-law Shahanaz Begum and
brother Suleman Beg have already joined the BSP. Some say that Beg
will work for the party without joining it, at least until the ticket
distribution for the elections are over, so as not to take any
chances.

------------------------------------

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[ZESTCaste] Mulayam’s stunt ridiculous: Mayawati

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Mulayam-s-stunt-ridiculous-Mayawati/H1-Article1-572826.aspx

Mulayam's stunt ridiculous: Mayawati
HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times
Lucknow, July 15, 2010First Published: 18:46 IST(15/7/2010)
Last Updated: 18:52 IST(15/7/2010)

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Thursday ridiculed the
apology of Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav to Muslim
community for tying up with former BJP leader Kalyan Singh. Sharply
reacting to Yadav's statement, Mayawati said in Lucknow on Thursday
that it was a political gimmick and quite ridiculous. She related
stories
Mulayam offers apology to Muslims for shaking hands with Kalyan
said people should not trust such a leader with double character. The
Chief Minister said Yadav sheltered one of those leaders who were
responsible for the demolition of Babri Masjid.

Mayawati said Yadav had long track record of hobnobbing with communal
forces. She recalled that Yadav had become minister for first time in
1977 in Janata Party supported by communal forces. Then Kalyan Singh
and Yadav were together in the Cabinet. In 1989 Yadav became Chief
Minister with the help of communal forces and it was repeated in
August 2003 when Kalyan Singh's four-MLA party joined the coalition.
His son Rajbir and protégée Kusum Rai became Cabinet Ministers.

She said political compulsions had now forced Yadav to call Kalyan
Singh "wrong elements".

"Such tactic would not erase communal blot on Yadav's shoulders",
Mayawati said and added Yadav should know that "apology and crocodile
tears" had been badly exposed in the eyes of Muslims..

Mayawati said Yadav believed that people's memory was weak and this
was his fallacy, she said UP witnessed large numbers of communal
flare-ups during Yadav regime. She said in order to strengthen BJP,
Yadav played dangerous game of "Hindu-Muslim" divide and finally the
BJP came to power at the centre because of his activities.

Dubbing Yadav's statement as sheer opportunism, Mayawati said he
repeatedly shook hands with communal forces to serve his vested
interest. His new political stunt would not thus benefit the SP, she
quipped.

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[ZESTCaste] Doco highlights hidden caste discrimination

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=10659444

Doco highlights hidden caste discrimination
By Bernadette Rae 1:39 PM Saturday Jul 17, 2010

Mandrika Rupa. Photo / Martin Sykes.The world has long turned a blind
eye to the planet's most monumental abuse of individual human rights
perpetrated in India by its caste system. Murders, rapes and arson are
frequently committed there with no fear of punishment because the
crimes are only against Dalits, or "Untouchables".

The world also rarely stops to question the fact that in the largest
of all "democracies", 75 per cent of top government positions are
filled by Brahmins, the caste at the apex of India's strictly
hierarchical social order.

Casteism was made illegal in India's constitution, in 1949. But in
practice it remains firmly and often violently entrenched. Now it is
being exported to the West.

Even in egalitarian New Zealand, the discriminatory practices of
ancient India are flourishing and there are people here whose lives
are blighted daily by the Dalit/Untouchable label.

"The Indian community is my community, I am part of it, I live in it -
and I see it," says Mandrika Rupa, film-maker turned political and
social commentator.

Her latest work, Hidden Apartheid: A Report on Caste Discrimination,
is a 70-minute documentary, five years in the making and featuring
research done in the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand
as well as her native India.

It will have its first showing tomorrow at the Institute of
Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London, before an audience of interviewees
in the film, groups such as Castewatch UK and other anti-caste
advocates, human rights organisations and politicians who have been
working on England's Single Equality Bill.

Those fighting casteism in Britain hope that the bill will eventually
include caste as a category alongside gender, race, sex and
disability.

Rupa, a former social worker both in New Zealand and Britain, has seen
casteism at work in shops, places of worship, institutions of all
kinds and in politics, eating places and universities in the west.

"Arranged marriages which are epitomised by caste identity are still
the norm," she says. "Just look at the advertisements for marriage
partners."

She recently observed two women in an Indian emporium in Auckland
being asked their caste and then being treated off-handedly and
offered only inferior goods by the shop assistant. Rupa intervened.

"Or an Indian woman working in a bank might be promoted to supervisor,
on merit, only to find other workers who consider themselves of
superior cast refusing to operate under her," she says.

