Dalits in Jind embrace Buddhism

Vishal Joshi

Tribune News Service

Kurukshetra, August 16

A day after a group of Dalits in Jind city reportedly converted to Buddhism claiming that their demands were not fulfilled despite protesting for the past 189 days, the state government has termed it a political gimmick.

Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Krishan Kumar Bedi told The Tribune on Thursday that a few Dalit leaders were playing mischief to achieve their political ends ahead of elections in Haryana.

Bedi, a prominent Dalit face of the BJP, said Chief Minister ML Khattar had personally discussed the demands tabled by Dalit activists who had been holding protest in Jind for the past several months.

He said administering an oath to vote against the BJP at the religious conversion function clearly indicated that the occasion was used to defame the BJP.

“During various official meetings with ministers and senior bureaucrats, the families affected in certain cases had shown satisfaction at the action taken by the state agencies in their respective grievances. But later, they backed out due to the instigation by certain leaders from the community,” said Bedi.

On the key demand of the protesters about giving regular jobs to the next of kin of two deceased, including the widow of a martyred CRPF jawan from Jind’s Chhatar village, the minister said the state government could not overrule the strict recruitment process conducted by various employment panels.

“Following laid-down procedures, the government duly compensates Dalit families. But some self-styled Dalit activists are using the community to shape false narratives against the BJP,” Bedi added.

On Wednesday, scores of families gathered near Jind’s mini secretariat for conversion. Four monks from the Buddhist Society of India were present on the occasion to do the rituals and complete the documentation of religious conversion.

Though they got conversion forms filled by the volunteers on Thursday, the society refrained from sharing the number of those who embraced Buddhism.

Dinesh Khapad, leader of the protesters, alleged that socially oppressed castes had been marginalised in Haryana and made victims of politics.

Khapad alleged the BJP, RSS and its affiliated outfits react to the atrocities on Hindus in Pakistan, Bangladesh and other countries but remain mute spectators when Dalits are harassed and abused in BJP-ruled states in India.

“We have been demanding a CBI probe into the alleged suicide of my uncle Ishwar Singh and the alleged rape-murder of a Dalit girl from Jhansa in Kurukshetra. Also, the widow of a Dalit CRPF jawan, Satish Kumar from Chhatar village, was subjected to humiliation by the state government by not giving her a regular job. No public place has been named after the CRPF soldier who was killed in Kathua in 2015,” he said.

Monk Bhikkhu Sagar, who oversaw the conversion, told reporters on Wednesday that Buddhist organisations from China, Myanmar and other countries would soon come out in support of those who embraced Buddhism in Jind.

Meanwhile, Jind Deputy Commissioner Amit Khatri said the widow of the CRPF jawan was illiterate and she had joined an ad hoc job in the Asset Management Cell in Jind. But she stopped attending duty for unknown reasons, he said.

The DC said the panchayat of Chhatar village was yet to pass a resolution on naming a public place after the CRPF jawan from their village.

Protesters’ demands 

• CBI probe into the suicide of Ishwar Singh and rape-murder of a Dalit girl from Jhansa in Kurukshetra.
• Regular job for widow of a Dalit CRPF jawan Satish Kumar and public place to be named after the CRPF soldier who was killed in Kathua in 2015.