Latest News Update: Aug 2, 2010

Monday, August 2, 2010

[ZESTCaste] untouchability in hospiata

Untouchability is observed in the govt hospital in Satana- a town in Madhya pradesh. There if a dalit comes with bleeding injury the satff in the hospital throws an ointment & cotton at his person and asks him to do the rest himself/herself. If it is requiered to give injection the staff- doctor, nurse say they do not have injection. so the problem of toucing the dalit is solved. I read this in a daily news paper Rahtra Prakash, Nagpur on 2nd aug. 10.

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[ZESTCaste] Fwd: Ambedkar on conversion

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Shiva Shankar <sshankar@cmi.ac.in>
Date: Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 6:41 PM
Subject: Ambedkar on conversion
To:

Bodhisattva Ambedkar said to his people:

"I should like to impress this thing on your minds very clearly that
religion is for man and not man for religion. If you want to gain self
respect, change your religion. If you want to organize yourself,
change your religion. If you want to create a society which ensures
co-operation and brotherhood, change your religion. If you want to
achieve power, change your religion. If you want equality, change your
religion. If you want independence, change your religion. If you want
to make the world in which you live happy, change your religion.

I would like to ask you all what is the sense in living in a society
which is devoid of humanity, which does not respect you, protect you,
humiliates you, and never misses and opportunity to hurt you. Any
person with an iota of self respect and decency will not like to
remain in this satanic religion. Only those who live to be slaves can
remain in this religion.

In view of the facts that the Hindu religion which forced your
forefathers to lead a life of degradation and heaped all sorts of
indignities on them, kept them poor and ignorant, why should you
remain within the fold of such a diabolical creed? If, like your
forefathers, you too, continue to accept a degraded and lowly
position, and humiliation, you will continue to be hated. Nobody will
respect you and nobody will help you. It is for these reasons that the
question of conversion has become important for us. To change this
degraded and disgraceful existence into golden life, conversion is
absolutely necessary".

-Dr.Ambedkar

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[ZESTCaste] In Search of the Sacred

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/30/AR2010073002544.html

By Marie Arana
Sunday, August 1, 2010

NINE LIVES

In Search of the Sacred

In Modern India

By William Dalrymple

Knopf. 276 pp. $26.95

Three years ago, Goldman Sachs predicted that India's gross national
output would quadruple in 10 years and, by 2050, overtake that of the
United States. Today, India is on the verge of besting Japan to become
the world's third-largest economic power. According to the CIA,
whether you count people or workers or billable cellphones, India is
second only to China. Which is why, despite staggering poverty -- the
average annual income is $1,040 -- its consumption of cars and crude
oil promises to soar to unimaginable magnitudes.

So much for the arithmetic.

But what is India, exactly? Who are its people? It is certainly not
the monolithic nation the British once wanted us to believe it was.
Nor is it the sea of mutually hostile Hindus and Muslims that
contemporary historians so often describe. As William Dalrymple shows
in his strikingly colorful new book, to be Indian is to inhabit a
carnival of strangely colliding worlds, a profusion of identities with
sharply defined regional variants. Nowhere is this more evident than
in the country's spiritual life.

"While the West often likes to imagine the religions of the East as
deep wells of ancient, unchanging wisdom," Dalrymple writes, "much of
India's religious identity is closely tied to specific social groups,
caste practices and father-to-son lineages, all of which are changing
very rapidly." Bollywood may try to persuade us that the Hindu epics
are neatly homogenous -- that there is one " 'national' Ramayana myth"
-- but in reality, Indian legends are interpreted in radically
different ways depending on where you look in the country. Indeed, the
historian Romila Thapar has argued that it is precisely Bollywood's
(or colonialism's) model of "syndicated Hinduism" that threatens to
drive India's self-contained cults to extinction. As the country races
toward progress and redefinition, its small gods and goddesses stand
to be crushed by the "hyper-masculine hero deities" of the big screen.

