Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani "organizes" rail roko in Ahmedabad to highlight land rights issue

A day after he was stopped from protesting against the Vibrant Gujarat world business meet – which began in Gandhinagar's Mahatma Mandir on Tuesday – by detaining him for the whole day along with his supporters (click HERE), Gujarat's top Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani, with tens of his mainly rural Dalit supporters, reached Ahmedabad railway station to carry out “rail roko” (stop train) agitation.

Mevani was forced to withdraw his much publicized “rail roko” agitation, which was to be held at on October 1 at Maninagar railway station in former state assembly constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he had done this because of security concerns.
He was to hold the rail roko in protest against the state government's alleged failure to look into his demand to provide physical possession of the land to the Dalits. Thousands of acres of land had been distributed to rural Dalits across Gujarat only on paper, though the actual possession remained in the hands of the rural ruling groups.

“We hope that the government will positively look into our just and reasonable demands”, he had said, adding, Gujarat home minister Pradeepsinh Jadeja, following talks with him, had “showed his readiness to hold talks regarding the demand”, hence he was “canceling the rail roko.”

Reviving his “rail roko” plan after a gap of three-and-a-half months, Mevani on Wednesday evening stopped Rajdhani Express. While Mevani and some of his supporters climbed up in front of the train's engine, others sat on the rail track to ensure that the train does not move. About 20 of them, including Mevani, were detained by the railway police. A case has been registered against them.
Appreciating the move, senior farmers' activist Sagar Rabari of the Khedut Samaj Gujarat (KSG), who was also detained on Tuesday for seeking to organize anti-Vibrant Gujarat summit protest, justified “rail roko”, saying that Mevani was forced to take the route because “numerous representations to the government” for land distribution to landless, especially Dalits, had failed.
Rabari, making a statement, said, “All democratic means of protest are being stymied by the government. In these circumstances, the landless persons, under the leadership of convener of the Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch Jignesh Mevani, reached the Kalupur railway station and carried out rail roko.”
Rabari added, “The consistent disregard of people’s demands has resulted in them losing patience. The Gujarat government ought to pay serious attention to the issues of the farmers and should take concrete steps to hand over possession of the santhni land to the landless people of Gujarat.”

Demanding that the Gujarat government should take back its “anti-farm and anti-farmer amendments” to several progressive laws, such as Land Acquisition Act, 2013, Rabari said, “The consistent and shameless disregard of the demands of the landless people of Gujarat to hand over possession of land to them is now testing the patience of the people.”Rabari said, “The KSG appeals the government to immediately hand over the possession of the land to the beneficiaries. Also, it appeals to respect people’s democratic right to demonstrate and express grievances, instead of suppressing the dissent voice. ”
”Landless people in Gujarat have not been handed possession of the land which was allotted to them in the last 10 years”, he said, adding, “Hence they have not been able to carry out agriculture operations on it. Their demands are being consistently ignored by the government.”

Comments

Dalit rights and political tensions: Why is Mevani at odds with Congress leadership?

While I have known Jignesh Mevani, one of the dozen-odd Congress MLAs from Gujarat, ever since my Gandhinagar days—when he was a young activist aligned with well-known human rights lawyer Mukul Sinha’s organisation, Jan Sangharsh Manch—he became famous following the July 2016 Una Dalit atrocity, in which seven members of a family were brutally assaulted by self-proclaimed cow vigilantes while skinning a dead cow, a traditional occupation among Dalits.

Powering pollution, heating homes: Why are Delhi residents opposing incineration-based waste management

While going through the 50-odd-page report Burning Waste, Warming Cities? Waste-to-Energy (WTE) Incineration and Urban Heat in Delhi , authored by Chythenyen Devika Kulasekaran of the well-known advocacy group Centre for Financial Accountability, I came across a reference to Sukhdev Vihar — a place where I lived for almost a decade before moving to Moscow in 1986 as the foreign correspondent of the daily Patriot and weekly Link .

Boeing 787 under scrutiny again after Ahmedabad crash: Whistleblower warnings resurface

A heart-wrenching tragedy has taken place in Ahmedabad. As widely reported, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane crashed shortly after taking off from the city’s airport, currently operated by India’s top tycoon, Gautam Adani. The aircraft was carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members. As expected, the crash has led to an outpouring of grief across the country. At the same time, there have been demands for the resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and the Civil Aviation Minister.

Ahmedabad's civic chaos: Drainage woes, waterlogging, and the illusion of Olympic dreams

In response to my blog on overflowing gutter lines at several spots in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur, a heavily populated area, a close acquaintance informed me that it's not just the middle-class housing societies that are affected by the nuisance. Preeti Das, who lives in a posh locality in what is fashionably called the SoBo area, tells me, "Things are worse in our society, Applewood."

Global NGO slams India for media clampdown during conflict, downplays Pakistan

A global civil rights group, Civicus has taken strong exception to how critical commentaries during the “recent conflict” with Pakistan were censored in India, with journalists getting “targeted”. I have no quarrel with the Civicus view, as the facts mentioned in it are all true.

Whither SCOPE? Twelve years on, Gujarat’s official English remains frozen in time

While writing my previous blog on how and why Narendra Modi went out of his way to promote English when he was Gujarat chief minister — despite opposition from people in the Sangh Parivar — I came across an interesting write-up by Aakar Patel, a well-known name among journalists and civil society circles.

Remembering Vijay Rupani: A quiet BJP leader who listened beyond party lines

Late evening on June 12, a senior sociologist of Indian origin, who lives in Vienna, asked me a pointed question: Of the 241 persons who died as a result of the devastating plane crash in Ahmedabad the other day, did I know anyone? I had no hesitation in telling her: former Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani, whom I described to her as "one of the more sensible persons in the BJP leadership."

Why India’s renewable energy sector struggles under 2,735 compliance hurdles

Recently, during a conversation with an industry representative, I was told how easy it is to set up a startup in Singapore compared to India. This gentleman, who had recently visited Singapore, explained that one of the key reasons Indians living in the Southeast Asian nation prefer establishing startups there is because the government is “extremely supportive” when it comes to obtaining clearances. “They don’t want to shift operations to India due to the large number of bureaucratic hurdles,” he remarked.

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.

Search This Blog