Monday, September 27, 2010

[ZESTCaste] “Dalit parties fail to represent Dalit cause”

http://hindu.com/2010/09/26/stories/2010092664150800.htm

Tamil Nadu - Madurai

"Dalit parties fail to represent Dalit cause"

Staff Reporter

Major political parties are deviating from highlighting issues

MADURAI: Dalit movements and major political parties in the State are
deviating from highlighting the issues affecting Dalits and have
largely failed to represent them on many major issues in the recent
past, said Dalit Gnanasekaran, founder, Dalit Liberation Movement.

Delivering a special address on a discussion titled 'Remembering Poona
Pact,' and a book release event at Tamil Nadu Theological Seminary on
Friday; he talked about his experiences as a Dalit activist in Madurai
and southern districts during the mid 80's and early 90's before
relocating himself to the northern districts.

In his speech he talked about his experiences working among the Dalits
during the 1989 Uthapuram riots where they organised close to 46
walkathons and protests demanding justice for Dalits.

He reminded how much difficult it was during those days to create an
awareness and he cited one incident during the late Chief Minister
M.G. Ramachandran's period who introduced a scheme and provided 'free
chappals' to poor and how many Dalits in the rural villages got those
chappals but were never able wear them.

However, after many protests in a lot of villages the Dalits finally
were able to wear chappals provided by the State. Earlier in the
event, he released a book titled 'Poarali Enum Adhikaaram' which talks
about arguments and debates on Uthapuram Wall Issue from a Dalit
perspective.

One of the essayists, Stalin Rajangam in his speech talked about the
dearth of substantial works in Tamil on Poona Pact and stated that
Dalits of Madras Presidency were actively involved during the colonial
period (prior to Round Table Conference) by making major interventions
through sending telegrams and letters to the British Government on the
status of the depressed classes in the country demanding adequate
representation.

The first major work on Poona Pact was published by Ambedkar Study
Circle in Chennai in the year 1965; the book was authored by Anbu
Ponoviyam and in the early 90's Dalit writer Ravikumar came out with a
work highlighting the need for separate electorates.

J.Balasubramanian of Dalit Intellectual Circle said that Poona Pact
remains as an important event in the history of Dalit movements as it
was the first major event where Gandhi's status as leader of the
masses and Mahatma came into question.

Jaganathan said that the Dalit parties have become non-functional,
many Dalits were murdered recently in the southern districts and Dalit
officials targeted but no major Dalit party organised protests or
condemned.

History


The Second Round Table Conference in 1931 saw Dr. Ambedkar emphasising
the need for political power and Gandhi insisting upon protective
measures as it would divide the Hindus.

The conference ended with the then British Prime Minister Ramsey
McDonald announcing the Communal Award on 17th August 1932.

The depressed classes were granted separate seats in the Provincial
Assemblies and the right of double vote under which they were to elect
their own representatives and to vote also in the general
constituencies.

This arrangement was to be for 20 years. However, on September 20,
1932, Gandhi undertook a fast unto death in protest. The Poona Pact
was signed by Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, the principal signatory on
behalf of the caste-Hindus and Ambedkar on behalf of the depressed
classes on 24 September 1932.


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[ZESTCaste] Nepal: Man pours hot water tea over Dalit in Dailekh

 

http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=Man+pours+hot+water+tea+over+Dalit+in+Dailekh++&NewsID=259385

Man pours hot water tea over Dalit in Dailekh

Added At: 2010-09-27 8:34 AM
Last Updated At: 2010-09-27 8:34 AM
The Himalayan Times

DAILEKH: An elderly man here poured hot tea over a Dalit youth for
touching the glass of tea he was drinking.

Magisara Thapa, 62, of Silangi village in Bhairikalikathum VDC-1 of
Dailekh poured the tea on to the face of Damber BK, 27, of the same
locality.

The incident took place on Sunday when Damber entered a hotel along
with some friends for tea. He happened to sit on the same bench that
Magisara was sitting and sipping tea. All of a sudden, Magisara
splashed the hot tea on to the face of Damber for allegedly touching
the glass of tea, local witness Harka Bahadur BK said.

Meanwhile, the Dalit Advocacy Network, Dailekh has expressed serious
concern over the incident describing it 'immoral' and violation of
human rights.

The Network will exert pressure on the local authorities to take
action against Magisara, President of the Network, Surya Bahadur BK
said.