That clash between tradition and momentum is what Dalrymple seeks to
capture on these pages. "Nine Lives" is a collection of portraits
depicting nine worshipers who practice wildly different forms of
devotion in a vortex of dizzying change. Part travelogue, part
reportage, part anthropology, the book hews to a theme that has long
fascinated Dalrymple: how cultures in peril survive. It's a subject he
knows well. A resident of India and England, he is the author of a
number of notable books on history and travel, among them: "City of
Djinns," a delightfully entertaining narrative of New Delhi; "The Last
Mughal," about the British in 19th-century South Asia; and "From the
Holy Mountain," which recounts a 6th-century trip through Byzantium.

In this book, however, Dalrymple looks at India's religions through
starkly dissimilar lives. In Hari Das, a dancer who is venerated for
his skill in impersonating Lord Vishnu, Dalrymple gives us a vivid
cameo of the caste system. For nine months of every year, this Dalit
-- or Untouchable -- is a manual laborer who digs wells and works as a
prison guard. But for three months starting in December, the man is a
living god. "We bring blessings to the village and villagers, and
exorcise evil spirits," the performer explains. "Though we are all
Dalits even the most bigoted and casteist Namboodiri Brahmins worship
us, and queue up to touch our feet." The spiritual dances he performs
are meant to impart Vishnu's wisdom and inspire the Brahmins to
discard their arrogant prejudices, but every March, when the season
draws to a close, Hari Das puts away his costume, heads back to the
jail and re-enters the rigid, oppressive hierarchy that keeps him in
biting poverty. There is little chance that his children will want to
do the same.

Often, as Dalrymple tells tales of religion, it is India's social
structure that emerges in high relief. There is Mohan Bhopa, for
instance, a bard and village shaman who, though completely illiterate,
is one of the last hereditary singers of the great ancient poem "The
Epic of Pabuji." It takes him five full dawn-to-dusk performances to
recite the entire work, and there are precious few artists in India
who can do it. As Dalrymple makes clear, it is in the hands of these
unlettered men that the future of an art form hangs: "The illiterate
have a capacity to remember in a way that the literate simply do not,"
he writes, and so, with state-mandated education and progress, the
number of singers able to master the 600-year-old work has only
diminished. Literacy, in other words, is killing India's oral
traditions.

Such paradoxes abound in this book of pilgrimages.

A woman with a tendency to go into frightening trances is beaten by
her bewildered husband. She runs away to dedicate herself to the dark,
tantric goddess Tara, who drinks blood, hoards human skulls and squats
on the cremation grounds of Tarapith, one of the most sacred -- and
terrifying -- places in India.

A young Jain nun, the daughter of a wealthy merchant, sweeps the
ground before her with a peacock fan to make sure she doesn't step on
a living creature. Jainism is, we are told, more about a profound
divine absence than a presence, and so what must logically follow a
life of devotion is a ritual fast to the death, a supreme sacrifice
that -- as convoluted as this sounds -- wrests hope from the face of
oblivion.

A devadasi (a prostitute and devotee of the goddess Yellamma) laments
her life as a sex worker but revels in the worship of a female deity
who has come to mean more to her than her own mother. When the time
comes for her teenage daughters to be pledged in service to the
goddess, she doesn't hesitate, although her faith appears to have
brought only suffering. Before long, it brings untimely death, as each
of her daughters succumbs to AIDS.

In the end, the array of beliefs in India is so vast that Dalrymple
cannot possibly cover it all. He doesn't address Christianity, for
instance, which has 27 million adherents in India; or Sikhs, who
number 22 million. But, to his credit, he never claims that his
purpose is to be exhaustive, or even representative. His point --
which he makes elegantly by quoting many voices -- is that, as India
hurtles toward modernity, it may be losing some of its soul.

Marie Arana is a writer at large for

The Washington Post and a Kluge Distinguished Scholar at the

Library of Congress.

