Skip to main content

Gujarat govt 'refuses' to include Ambedkar in national leaders' list: Dalits to stage protest

Kirit Rathod with Ambekdar's portrait
By Mahesh Trivedi* 
Gujarat’s Dalit rights leaders have come together to form Dr Ambedkar Swabhimaan Sangharsh Samiti to organise awareness campaigns as part of their state-wide agitation following the Gujarat government reportedly rejected a proposal to include their Dalit messiah in the list of national leaders.
It all began about ten days ago, when scores of angry members of the Dalit Adhikar Manch from various towns and villages, who gathered in Vadodara recently, made a bonfire of copies of a recent anti-Ambedkar resolution of the state government, deciding to launch an indefinite mass movement by staging demonstrations, taking out rallies and submitting memoranda to local authorities in every nook and cranny of the state.
The scheduled caste men and women are boiling with rage after the BJP-governed administration rejected Manch convener Kirit Rathod’s proposal to include the name of the messiah of Dalits, Dr BR Ambedkar, in its list of national leaders.
Rathod told this correspondent, plans were afoot to even organise a massive protests near the Vidhan Sabha building before the end of the House business on April 1 if the Vijay Rupani regime did not include the name of the chief architect of India’s Constitution at the earliest.
He said that the Dalit leaders, who met in Vadodara and handed over a memorandum addressed to the Chief Minister to the district collector, had also formed a Dr Ambedkar Swabhimaan Sangharsh Samiti to organise awareness campaigns as part of the state-wide agitation which has the support of lawmakers of the community who had also made several representations to the government. The first such awareness drive was kicked off in northern Patan town on Saturday.
For more than a year, Rathod and other Dalit leaders have been going from pillar to post to meet various officials of the administration, including educational institutions, police department, administrative blocks, etc. to persuade the decision-makers for paying tribute to Dr Ambedkar by at least hanging his photo frame along with those of other national leaders.
As Rathod carried on with his marathon efforts to make sure that justice is done to the champion of the downtrodden, even the Governor advised the General Administration Department (GAD) to look into the Dalit leader’s gravamina, what with even the National Commission for Scheduled Castes later shooting off a notice to the Gujarat government and seeking its reply on why Dr Ambedkar’s name was missing from its list of national leaders.
But, on November 21 last, Rathod was shell-shocked when he finally received a letter from Rupani-headed GAD citing a 1996 government resolution about the approved list of national leaders who did not include the man who drafted the world’s longest-written, 146,385-word Constitution.
“The Gujarat government has insulted the great Constitutionalist and messiah of the untouchables, and this at a time when cases of harassment of Dalits by upper-caste men have been coming to light now and then,” said Rathod.
In crimes against Dalits, ranging from rape, murder, violence and land-related issues, Uttar Pradesh remains among one of the top states, followed by Gujarat
February alone witnessed countless incidents of atrocities on Dalits who are treated like dirt in the saffron-ruled state.
While the Manch has lodged a police complaint against a BJP candidate Jhelum Choksi who used offensive words against a low-status caste during her election speech last week, upper-caste Darbar community men in a village near northern town of Patan on February 23 hurled casteist slurs at a Dalit teenager and threatened to kill him if he did not remove the suffix ‘sinh’ from his name, used generally by the Darbars. The threat scared the living daylights out of the 19-year-old who has now shifted to Ahmedabad with his parents.
If, on February 23, stones were hurled at a wedding procession of a Dalit groom by upper-caste people in Limb village in Aravalli district who objected to the revellers wearing a traditional headgear and dancing to loud music, similar incidents of violence during celebrations by the socially-disadvantaged community occurred in Nandisan village in Modasa taluka in the same district and Kamliwada hamlet in the Patan region.
All said and done, the fact remains that, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), in crimes against Dalits, ranging from rape, murder, violence and land-related issues, Uttar Pradesh remains among one of the top states, followed by Gujarat. UP has witnessed substantial increase of 47% from 2014 to 2018 in the crimes committed against Dalits followed by 26% in Gujarat which also registers the lowest conviction rate.
After all, frequent incidents of injustice meted out to Dalits were the order of the day even when Modi was the chief minister, and continue unabated even till date, raising serious questions regarding the role of the Gujarat government and local administrations in containing cases of harassment of Dalits.
As for the scene in India, crimes against Dalits totalled 45,935 in 2019, an increase of 7.3% over 2018.
---
*Senior journalist based in Ahmedabad. A version of this story was first published in Clarion

Comments

TRENDING

Reducing emission? India among top nations whose coal as energy source going up

By NS Venkataraman*  The State of the Global Climate report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirmed that the year 2023 was the warmest year on record, with the global temperature of 1.4 degree celsius above pre-industrial 1850-1900 base line.

