Gujarat Dalits won’t lift carcasses, want firearms
Manas Dasgupta
Ahmedabad, July 31
Thousands of Dalits in Gujarat today took a pledge not to lift carcasses of animals from public places and asked the state government to provide them licensed firearms to protect themselves against alleged atrocities by the upper caste Hindus.
The pledge was administered at a mega rally of Dalits organised by some 30 Dalit organisations under the umbrella of the “Una Dalit Atyachar Ladat Samiti.”
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It was formed to unite Dalits on one platform after the July 11 incident in Una in which four Dalit youths were brutally flogged by self-styled cow protection vigilantes, accusing them of cow slaughter while they were skinning a dead cow.
More than 10,000 Dalits from all over the state attended the rally held in a ground that could hardly accommodate 5,000 persons. As the organisers had told all political parties to stay away from the rally, no leader was present there. However, a large number of Muslim leaders were present both on the dais and among the participants as the Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Hind had extended support to the rally. A charter of demands warned the BJP government of “facing consequences” in the next year’s Assembly poll if it continued to ignore the Dalits.
The rally attacked former CM and PM Narendra Modi during whose tenure there were 15,000 registered cases of Dalit atrocities but “he never bothered to visit a single Dalit house”. It ridiculed his slogan of “Sauni Saath, Sauni Vikas” and said it should be re-written as “Dalitone trass ane dalitone vinash” (harassment to Dalits and destruction of Dalits).