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[ZESTCaste] Gram Pradhan charged with harassing Dalit for bonded labour

http://ibnlive.in.com/generalnewsfeed/news/gram-pradhan-charged-with-harassing-dalit-for-bonded-labour/192129.html

Gram Pradhan charged with harassing Dalit for bonded labour
PTI
Muazaffarnagar, Aug 1 (PTI) A Gram Pradhan and four of his family
members have been booked for allegedly harassing a Dalit to make him
work as a bonded labour at Nagwa village here, police said. Santu was
threatened and harassed by the Gram Pradhan Sudhir Kumar and four of
his family members -- Pitamber, Tej Singh, Kanwar Singh and Harbir
Singh, they said. The victim lodged a case under SC/ST Atrocities
(Prevention) Act yesterday.

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[ZESTCaste] 'Distribute land to landless Dalits'

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/85409/distribute-land-landless-dalits.html

Dalit leaders to participate in the protest meet to be held today

'Distribute land to landless Dalits'
N R Pura, August 1, DHNS:

The day and night protest, which was started by the Karnataka Dalit
Sangharsha Samiti in front of the Tahislidar's Office in N R Pura
continued on Sunday.

The Samiti members demand that all encroached land belonging to Dalits
should be reclaimed and land should be distributed to landless Dalits.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, DSS District Organising Convener Vasantha
Kumar said that 12 acres out of 49 acres of land bearing survey number
19 in Balekoppa village in the taluk was sanctioned for Pourakarmikas
in 1984. The Samiti has no intention of vacating those Pourakarmikas
from the land. Instead, let the authorities distribute the remaining
land to Dalits, he added.

The 'Akrama - Sakrama' scheme under Form 50-53 came into existence in
1991. Those Pourakarmikas were cultivating the land even before 1991.
However, the MLA is providing erroneous information regarding the
issue, he alleged. The day and night protest has no political backing.
The downtrodden section of the society have become scapegoats due to
the fight between political parties. Though Dalits are holding day and
night protest, none of the people's representatives or political
leaders visited the spot atleast for the sake of formality, he
lamented.

Protest meet today

Kumar said that a protest meet will be organised in front of the Taluk
Office on August 2.
A protest rally will commence from Bastimata. Dalit leaders from all
taluks in the district and from the State committee will participate
in the protest. The day and night protest will continue till Deputy
Commissioner visit the spot to listen their grievance, he added.

Alternative land

"Alternative land with all facilities will be provided to Dalits, if
the DSS come forward for a dialogue after stopping the protest," said
MLA D N Jeevaraj.

Addressing a press conference, Jeevaraj alleged that a JD(S) leader,
who was a Zilla Panchayat member from Janatha Party in 1984, was
responsible for the issue. "The land in Balekoppa village, where poor
families were residing even before 1984, was sanctioned for
Pourakarmikas without considering the facts. It is ironic that the
JD(S) leaders, who created the problem themselves are supporting the
protestors," he added.
Those 22 poor families, who were settled in Balekoppa village, will
not be vacated from their land at any cost. Those families have
already submitted Forms 50-53 under Akrama - Sakrama scheme, he added.

The Revenue Department as well as the Survey Department have submitted
reports to the government stating that Pourakarmikas are not residing
in the land. Moreover, there is no boundary marks with regard to land
sanctioned to Dalits, he said. "Though six Pourakarmika families had
agreed to accept alternative land, JD(S) is trying to misguide Dalits.
Alternative land and all basic facilities will be provided to Dalits,
if they put an end to their protest. Cases under Section 107 of IPC
were registered in view of law and order situation and there is no
other intention in it. JD(S) will be responsible if any untoward
incident takes place," Jeevaraj asserted.

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[ZESTCaste] Dalit man murdered in Haryana

http://sify.com/news/dalit-man-murdered-in-haryana-news-national-kibvObfeacf.html

Dalit man murdered in Haryana

2010-08-01 21:50:00

, Aug 1 (IANS) A 31-year-old Dalit man, a resident of a village in
this Haryana district, was found murdered under mysterious
circumstances in adjacent Sonepat district Sunday, police said.

Police identified the deceased as Vijender Singh. His body was
recovered from the fields in Sonepat.

He worked as a farm worker in the fields of a Jind resident belonging
the Jat community.

'Police have also found the slippers and mobile phone of Vijender near
his body. We are scrutinising his call details to get some clues about
the culprits,' Jind Superintendent of Police Ram Singh said here
Sunday evening.