Recently on a film set in New Zealand, an Indian actress brought her
own "girl servant" and was physically abusing her. The New Zealand
crew witnessing this were traumatised and did not know how to
intervene.

The film documents ongoing caste conflicts throughout the West and
highlights the struggle of those fighting it. Although caste-based
discrimination is being challenged in Britain through legislation,
there are no such moves in New Zealand, Australia or the United
States.

The documentary also examines in lucid detail how caste originated in
Indian society, how it became entrenched in social practices and how
its practice has spread to all large Indian communities in the West,
while remaining invisible to those outside those communities.

It highlights how the Manu Smriti, the legal text of ancient India
written by Brahmin scholars thousands of years ago, is still viewed as
God's own word, and quoted to justify Brahmin superiority and
ownership. It discusses the impact of karma, a concept used to explain
a poor situation in life as the result of misdeeds in a previous
existence.

"According to Manu all women are 'Untouchables'," says Rupa. "So the
traditional laws of India control women as well as poor people and
these vicious social codes are having a resurgence today, under the
name of culture, even though they are often illegal."

After its London debut, Hidden Apartheid, directed and produced by
Rupa with New Zealand company Attar Films, will be shown on the
international film festival circuit and at a private showing in New
York, before being released for commercial distribution.

There are no immediate plans for its screening in New Zealand but more
information and a trailer can be found at
www.hiddenapartheid-themovie.com.

By Bernadette Rae

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[ZESTCaste] National SC/ST commission serves notice on CSMMU

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/In-brief/647790

Press Trust of India

National SC/ST commission serves notice on CSMMU

LUCKNOW: The National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled
Tribes has served a notice on Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical
University following a complaint by a teacher that he was denied
promotion. Santosh Kumar, who is attached with pulmonary medicine at
the university, had stated in his complaint that he was denied his due
promotion by the authorities. Kumar's complaint was forwarded to the
Commission by the SC/ST medical teachers association at the
university. "The university received the notice yesterday," an
official said.

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[ZESTCaste] 'SC/ST teachers can't be forced on schools'

http://www.financialexpress.com/news/sc-st-teachers-cant-be-forced-on-schools/647361/

'SC/ST teachers can't be forced on schools'

Agencies
Posted: Friday, Jul 16, 2010 at 0926 hrs IST
Updated: Friday, Jul 16, 2010 at 0926 hrs IST

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has held that minority educational
institutions cannot be compelled to appoint SC, ST teachers even if
they are drawing grant-in-aid from the government A Bench of Justices
B S Chauhan and Swatanter Kumar said minorities enjoy special status
under Article 30(2) of the Constitution to set up and operate their
schools with their own set of rules and the government can step in
only if there is maladministration or illegalities.

"The right to establish and administer includes a right to appoint
teachers. Thus, except providing grant-in-aid as per the Delhi State
Education Rules and having no power to discriminate in terms of
Article 30(2) of the Constitution, the government has a very limited
regulatory control over the minority institutions and no control
whatsoever on the managing committee, internal management of the
school and, of course, has no power to take over such an institution,"
the apex court said.

The apex court passed the judgement while upholding an appeal filed by
the Sindhi Education Society challenging a Delhi government circular
issued in September, 1989, addressed to all the schools that
appointment of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes candidates is a
precondition for receiving receiving grant-in-aid in terms of Rule 64
of the DSE rules.

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[ZESTCaste] Mid-day meal: `Don't discriminate against SC/ST cooks'

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/City/Mysore/Mid-day-meal-Dont-discriminate-against-SC/ST-cooks/articleshow/6177740.cms

Mid-day meal: `Don't discriminate against SC/ST cooks'
TNN, Jul 16, 2010, 09.06pm IST

MYSORE: The zilla panchayat has warned stern action against officials
and teachers practising untouchability in schools.

At the quarter-yearly district-level meeting of SC/ST awareness on
Thursday, the committee members claimed that some teachers and
officials were not eating the food as it was prepared by cooks,
belonging to SC/ST community, under the mid-day meal scheme. They
demanded authorities to pass an order to contain such practices at
least in government schools.

In response to their complaint, a ZP official said the ZP CEO had
passed an order in this regard in May. According to the order, every
student and school staffer is bound to take the food prepared by the
cook and if anyone prevents them from preparing food under the scheme,
they will face stern action.

Meanwhile, the members also urged deputy commissioner Harsh Gupta, who
chaired meeting at the government guesthouse, to ensure culprits are
punished. They also petitioned to speed up works pertaining to handing
over government lands to dalits.

