Sunday, April 24, 2011

[ZESTCaste] Congress steers clear of demand for Dalit representation in Lokpal panel

 

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_congress-steers-clear-of-demand-for-dalit-representation-in-lokpal-panel_1535367

Congress steers clear of demand for Dalit representation in Lokpal panel
Published: Saturday, Apr 23, 2011, 19:41 IST
Place: New Delhi | Agency: PTI

Congress today steered clear of the issue of inclusion of a Dalit
representative in the Lokpal drafting committee even as senior party
leader Digvijay Singh said the demand made by Uttar Pradesh chief
minister Mayawati is valid.

"These are matters for the government and the committee to decide and
it is not for the party to comment on it. As of now there is no change
about the committee and therefore there is no scope for any
speculation," party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said.

He was reacting to questions on Mayawati's demand for inclusion of a
Dalit representative in the Lokpal drafting committee, which was also
backed by AICC general secretary for Uttar Pradesh Digvijay Singh.

Singh said, "The demand is right. Even as the Joint Committee has
already been formed and has also begun its work, but the demand that
she has made is valid."

Asked how can the committee expediously finalise the draft for the
crucial bill if such demands seeking changes in the constitution of
the committee keep coming up, the senior Congress leader asked "who
has stopped the committee from working?"

"These statements may come but the committee should continue its work.
We are looking forward to the committee completing its job and prepare
a sound draft bill for a strong Lokpal."

To questions on his reported attack on Justice Santosh Hegde, a member
of the joint committee, the AICC general secretary said that he had on
the contrary praised Hegde.

"I have said nothing. I have praised him. Unfortunately he is relying
more on media reports than what I have actually said," Singh added.

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[ZESTCaste] The Ambedkar party

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/article1761808.ece

Opinion » Open Page
April 24, 2011
The Ambedkar party
Siddharthya Swapan Roy
Share · Comment · print · T+
A procession to celebrate the 120th birth anniversary of Dr. B. R.
Ambedkar in Dharwad, Karnataka, last week.
The Hindu A procession to celebrate the 120th birth anniversary of Dr.
B. R. Ambedkar in Dharwad, Karnataka, last week.

We are having a party in the slums of Maharashtra tonight, April 14.
It's got everything that you can think of in a rollicking bash. There
are DJs spinning awesome dance beats, remixing everything from
matkajhatka numbers to lawanis with bits of angrezi lines thrown in
and the adrenaline is rushing out in blaring pulses through huge black
speakers. Our women have coloured their lips, dabbed their faces with
powder, put flowers in their hair and turned out in the best dress
from their trunks. If they look cheap, then you have noted correctly.
The dresses and the make-up were bought in a low-end bazaar at places
that hold defective dress sales. They had saved this dress from many
temptations gone by just for this special day.

Our children too have been dolled up in even cheaper frilly synthetic
dresses and the talcum powder stands out on their dark-skinned faces.
As for our men, they have a bit of cheap liquor in their breath and
are dying to let loose and dance like mad men. Our rowdy young boys
were never really known for their decency and hence have thrown all
care to the winds and are dancing like clowns while our young girls
look at them coyly and giggle from some distance.

Many of our homes will be cooking beef; it's far cheaper than mutton
and chicken so frankly we can't afford to care about your religious
sentiments. In fact, if you look at us everything about is low on
price, save the million-dollar smiles on our face today.

What's the occasion? It's the 14th of April and we are celebrating
Babasaheb Dr. Ambedkar's birthday.

I know you dislike us and everything we are doing. But today is our
day and you must simply endure us. And why not, I say? We put up with
everything you do every single day, and have been doing so from time
immemorial, so save us that look for today. You turn up your pretty
noses at the stench of our slums when you pass by. Have you ever
realised that the stench is because we live beside a gutter that
carries the shit out of your clean houses? Tonight, we dance free from
the straitjackets of your decency – which we of all people know is
bloody fake because remember we work in your homes silently and see
all your dirt all the while.

Tonight, we dance because it's the birthday of the man who showed us
clearly that we were human beings. He didn't simply rename us and
soothe your guilt by being euphemistic. He actually told us we were
humans who had the right to dream and the right to be happy. We know
you find us dirty, ugly, ignorant and wretched. But he showed us we
were dirty because you took away our clothes and our water, ugly and
undeveloped because you took away our food and left us to eat the
rotting things, ignorant because you wrote books in languages we did
not know and you wouldn't let us be taught and we were wretched
because slaves are always that. And from then on we worked at stopping
to be dirty, ugly, ignorant and wretched. Of course, most of us are
still all of that but that's because you have had a few centuries of
head start and even now you'd do everything in your power to stop us —
including buying some of us out.

We know we are dancing in the middle of the road and your car is held
up in the traffic. Don't swear like you own the road! What makes you
think the road belongs exclusively to you? Why should it? Because you
drive home from glass covered buildings? Look around someday. For
every car you drive, a score of us are walking by the side or have
stuffed ourselves into buses and share autos. In fact, when the mud
was dug and the tar as black as our skins was laid for your car to
zoom smoothly, it was we who were here working in the sun and into the
late night while you cursed the country's bad system in your imported
style. Whether or not the road belongs to you is of little importance,
the bigger truth is we belong to the road! Do you even know how many
of us were born here? Or how many of us eat, sleep, love, have
families and live out our entire lives here on the roads? And yet you
think you have the right of way?