'We have registered a case against Satyawan, the victim's friend and
main suspect, and some other unidentified miscreants,' he said.

'Some mischievous elements are trying to give a caste colour to this
incident. But this is a case of murder and no dispute of the Jat and
Dalit communities is involved in it,' he said.

Vijender's wife, the complainant in the case, said that her husband
had left home late Saturday after receiving a call but did not return
thereafter.

Police sources said that from the preliminary investigation, it seemed
that the accused were familiar with Vijender. Before committing the
murder, they had consumed liquor in the fields in Sonepat.

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[ZESTCaste] Voice for Dalits BSP doesn’t remember

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100801/jsp/frontpage/story_12756268.jsp

Voice for Dalits BSP doesn't remember
TAPAS CHAKRABORTY

Munshi Premchand
Lucknow, July 31: The ruling Bahujan Samaj Party's ambivalence towards
Munshi Premchand, who portrayed the suffering of Dalits and other
downtrodden in the heartland, was underlined today as the writer's
130-year celebrations came to a quiet end in the village of his birth.

The state's culture ministry funded the three-day Munshi Premchand
Lamahi Mahotsava at Lamahi village, 10km from Varanasi, but not a
single minister or even a district BSP leader turned up.

Nor did anyone from any other party — a fact the organisers put down
to present-day politicians' "ignorance" about the arts and culture —
but the BSP rebuff appeared to many to be more significant.

Santosh Prajapati, a Lucknow University researcher on Dalit politics,
said the BSP never included the writer in its pantheon.

"First, because he was not born a Dalit but an upper caste. Second,
Dalit leaders feel he merely showered pity on his Dalit characters and
never projected a Dalit as a rebel against the Brahmanical hierarchy,"
Prajapati said.

District BSP leaders confirmed they felt Premchand had "patronised"
Dalits, showing them as "passive" characters. "He portrayed Chamars as
kamchors (shirkers); he has depicted landlords as showing kindness to
Chamars," alleged Varanasi BSP leader Ram Jatan Lal, referring mainly
to one book by the writer.

"He repainted a black blanket in black," said Lal's party colleague
Lalit Maurya.

Similar sentiments have sometimes been heard in Bengal against Tagore
— a Left Front minister had in the early '80s raged against the poet's
"unrealistic" depiction of a kind zamindar — and many have questioned
Saratchandra Chattopadhyay's qualms about allowing widow remarriage in
his novels.

The BSP leaders said they did not want to show disrespect to Premchand
but would not adopt him as an icon.

Others have thought differently. Satyajit Ray adapted two Premchand
stories on celluloid: Sadgati — the tale of a Dalit's victimisation
and his wife's outburst against oppression — and Shatranj Ke Khiladi.

The Lamahi festival's coordinator, regional cultural officer L.K.
Dwivedi, said the event featured dance, poetry recitation and a
workshop. A few hundred turned up from neighbouring villages. "Yes,
there were no VIPs but that doesn't matter," he said.

Lamahi has a memorial and a statue. When Mulayam Singh Yadav was chief
minister in 2005, he had announced he would acquire 2.5 acres in the
village and set up a research centre. The land is yet to be acquired,
and Mulayam didn't turn up at the festival.

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[ZESTCaste] Khairlanji verdict blind to dalit cause

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-toi/all-that-matters/Khairlanji-verdict-blind-to-dalit-cause-/articleshow/6242212.cms

Khairlanji verdict blind to dalit cause
BRINDA KARAT, Aug 1, 2010, 12.33am IST

Four years ago, Surekha Bhotmange, a dalit woman farmer living in the
village of Khairlanji in Maharashtra was brutally killed along with
her two sons, Roshan, the visually handicapped Sudhir and her
18-year-old daughter Priyanka. Her husband Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange
escaped. The method of killing was brutal. Each was hunted down and
beaten to death by a mob of men belonging to the dominant caste in the
village.