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[ZESTCaste] National SC/ST commission serves notice on medical university

http://in.news.yahoo.com/20/20100716/1416/tnl-national-sc-st-commission-serves-not_1.html

PTI
National SC/ST commission serves notice on medical university
Fri, Jul 16 04:13 PM
Lucknow, July 16 (PTI) The National Commission for Scheduled Castes
and Scheduled Tribes has served a notice on the medical university
here following a complaint by a teacher that he was denied promotion.
Santosh Kumar, who is attached with the Pulmonary medicine at the
Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University, stated in his
complaint that he was denied his due promotion by the authorities.

Kumar''s complaint was forwarded to the Commission by the SC/ST
medical teachers association at the university. "The notice was
received by the Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University
yesterday," a university official said.

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[ZESTCaste] Dalit cooks divide UP schoolkids

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/105732/India/dalit-cooks-divide-up-schoolkids.html

Dalit cooks divide UP schoolkids

Piyush Srivastava
Lucknow, July 17, 2010

Maya's statues fail to raise her stature among Dalit voters 'Maya
spends Rs 4,436 cr on statues' Maya recruits force to guard parks Maya
govt completes 3 years

Over 1,000 students have left primary schools over Dalit cooksAt least
1,000 students belonging to upper castes and the other backward
classes (OBCs) in Uttar Pradesh have shifted from government to
private schools to avoid mid-day meals prepared by Dalit cooks.

The primary school students in Kannauj and Kanpur ( rural) districts
decided to give the meals a skip despite the fact that the state is
governed by the Bahujan Samaj Party ( BSP), whose leader and chief
minister Mayawati is a Dalit icon.

In the 2007 UP assembly elections, the BSP had piggybacked on the
support from the Dalit- Brahmin combine to come to power.

But once there, Mayawati and her party failed to bridge the gap
between the upper castes and the Dalits. Rather than achieving social
harmony, it has led to increased casteism as is evident from the fact
that the students have been boycotting schools over Dalit cooks.

In the last three days, at least 500 students in Kannauj have stopped
attending school for this reason.

"We cannot allow our children to take meal cooked by an untouchable,"
said Ram Vilas Yadav, a villager from Madarpur in Kanpur ( rural).

For a nation which is fast emerging as a global player, it is
unfortunate that casteism and untouchability are still prevalent.

What is worrying is that Mahatma Gandhi's ideals about a classless
society seem to have been forgotten.

And this is no isolated incident.

In July 2009, upper caste students in at least 15 villages of Kannauj
had stopped going to government schools. This year, the OBC students,
too, joined them when schools reopened after the summer vacation.

The crisis intensified on Saturday when parents ransacked the
Majhigawan Primary School in Kannauj over a Dalit cook and pelted
stones at the police.

Similar scenes were also witnessed at Mairakhpur village in Kanpur (
rural) where over 200 villagers attacked a primary school, ransacked
property and sealed the kitchen.

This has mounted pressure on the BSP which had passed a diktat making
it compulsory for every government school to appoint a Dalit cook
where there are two vacancies.

Trouble started when the village chiefs and village secretaries, who
are authorised to appoint the cooks, went a step further and employed
a Dalit in the job even when there was a single vacancy.

In a bid to salvage the situation, the government has now asked
district level officers to replace Dalit cooks in case there is a
problem.

"There are reports that more than 1,000 students in Kannauj and Kanpur
( rural) have left school in protest against Dalit cooks. Although
there was no written communication, the officers in districts have
been asked to appoint upper caste cooks," said a senior officer of the
education department.

Talking about the state government's previous stance, the officer
said, " Earlier, it was under pressure from the ruling BSP leaders
that the village representatives used to appoint a Dalit cook against
a single vacancy. The chief minister knew about it and used to
appreciate these local representatives." The officer said that
Mayawati must have realised the mistake following reactions from
parents.

"Now we have been told that there must be an upper caste cook against
a single vacancy and in any case, the head cook has to be from the
upper caste.

The Dalit cook will be involved in cleaning work only.

"The government is in no mood to drag this issue because it might
damage the political prospects of the BSP, which is trying to keep the
upper castes and the OBCs in good humour," the officer added.

Even as damage control measures are undertaken, Saroj Kumar Tiwari,
district magistrate of Kanpur ( rural), blamed some political parties
for creating a hue and cry.

"Some mischievous elements active in the district are vitiating the
atmosphere and dividing people before the panchayat elections ( in
September)," Tiwari said.

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