Saffron diktat in village of ‘biased verdicts’

Deepender Deswal

Tribune News Service

Bhagana (Hisar), August 9

A day after a group of Dalits of the village converted to Islam in Delhi, a panchayat organised at the behest of saffron outfits on Sunday asked them to either revert to Hinduism or leave.

The panchayat was attended by leaders of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal from Hisar and 60 villagers belonging to different castes in the Brahamin panchayat.

The panchayat condemned the conversion of around 100 Dalit families to Islam saying they had been lured. The panchayat unanimously decided that the village would welcome the families back if they returned to the Hindu fold.

“But we will oppose such families that have left Hinduism to embrace Islam,” the panchayat said. Of around 250 families, 20 have left the village permanently.

Kitab Singh, a former Dalit sarpanch, termed the conversion wrong. “The village panchayat’s decision would be delivered to these people soon. If they are feeling alienated, we are ready to listen to their grievances.”

Kapil Vats, a Bajrang Dal leader, said the conversion was unacceptable. “The villagers are upset at the conversion. We will visit the village again in the next few days and form a committee to try and persuade them for ‘ghar wapsi’,” he said. 

“We had talked to the family members of some converts and they revealed that some people had taken their heads of family to Delhi two days ago,” he said. One of the converts, Ramphal Kajla (59), who returned to the village from Delhi this morning, said they were forced to convert to Islam following harassment at the hands of upper caste Jats.

“We took the decision after exhausting all options to get justice. Our families were subjected to hatred on caste lines. We are scared of visiting the village temple. The disputes over ownership of common land, allotment of 100 square yard plots under the government scheme remain unresolved even after the change of government,” he said.

Haneef, a Muslim who has both Dalits and Jats as neighbours, said: “A wrong picture of our village is being portrayed. There is no incident of atrocity of any caste or any individual. There are 35 Muslim families in the village, but we have never had any problem. I attended the meeting today and approved of the panchayat decision. I oppose any kind of conversion from Hinduism to Islam or vice versa. One should respect all religions.”

Hisar Sadar Station House Officer Lalit Kumar rejected reports of tension in the village. The SHO said no case of atrocity on the Dalits had been reported in the past couple of weeks at Bhagana village. The police would take action if a complaint was lodged.