Recently, the Nagpur bench of the Mumbai High Court gave its judgment
in the case. It held that caste had nothing to do with the killings.
It agreed with the judgment of the sessions court on the
non-applicability of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes
(Prevention of Atrocities Act) (POA). As a consequence, it reduced the
sentence from death to 25 years imprisonment. If there were ever a
case where the POA was applicable, it is Khairlanji. But the caste
hatred angle was played down from the initial, flawed investigations,
to the arguments of the prosecution, including those of state
prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam (now made famous by the Ajmal Kasab case) and
finally the interpretations in the present judgment.

The evidence, however, is unambiguous. The Bhotmange family, one of
only three dalit families in the village, was forcibly prevented from
building a pucca house. They were told that dalits could not do so.
Even though the family owned five acres of land, the village
authorities refused to levy tax as they wanted to take over the land
and deny proof of occupation. The family was constantly harassed but
refused to accept the supremacy of the dominant castes.

Surekha used to go for help to a fellow dalit, Siddharth Ghajbiye, a
police patil in a neighbouring village. On September 3, 2006, angered
by his help to Surekha, a group in Khairlanji beat up Ghajbiye. He was
rescued by Surekha and Priyanka, who were witnesses in the case
against the attackers. On September 29, 2006, the men involved were
arrested but immediately released on bail. Acting in concert, they
returned to the village and, in broad daylight, brutally killed
Surekha and her three children. Their mutilated bodies were found
later.

The judgment took a very narrow view of the motive of revenge, failing
to appreciate that the dimensions of revenge against dalits are quite
different from other cases, given the caste-ridden nature of our
society. The judgment states: "In the present case, the whole object
of the accused was to take revenge against Surekha and Priyanka
because the accused believed they were falsely implicated in the
assault of Siddharth Gajbhiye by them and, in the process, committed
not only the murders of Surekha and Priyanka but of Sudhir and Roshan.
Therefore, it is difficult to hold that the accused intended to insult
Surekha (on basis of caste) or the other deceased admittedly belonging
to the scheduled caste."

By separating the motive of revenge from the caste angle, the women by
their actions, so to say, become responsible for their own killing.
What prevented the judges from holding that the motive of revenge was
precisely because two dalit women refused to be bullied and gave
witness truthfully? The judges did not take into account that among
the convicted are those who had nothing to do with the case of assault
on Ghajbiye. What would their motive be, except that of caste?

Common sense tells us that it is most unlikely that murder can be
committed only because two women stood witness in a bailable offence
in a minor case of beating. But the judges found that myth easier to
believe than the caste motive. If the Bhotmanges had belonged to
another caste, it is probable that others of the same community would
have intervened and found a solution. It is precisely because the
Bhotmanges were dalits and in a minority in the village, refusing to
be subordinate to others, that such brutal reprisals were carried out.

The most unfortunate aspect is that on the basis of this erroneous
interpretation, the judgment absolves the accused of any crime of a
sexual nature against the dalit women. In dealing with a case of
police manhandling of women demonstrators, the Supreme Court issued
guidelines that only policewomen should be deployed. It was felt by
the apex court that if male police handle women demonstrators, there
is likely to be sexual misconduct. For similar reasons, in cases of
arrest, a male policeman is prohibited from touching a woman. If an
enraged mob of men is manhandling a woman, holding her, dragging her,
beating her, stripping off her sari, as was done with Surekha, can
there be any doubt that she would be sexually abused?

Priyanka's body was found stripped of all her clothes. The dreadful
photographs show that there was not an inch of this young woman's body
that was not marked by bruises. The judgment mentions that six of the
accused "removed clothes of Priyanka before disposing of her severely
injured dead body and thereby wanted to get satisfaction to their
sexual eyes at such extreme circumstances." Yet, the judgment in an
outrageous conclusion holds that since revenge is the motive, there
was no intention on the part of the accused to insult the deceased or
to "dishonour or outrage (their) modesty."

If the court was against capital punishment in principle, it could
have said so, in so many words. But to advance the kind of arguments
that it has is to obliterate the reality of caste violence and to
reduce the sentence is to insult the memory of the victims and set a
precedent which has grave implications for others seeking justice
under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of
Atrocities) Act.

