A Dalit, bedecked in diamonds from head to toe, is the chief minister of the state. Nevertheless, atrocities against the lower castes continue unabated in Uttar Pradesh
LUCKNOW: A Dalit, bedecked in diamonds from head to toe, is the chief minister of the state. Nevertheless, atrocities against the lower castes continue unabated in Uttar Pradesh.
But even as officials of the Mayawati regime try to dismiss every incident as “routine”, sources tell DNA they have shaken up the top echelons of the government.
The latest in a series of horrific events came on Tuesday. Kamlesh (6), a Dalit girl of Karauli Jununi village under Chhata police station of Mathura had gone to the fields in the morning to relieve herself. But she happened to use the private road adjoining the house of one Ashok Singh. His son Shani shouted at her for the ‘indiscretion’ and then pushed her into a fire burning nearby.
Kamlesh suffered severe burns and is battling for life in a Mathura hospital where her parents, Manju and Saudan, rushed her. Saudan told reporters that the Chhata police refused to register an FIR against the upper caste accused.
The area falls in the assembly constituency of Chaudhry Laxmi Narain, a minister in the Mayawati government. Mathura SSP RK Chaturvedi told reporters the girl fell into the fire “by accident”. However, with news of the incident reaching Lucknow, Shani has been arrested on charges of attempt to murder.
“Atrocities against Dalits have reached a record high,” said UP Congress spokesman Akhilesh Pratap Singh. He said the trend started after the Mayawati government itself “diluted” the enforcement of the Dalit Atrocities (Prevention) Act to keep the upper castes, especially Brahmins, in good humour. “Mayawati is more worried about her Brahmin votebank than the welfare of the Dalits,” he sneered.
The government had put out a circular aimed at “preventing misuse of the Act”, admits a senior home department official. But the move has weakened Dalits’ rights to sue the upper castes in cases of casteist discrimination and violence aimed at them.
BSP state president Swami Prasad Maurya refuted the charges. “Some sections of the media highlight these cases to taint our government’s reputation as the saviour of Dalits,” he said.
UP Police chief Vikram Singh also denied any sudden spiral in the cases of Dalit atrocities.
But National SC/ST Commission chairman Buta Singh recently rapped the Mayawati government for its poor track record in protecting Dalits’ rights and dignity. That is definitely not good news for Mayawati, bracing up for a tough Lok Sabha electoral battle ahead.
g_deepak@dnaindia.net
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