Lockdown 'total failure' of science more than of politics: Open letter on 4th anniversary

Counterview Desk  In an open letter to fellow academicians, scientists and medical practitioners in India, marking the fourth anniversary of India's lockdown (25 March 2024), the Managing Committee* of the Universal Health Organisation (UHO) has insisted on the need to "repair two years of immense damage to science".

Insider plot to kill Deendayal Upadhyay? What RSS pracharak Balraj Madhok said

By Shamsul Islam*  Balraj Madhok's died on May 2, 2016 ending an era of old guards of Hindutva politics. A senior RSS pracharak till his death was paid handsome tributes by the RSS leaders including PM Modi, himself a senior pracharak, for being a "stalwart leader of Jan Sangh. Balraj Madhok ji's ideological commitment was strong and clarity of thought immense. He was selflessly devoted to the nation and society. I had the good fortune of interacting with Balraj Madhok ji on many occasions". The RSS also issued a formal condolence message signed by the Supremo Mohan Bhagwat on behalf of all swayamsevaks, referring to his contribution of commitment to nation and society. He was a leading RSS pracharak on whom his organization relied for initiating prominent Hindutva projects. But today nobody in the RSS-BJP top hierarchy remembers/talks about Madhok as he was an insider chronicler of the immense degeneration which was spreading as an epidemic in the high echelons of th

Magnetic, stunning, Protima Bedi 'exposed' malice of sexual repression in society

By Harsh Thakor*  Protima Bedi was born to a baniya businessman and a Bengali mother as Protima Gupta in Delhi in 1949. Her father was a small-time trader, who was thrown out of his family for marrying a dark Bengali women. The theme of her early life was to rebel against traditional bondage. It was extraordinary how Protima underwent a metamorphosis from a conventional convent-educated girl into a freak. On October 12th was her 75th birthday; earlier this year, on August 18th it was her 25th death anniversary.

Savarkar 'criminally betrayed' Netaji and his INA by siding with the British rulers

By Shamsul Islam* RSS-BJP rulers of India have been trying to show off as great fans of Netaji. But Indians must know what role ideological parents of today's RSS/BJP played against Netaji and Indian National Army (INA). The Hindu Mahasabha and RSS which always had prominent lawyers on their rolls made no attempt to defend the INA accused at Red Fort trials.

'Wrong direction': Paris NGO regrets MNC ArcelorMittal still using coal-based steel

By Rajiv Shah  A new report by Paris-based non-governmental research and campaigning organization, Reclaim Finance, has blamed the MNC ArcelorMittal – formed in 2006 following the takeover and merger of the western European steel maker Arcelor (Spain, France, and Luxembourg) by Indian-owned Mittal Steel – for using use “climate destructive” metallurgical coal for its projects in India.

'Flawed' argument: Gandhi had minimal role, naval mutinies alone led to Independence

Counterview Desk Reacting to a Counterview  story , "Rewiring history? Bose, not Gandhi, was real Father of Nation: British PM Attlee 'cited'" (January 26, 2016), an avid reader has forwarded  reaction  in the form of a  link , which carries the article "Did Atlee say Gandhi had minimal role in Independence? #FactCheck", published in the site satyagrahis.in. The satyagraha.in article seeks to debunk the view, reported in the Counterview story, taken by retired army officer GD Bakshi in his book, “Bose: An Indian Samurai”, which claims that Gandhiji had a minimal role to play in India's freedom struggle, and that it was Netaji who played the crucial role. We reproduce the satyagraha.in article here. Text: Nowadays it is said by many MK Gandhi critics that Clement Atlee made a statement in which he said Gandhi has ‘minimal’ role in India's independence and gave credit to naval mutinies and with this statement, they concluded the whole freedom struggle.

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah*   The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual. 

Attack on foreign students: Gujarat varsity's reputation, ranking at stake, say academics

Counterview Desk  Expressing anguish over the attack on international students in Gujarat University hostels, a letter claimed to have been signed by 122 current and former academics has asked the Gujarat Vice Chancellor, Dr Neerja Gupta, to provide emotional support to the attacked students and to ensure their physical safety.  

As double engine takes backseat in Odisha, BJP is pitted against 'firmly rooted' BJD

By Sudhansu R Das  BJP has got 25 years to build its party base in Odisha. After 25 years, it felt helpless and insecure to fight elections on its own strength. The party was almost crazy to have an alliance with the ruling BJD in Odisha.  Looking for alliance at the time of election shows that the party has not groomed its grassroots level workers into potential leaders.  The state BJP leaders woke up and convinced the Central leaders that they are capable of going solo; the alliance was stillborn. The question is can BJP defeat BJD which is firmly rooted in Odisha after launching piles of populist programs in the state.