Mevani, convener of Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch, announced that they would take out a Freedom March (Azaadi Kooch) to mark first anniversary of the Una flogging incident, where four Dalit youths were mercilessly beaten up on July 11, 2016.
Appointing a Dalit to the post of President or prime minister will have little impact on the lives of community members on the whole, Dalit activist and lawyer Jignesh Mevani has said
“A Dalit becoming the President or PM will not open the doors to the freedom of Dalit community. They will have to hit the streets for justice,” Mevani told media-persons, while claiming Dalits are unhappy with the BJP government and nomination of a Dalit for the post of president is an attempt to pacify them.
Mevani, convener of Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch, announced that they would take out a Freedom March (Azaadi Kooch) to mark first anniversary of the Una flogging incident, where four Dalit youths were mercilessly beaten up on July 11, 2016.
“The march will commence from Mehsana on July 12 and end at a village in Banaskantha or at Rapar in Kutch after seven days,” he said.
Ahead of the march, Dalit activists, victims of Una and other atrocities from across the country will take part in a conference on July 11. “We will ask the government to keep the cows and give us jobs, land, homes, employment and education,” said Mevani, who has been trying to mobilise Dalits since the Una incident.
Mevani alleged that despite promises by state and Centre, nothing has changed even a year after Una incident. “In fact, attacks on Dalits and Muslims have risen after BJP’s push for cow protection,” he claimed. The activist said the agenda of the march is to put pressure on the state to allot farm land to Dalits.
“Dalits want freedom from cleaning gutters and the ancestral work of disposing animal carcasses. We want government to start allocation of 1.63 lakh acre of land to Dalits and landless farmers as per the law,” he said.
On July 11 last year, four dalits of Mota Samadhiyala village of Una in Gir-Somnath district were thrashed by cow vigilantes when they were skinning a dead cow. The matter came to light after a video went viral.
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