If Khairlanji was a shame and disgrace to our nation and our
Constitution, the judgment adds another chapter to it.

The writer is a CPM leader

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[ZESTCaste] SC/ST Cong leaders seek KPCC chief post

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/83672/scst-cong-leaders-seek-kpcc.html

SC/ST Cong leaders seek KPCC chief post
Bangalore, July 24,dhns:

Congress leaders belogning to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled
Tribes have demanded the party high command offer KPCC presidentship
to one among them.

The leaders, who held a meeting in a hotel in Bangalore on Saturday,
have resolved to appeal AICC president Sonia Gandhi to appoint a dalit
leader for the post.

The meeting was held under the leadership of former minister G
Parameshwar, who is also a contender for the post. Others who attended
the meeting are V Srinivas Prasad, H C Mahadevappa, N Y Hanumanthappa,
H Hanumanthappa, Prakash Rathod, L Hanumanthaiah and others attended
the meeting.

A couple of days ago Lingayat leaders of the Congress had held a
similar meeting.

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[ZESTCaste] 'Invoke SC/ST Act for anti-dalit crimes'

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Invoke-SC/ST-Act-for-anti-dalit-crimes/articleshow/6241849.cms

'Invoke SC/ST Act for anti-dalit crimes'

Subodh Ghildiyal, TNN, Aug 1, 2010, 01.03am IST

NEW DELHI: As the high court verdict in the Khairlanji rape-cum-murder
case invites criticism from activists and intellectuals, Lok Sabha
speaker Meira Kumar has underlined that heinous crimes against dalits
should be booked under the Prevention of Atrocities (SC/ST) Act.

Kumar said the Khairlanji massacre was a crime perpetrated by non-SCs
on SCs which should have automatically attracted the Act, but did not.
"Such instances should be booked under the PoA. That will take care of
everything," she told TOI.

The speaker was replying to queries in the backdrop of the Bombay High
Court ruling which has commuted the death sentence to the accused and
also ruled that the gruesome crime against Bhaiyyalal Bhootmange's
family was one of revenge and not of caste prejudice.

Kumar's concern that crimes against dalits by non-dalits should be
booked under PoA seems to nail the root cause behind the prosecution's
failure to convict the accused in such cases.

The Khairlanji FIR did not mention the PoA and it is believed to have
weakened the case. The lax probe triggered an agitation after which it
was transferred to CBI.

The HC verdict delivered recently has led to criticism as it not only
commuted the death sentence given by the Bhandara court to life
imprisonment but also reiterated the "no-caste-crime" view. Bhootmange
plans to appeal against it in the Supreme Court. But observers are
concerned that the court did not see caste as having played a role in
the murder of four persons including the gruesome rape of two women.

This has been a sticking point. Even when the Bhandara court's death
sentence in September 2008 was acclaimed as landmark in the history of
crimes against dalits, Kumar, as Union social justice minister, asked
the state government and the Union personnel ministry to appeal
against the verdict.

The post-high court order scene remains as grim with the issue even
finding mention in the meeting of the National Advisory Council headed
by UPA chairperson and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on July 14.
Narendra Jadhav brought the issue to the notice of the NAC chair and
said the case had been weakened by the police failure to book the
crime under the PoA.

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[ZESTCaste] 16 BSP MLAs face threat to their lives

http://expressbuzz.com/nation/16-bsp-mlas-face-threat-to-their-lives/194442.html

16 BSP MLAs face threat to their lives

Anand Raj Singh

Express News ServiceFirst Published : 01 Aug 2010 01:59:43 AM ISTLast
Updated : 01 Aug 2010 12:27:08 PM IST

LUCKNOW: The ruling BSP of Chief Minister Mayawati has allegedly
alerted 16 of its MLAs who face threat to their lives. Incidentally,
almost all of them have criminal records, according to sources.

The alert has been issued after a high-level review meeting in the
wake of attack on Nand Lal Gupta 'Nandi'on July 12 in Allahabad.

He is recovering in a hospital in Lucknow.

While none from the BSP or the government is willing to confirm the
alert, a senior BSP leader with a clean image and no criminal record
told Express that 16 is a small figure compared to the number of
people in the party with criminal history and interpersonal rivalry
and enmity.

