Murder of Gujarat Dalit youth for riding horse a "warning" to Supreme Court order on "misuse" of anti-atrocities law
The gruesome murder of a Dalit youth allegedly for refusing to heed the order of high caste Rajputs not to "show off" by riding on his horse is all set to become a major embarrassment for the Supreme Court, which ruled recently that certain provisions the Prevention of Atrocities (POA) Act were being misused to "blackmail" innocent people. The only Dalit boy in the region to ride a horse, he was quite popular in his community.
According to a local activist Dalit activist Arvind Makwana, 21-year-old Pradip Rathod of Timbi village in Umrala taluka of Bhavnagar district was killed on March 29 evening a week after his father was threatened that the boy should refrain from riding the horse. Gifted by his father after buying the horse five months back for Rs 30,000, Makwana says, "The village Rajputs had told Pradip's father to sell the horse, or face fatal consequences."
According to available information, Pradip, as always, went out of his house riding on his horse rode on March 29 evening, but the horse came back alone. His father, Kalubhai, out to search his son, was shocked to find the body soaked in blood a little away from his house. Pradip was the only Dalit not only in his village but also in neighbouring villages to own a horse and ride on it, something Rajputs believed was their forte.
While Gujarat's top Dalit face Jignesh Mevani has, in a sarcastic comment, said he "dedicates" news of the dastardly incident to the Supreme Court judgment "which said Dalits blackmail citizens with POA Act", well-known Dalit rights leader Martin Macwan, founder of the state's biggest Dalit NGO Navsarjan Trust, has insisted, "The Supreme Court had ruled that the anti-atrocities law was being misused to harass innocent people. Even before the ink dried up, this young boy was murdered."
Pointing out that this is not an isolated incident, Parmar said, earlier incidents, which took place over the last about a year, involved the murder of Jayesh Solanki was for watching garba in Bhadaniya village of Anand district, Patan district's Bhanubhai Vankar setting himself on fire after the government administration refused to provide him land he was allocated, and Bharatbhai Gohel of Veraval's Ambariyala village being burned alive for failing to pay up dues for the car which he had bought.
Then there was the most recent incident of Rajkot's Manekvada village where a young Right to Information activist was killed for seeking to bring on surface massive corruption in the administration, a Dalit boy in a village of Sabarkantha district being beaten up for keeping moustache, suicide of a midday meal scheme in charge in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home town Vadnagar on being harassed by teachers, the murder of Mahesh Senva in Ahmdabad district for for seeking irrigation water, and the murder of a constable Vinodbhai in Detroj, also in Ahmedabad district.
Comments
It is a way of life, the life of survival, the depressed have to accept and adjust and to sail in the Sea of mankind together. It is a man made disaster. India won’t have casteless society for another 500 years, because caste system is it’s culture. It may dilute but can’t disappear.
The uncultued upper castes people living in villages tolerate the growth or individual pride of Dalits in limit but if they see something going above their tolerance limit, they act inhuman. For them, the Dalits are the slaves can’t have right and freedom of expression beyond their tolerance limit. There were/are villages where the Dalits were not allowed to use Dhol/drum or musical orchestra in the marriage of their sons and daughters. There were/are villages where the Dalit bridegroom can’t ride a horse when go for marriage.
It’s a life of adjustment and finding ways to grow within limitations.
unacceptable!
Must protest collectively!
How can we call ourselves a civilised nation when we show no civility to our own people?
Do people fear law and order ? I doubt !!!