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[ZESTCaste] Dalit woman, son forced to sit on buffalo, paraded

http://www.asianage.com/india/dalit-woman-son-forced-sit-buffalo-paraded-735

Dalit woman, son forced to sit on buffalo, paraded
Sep 27th, 2010 | Correspondent

Lucknow, Sept. 26: A Dalit woman and her son were made to sit on a
buffalo with their faces blackened and were paraded in a village in
Bulandhshahr district on Saturday evening after a local panchayat
found the two guilty of abducting a girl.

Ten persons including a woman and government guard have been arrested
in connection with this incident.

According to police reports, Chandrawati, 45, and her 18-year-old son
Devendra had reportedly given some sedatives to a young woman Chamma,
30, and had handed her over to another man in the same village, about
a month ago.

Chamma, who belongs to the Jat community, returned home two days ago
and named Chandrawati and her son as the culprits.

The panchayat in the Jatdominated Pootha village under Shikarpur
police station area, announced that Chandrawati and her son were
guilty of abducting Chamma. The villagers were ordered by the
panchayat to blacken the faces of the mother and son and make them sit
on a buffalo and parade them through the village.

Meanwhile, sources said that Chamma had eloped with a man on three
occasions earlier.

"If she had been kidnapped a month ago, why didn't her family members
lodge a case with the police then? Why did they wait for Chamma to
return home and cook up a story?" said a member of Chandrawati's
community.

Chandrawati, after the incident, lodged a complaint with the Shikarpur
police in which she named 23 persons, including Chamma and Murari, a
guard in the village. The police said that 10 persons including Chhama
and Murari had been arrested while efforts were on to nab 13 others.


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[ZESTCaste] IIAS to deliberate upon Khap Panchayats

http://himachal.us/2010/09/26/iias-to-deliberate-upon-khap-panchayats/22289/news/ravinder

IIAS to deliberate upon Khap Panchayats

By Ravinder Makhaik on Sep 26th, 2010 and filed under Latest News

Shimla: To deliberate the issue of caste conflicts, dalit politics and
khap panchayats, starting on Monday, the Indian Institute of Advanced
Studies (IIAS) is organising a three day seminar.

The interdisciplinary seminar on 'Modernity and Changing Social Fabric
of Punjab and Haryana' intends to initiate discussion and deliberation
on pertinent contemporary issues related to society, economy and
polity of the two neighbouring states, said IIAS spokesman Ashok
Sharma.

About 40 scholars from Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Kharagpur,
Bhuvaneshwar, Delhi, Jodhpur and Germany are expected to take part in
the deliberations.

Issues like, marriage, izzat (honour) and khap panchayats; female
infanticide and foeticide; farmers' suicides and agrarian distress;
debates on migration and NRIs; modern diaspora; caste and dalit
politics and identity; gender, region and religion; sexuality and
queer articulations; modernity and urban space; media, popular music
and cinematic representations; regional and diaspora literature; folk
modernity and popular culture; Meos of Mewat and Punjabi Muslims of
Malerkotla; against modernity; globalisation and changing notions of
modernity; and paradoxical modernities would be debated upon at the
seminar, the spokesman said.


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[ZESTCaste] Dalits want temple entry

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100926/jsp/orissa/story_12983334.jsp

Dalits want temple entry

OUR CORRESPONDENT
Cuttack, Sept. 25: Dalits of Ranapada village of Brahmagiri block in
Puri district today demanded entry into temples.

This follows a sequence of events since August 28, when three Dalit
girls of the village were prevented from offering prayers at Ma Kali
Temple in neighbouring Nuapada and manhandled by members of the upper
castes. Since then, upper caste groups have attacked Ranapada Dalits
at Raybidharpur.

Submitting a memorandum to the director general of police (DGP) here
today, Dalits of Ranapada village demanded temple entry rights.
Holding the banner of Ambedkar Lohia Bichar Manch (Orissa), they
staged a dharna and demanded that Brahmagiri be declared a block prone
to atrocities on Dalits.

"The protest dharna follows a sequence of events since three Dalit
girls of Ranapada were prevented from offering puja at the Ma Kali
Temple in Nuapada and manhandled by the upper caste of their village
on August 28. When the girls protested, they were asked to cough up a
'fine' of Rs 50,000," Puri-based human rights activist and Manch
spokesperson Bagambar Patnaik said.

"The three girls then lodged an FIR. On September 8, the Dalits were
attacked by an upper caste group at Raybidharpur. Though another FIR
naming 70 persons in connection with the attack had been lodged at the
Brahmagiri police station, no action has been taken yet," Patnaik
said.

The Manch said: "Dalit families at Ranapada village should be supplied
cooked food and other relief materials. Police should also be deployed
to safeguard their life and property."

"We have all been living under fear of threat to our lives should we
step outside the village," said 28-year-old Sadhucharan Das, who
participated in the dharna.