He also did not rule out the threat perception from members of other parties.

But the Opposition parties have expressed no surprise, and they agree
that the threat must be from members of the same party and not from
any other party.

BJP leader and Lucknow MP Lalji Tandon told Express that Mayawati had
herself admitted in the past that there were criminal elements in the
BSP and "had been pushed into the party by the Opposition parties".

He said, Mayawati herself had declared a list saying they had been
thrown out of the party. But her promise of another list never
materialised, he added.

Some parties defend their leaders, when allegations are raised, but
Mayawati is the only politician who admits people with criminal
background into her party saying they had stopped criminal activities,
he said.

SP leader Rajendra Chaudhary said, even the attack on Nandi was
carried out by BSP members and that is why Mayawati immediately
accused SP leaders the same day, even as investigations had not
started.

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[ZESTCaste] MRPS leader consumes poison, ends life

http://hindu.com/2010/08/01/stories/2010080154840200.htm

Andhra Pradesh - Anantapur

MRPS leader consumes poison, ends life

Staff Reporter

'Humiliation' by Gorantla SI allegedly drove him to take the drastic step

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

Enraged MRPS activists stage 'rasta roko' and paralyse traffic outside
the government hospital

Narasimhulu misbehaved with Sub-Inspector when summoned for
questioning: Anantapur DSP

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

Anantapur: MRPS district secretary V.C. Narasimhulu (40) committed
suicide by consuming poison in public for the humiliation meted out to
him allegedly by the Gorantla Sub-Inspector G. Rajendranath Yadav on
Saturday evening.

The Gorantla Sub-Inspector had allegedly humiliated him by thrashing
him in public at Gorantla town when the deceased met him to represent
a local problem.

Narasimhulu, who felt terribly humiliated, came to Anantapur town and
met MRPS activists at the ZP office where they were staging a 'dharna'
for a different cause and apprised them of the rude behaviour of the
Sub-Inspector.

He consumed poison from a bottle without the knowledge of the MRPS
leaders and fell unconscious.

Rasta roko

He was immediately rushed to the government hospital where he died
while under treatment.

Enraged MRPS activists who heard of their colleague's suicidal death
rushed to the hospital and staged a 'rasta roko' for about one hour
and paralysed traffic outside the government hospital.

The police rushed to the place and brought the situation under control.

The body has been sent for post-mortem examination and the police are
investigating.

Misbehaviour

Meanwhile Anantapur DSP Harshavardhana Raju told The Hindu that the
deceased Narasimhulu had misbehaved with the Sub-Inspector when he was
summoned by the later for questioning in relation to a complaint
lodged against him in a different case.

After an argument with the SI he came to Anantapur and met his MRPS
colleagues at the ZP office.

The deceased had already consumed poison before he met MRPS activists.
He fell down unconscious and was admitted to the government general
hospital where he succumbed to the effects of the poison consumed by
him.

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[ZESTCaste] Opposition slams govt for breakdown of law and order

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/lucknow/Opposition-slams-govt-for-breakdown-of-law-and-order/articleshow/6242273.cms

Opposition slams govt for breakdown of law and order
TNN, Aug 1, 2010, 12.56am IST

LUCKNOW: Murder of BJP leader Hukum Singh's wife in Muzaffarnagar
within 20 days of attack on BSP minister Nand Gopal Gupta has provided
Opposition yet another opportunity for Maya-bashing. Alleging total
collapse of the law and order in in the state, Opposition leaders said
while public representatives and their families being attacked, the
common man is living under constant fear. Chief minister Mayawati
expressed grief over the incident but refrained from making a
political statement in response to the onslaught unleashed by the
Opposition.

BJP state president Surya Pratap Shahi said that Hukum Singh was no
ordinary leader. Besides being popular leader in his constituency, he
was also deputy leader of the BJP legislature party in the state
assembly, he said. "Murder of his wife shows that criminals have no
fear of law enforcement agencies," he said. Shahi slammed additional
director general of police law and order for issuing statement that
the murder could have been done by an insider. "How can he pass the
blame on an `insider' without conducting an inquiry," he added.