And by all means we will dance, drunk and ugly, on the road. We could
never go to the places your spoilt brats go to do their drunk and ugly
dancing, could we? What you pay as tip is what we spend for food for
an entire day! Even otherwise, the only way we go into those places
where your kids act out their orgies is when we stand in the toilets
waiting to clean up after them. So we will dance on the road. Think of
it, when we are drunk and dancing and out on the road, we merely hold
up your car. But when you have done your drinking and dancing and are
out on the roads, you bloody drive your cars onto us and smash us into
the pavements. That should set the record straight about who is more
dangerous when drunk.

Even though we know will be back to working for you tomorrow,
underpaid, abused and putting up with your acting as though you carry
the world on your shoulders, tonight we celebrate. Clearly, you have
two options. Sit in your cars and curse us, or join The Party.

(The writer's email is siddharthyaroy@gmail.com)


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[ZESTCaste] Babasaheb Ambedkar, Shahu Maharaj shared bond: Pune researcher

http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_babasaheb-ambedkar-shahu-maharaj-shared-bond-pune-researcher_1535567

Babasaheb Ambedkar, Shahu Maharaj shared bond: Pune researcher
Published: Sunday, Apr 24, 2011, 14:35 IST
By Mohsin Mulla | Place: Kolhapur | Agency: DNA

Unpublished correspondence showing mutual respect and affection
between the great Dalit leader, Babasaheb Ambedkar and the benevolent
king-reformer of Kolhapur, Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj has come to light
here.

Discovered by a writer-researcher, Indrajeet Sawant, in the Kolhapur
archive, the correspondence consists of a four-page letter by Ambedkar
to Shahu and the princely ruler's reply.

The letters throw interesting light on the growing bond between the
two champions of social justice in pre-Independence India.

The correspondence relates to the Akhil Bharatiya Bahishkrut Samaj
Parishad national conference of Dalits organised by Ambedkar at Nagpur
on May 30, 1920, for which Shahu had accepted the invitation as chief
guest. However, there was uncertainty about his attendance due to his
daughter Akkatai's illness. Ambedkar, in his letter, made a passionate
plea to Shahu urging him to attend the conference.

Sawant told DNA, "Ambedkar's letter of four pages could be his longest
to Shahu. The letter shows how Ambedkar deeply valued Shahu's support
to the Dalit movement that he was leading and the warmth with which
Shahu treated Ambedkar."

In his letter dated May 11, 1920, Ambedkar wrote to Shahu in Marathi,
saying, "It would seem rude to persuade you to attend the conference
when there is illness at your home.

not your children like Akkasaheb? Do we have any other mentor? I pray
to you to accept the chairmanship of the conference for uplifting your
beloved untouchable child."

Ambedkar said that Shahu's absence would "ruin everything" and that
his support and presence for the Dalit movement was
critical.

Shahu's letter to Ambedkar is dated May 13, 1920 in which he said,
"Although my daughter is ill, I have taken up your work. I will set
aside any difficulty and will come." Shahu displayed his deep respect
for Ambedkar and commitment to the cause of Dalit upliftment.


Unpublished letters shows deep bond between Ambedkar, Shahu

But what can we do? Are we not your children like Akkasaheb? Do we
have any other mentor? I pray to you to accept the chairmanship of the
conference for uplifting your beloved untouchable child."

Ambedkar said that Shahu's absence would "ruin everything" and that
his support and presence for the Dalit movement was critical.
Shahu's letter to Ambedkar is dated May 13, 1920 in which he said,
"Although my daughter is ill, I have taken up your work. I will set
aside any difficulty and will come." Shahu displayed his deep respect
for Ambedkar and commitment to the cause of Dalit upliftment.


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[ZESTCaste] Discrimination in allotment of Dalit basti fund

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/CCIS-2404-Discrimination-in-allotment-of-Dalit-basti-fund/articleshow/8068479.cms

Discrimination in allotment of Dalit basti fund
TNN | Apr 24, 2011, 06.23am IST
Article
Comments
Tags:social welfare department|Rajesh Chatur|MLA Nanabhau Patole
GONDIA: District secretary of Gondia BJP and senior member of Gondia
ZP, Rajesh Chatur has alleged that the state government has
discriminated in the allotment for funds for development of Dalit
localities. The government has not allotted even a single pie to those
localities represented by the BJP, he said.

In a press note, Chatur said that in the annual budget for the
financial year 2010-11, the ZP had demanded Rs 20 crore for
development of Dalit localities of eight tehsils through MS Dalit
Basti Sudhar Yojana, Pune. But the state government sanctioned only Rs
2 crore against this demand.

The most ridiculous part of this decision was that the areas of
allotment of this fund have not been mentioned, said Chatur. In its
letter No. 56/11, dated March 30, 2011, only the names of the
beneficiary Congress MLAs - Gondia Gopaldas Agrawal and Amgaon
Ramratan Raut have been mentioned. The rest six tehsils have not
received a single farthing. Taking a serious objection to such a
discriminating attitude of the government, Chatur said it is an
attempt to give credit to the MLAs of the ruling party.

Deploring the attitude of the state government, Chatur said that the
fund has been allotted to ZP and the power of its allotment and
utilization is vested in the ZP and whatever amount has been received,
should be utilised as per the priorities of Social Welfare Department
of the ZP. This issue was also raised in the recently-concluding state
assembly session by BJP MLA Nanabhau Patole, he said.

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