DGP Manmohan Praharaj said: "We will hold a proper inquiry by the
human rights protection cell of the Orissa police. We will take the
strongest possible action if the allegation is found to be true."


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[ZESTCaste] Congress bets big on SC and OBC votes in Ahmedabad civic polls

 

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_congress-bets-big-on-sc-and-obc-votes-in-ahmedabad-civic-polls_1443426

Congress bets big on SC and OBC votes in Ahmedabad civic polls

Published: Sunday, Sep 26, 2010, 9:19 IST
By Niyati Rana | Place: Ahmedabad | Agency: DNA

Apart from laying its bets on young and educated candidates, the
Congress party this time is also betting big on salvaging votes from
the Other Backward Class (OBC) and Scheduled Caste (SC) in all the 64
wards of Ahmedabad city.

The Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) has given tickets to SC
and OBC candidates even for general category seats. Call it a strategy
to bag more votes from the SC and OBC dominated areas of the city or
powerful SC MLA Sailesh Parmar's dominance in the party- the Ahmedabad
Shaher Congress Committee gave tickets to 36 candidates from the SC
even though only 21 seats are reserved for them. Similarly, around 40
candidates from OBC have been given tickets to contest the upcoming
Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) election even though the seats
reserved for them are 20.

Former deputy chief minister and Congress leader Narhari Amin said
that they decided to give more tickets to SC and OBC candidates as
some of the wards have huge number of voters hailing from the SC and
OBC.

"It was necessary to give some general category seat tickets to SC and
OBC candidates in all those wards where their population can make
considerable change in the votes bagged. Moreover they are
traditionally Congress voters," said Amin.

He said that to win in the upcoming municipal elections they preferred
to go by the caste factor and select candidates accordingly. "To
choose a candidate we studied the geographical area and presence of
communities in a given ward. If an area is dominated by Patel
community, we have given ticket to a deserving Patel candidate for the
ward," said Amin.

The buzz in the Congress is also that it was Sailesh Parmar who put
forward the logic to give more seats to Dalits in areas where the
community's population is large. "While the rest of the leaders see it
as Parmar and his camp's dominance in the party, internally it is seen
as a better move at winning more seats."
The Congress party has given tickets to 23 Muslim candidates, 44
Patels, 12 Jains, 11 Brahmins and non-Gujaratis each.

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[ZESTCaste] Maha Govt delaying implementation of OBCs quota Act: Khadse

 

http://in.news.yahoo.com/20/20100926/1416/tnl-maha-govt-delaying-implementation-of_1.html

Maha Govt delaying implementation of OBCs quota Act: Khadse

Sun, Sep 26 03:20 PM

Mumbai, Sep 26 (PTI) The Congress-NCP government is delaying
implementation of an Act enabling reservation to OBC candidates in
promotions, Leader of Opposition in State Legislative Assembly Eknath
Khadse said here. This issue will be raised in the winter session of
the Parliament, he said.

The Act was passed in 2004 by the state but government failed to
implement it while giving promotions to the OBC candidates, Khadse
said. Almost 25 per cent state government staff are OBCs, he added.

There have been several debates in the legislature on the issue during
last 10 years, Khadse said. "Every time, the state government assured
the Legislature that it would implement the Act during promotions of
OBCs but failed to do so," he said.

"Now the government says the state advocate general and law and
judiciary department secretary are against reservation for OBCs. I
would like to know whose views matter? That of advocate general and
law and judiciary secretary, or those of Legislature," Khadse said.

These officials are giving adverse opinion to ensure OBCs are kept
away from the ambit of reservations, the BJP leader said. In Tamil
Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and West Bengal, backward classes get
between 65 to 70 per cent reservation, Khadse said.

"The Congress-NCP government in Maharashtra has started the
unconstitutional practise of seeking opinion of state advocate general
and law and judiciary department secretary, despite the Act being
passed in Legislature and getting President''s assent," he said.
Alleging that some "vested interests" in the state government were
denying nearly five crore OBCs in Maharashtra from benefits under the
Act, the senior BJP leader said the issue would be raised in the
winter session of state legislature, beginning at Nagpur in December.

Maharashtra Social Justice Minister Shivajirao Moghe said, "The
government is clear that the OBCs should get reservation in promotion
and will ensure removal of hurdles in implementing the Act." "The OBC
students are getting 100 per cent scholarship since 2002 and Rs 560
crore has been distributed in the year 2009-10," he said, adding over
16 lakh students have benefited from the scholarships, he added.

Opposition members in the Assembly had staged a walk-out during the
monsoon session condemning the delay in implementing the Act.

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