Senior BJP leader and Lucknow MP Lalji Tandon said "first a cabinet
minister is attacked, then 16 BSP MLAs apprehend threat to their life
and now murder of a senior BJP leader's wife -- all this indicates
that law and order has touched its lowest ebb in the state." Congress
legislature party chief Pramod Tiwari in his statement, while
expressing grief over the brutal murder of Singh's wife and offering
his condolences, said that the incidents happening in the state for
last few months shows how that the spirits of the criminals are high
in UP.

SP legislature party leader Shivpal Singh while addressing
media-persons said that the anarchy is prevailing in the state and
demanded resignation of the chief minister Mayawati. "BSP government
has appointed corrupt officers in key position in the state
administration whose main work is to extort money. BSP leaders have
provided shelter to the criminals," he said. As a result, he added,
crime graph in UP is on the rise ever since the Maya government came
to power. "The aam aadmi has been left at the mercy of the criminals,"
he alleged.

BSP leaders defended chief minister by describing Opposition criticism
as a misinformation campaign. While the BSP did not release any
official statement on the murder till late evening, a senior BSP
leaders said that police could prevent crime only at public places and
not those taking place within the family. He pointed out that the
police investigations had proved that SP leaders were behind the
attack on Nandi. In the murder of BJP leader's wife, circumstantial
evidences point out that it was an handiwork of an insider, he added.

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[ZESTCaste] Congress cannot emerge as main party without Dalits' support: PC

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Congress-cannot-emerge-as-main-party-without-Dalits-support-PC/Article1-580751.aspx

Congress cannot emerge as main party without Dalits' support: PC
Press Trust Of India
Chennai, August 01, 2010First Published: 14:49 IST(1/8/2010)
Last Updated: 14:57 IST(1/8/2010)

Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Sunday said Congress cannot
emerge as a principal party without support of the Dalits in the
country and said whenever it was without major Dalit leaders,
atrocities against the community had raised its head. "We all want
Congress to become a principal party in India, especially Tamil Nadu.
But that cannot be achieved
without the support of Dalits," he said at a function in Chennai to
mark the joining of expelled BSP leader K Selvam and his supporters in
Congress.

Dalits constituted a major share in the population and if they were
rejected and their rights denied, there was no
point in India being an independent nation, he said.

"Whenever Congress digressed from focussing on Dalit issues or when
Dalit leaders left the party, atrocities
against Dalits had raised its head. This is a fact. To make India
powerful and prosperous, we need Dalits' support," he
said.

Saying that the likes of Dalit icons such as Babasaheb Ambedkar and
Babu Jagjivan Ram could bring in changes since
they were in the Congress, Chidambaram exhorted members of the
community to join the party and become leaders.

He recalled that Mahatma Gandhi had focussed on Dalit issues and their
aspirations as part of his freedom struggle.

"We accepted that struggle but not today's armed struggle by Naxals," he said.

In its long history, veteran leader P Kakkan was the first Dalit
leader to become TNCC president, later followed by
others like Maragatham Chandrasekhar, Chidambaram said adding a member
of the community could lead the Congressmen in the
future too in Tamil Nadu.

Underlining the UPA's commitment towards Dalits' welfare, he said over
Rs 2000 crore had been allotted for the
students of the community for their educational needs, including those
pursuing M.Phil and PhD.

Speaking at the birth centenary celebrations of Kakkan in Madurai on
Saturday night, Chidambaram denounced honour killings and
discrimination against Dalits, saying such things brought disrepute to
the country.

"Such (honour) killings only brought disgrace and disrepute to the
country..In some places parents removed their
children from schools if the mid-day meal is cooked by Dalits," he said.

He referred to the recent incident in Uttar Pradesh where parents
removed their children from schools where the
mid-day meals were cooked by Dalits.

The country's economic growth rate of nine per cent or Forex reserve
of $300 billion would serve no purpose if
atrocities like untouchability continued in India, he said.

"India will get real independence only if social evils are eradicated
from the heart," he said.

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