15.06.24.Untouchables News.HQ.chennai.by Team Sivaji.
When the debt-ridden father committed suicide, UP Police became the support of the Dalit girl, got her married with great pomp
Usually people have been raising questions about the functioning of Uttar Pradesh Police. But in the meantime, the humane and sensitive behavior of UP Police has been seen. Shahjahanpur Police of UP has got a Dalit girl married.
National Desk: Usually people have been raising questions about the functioning of Uttar Pradesh Police. But in the meantime, the humane and sensitive behavior of UP Police has been seen. Shahjahanpur Police of UP has got a Dalit girl married. Actually, the girl’s father had recently committed suicide. The district police not only got her married. It also bore the entire expenses of her marriage. Police officers also gave her Kanyadaan.
Shahjahanpur Superintendent of Police (SP) Ashok Kumar Meena said on Friday that the wedding procession had come on Thursday. 500 baraatis participated in it and the policemen welcomed the baraatis as gharaatis in the ‘baraat ghar’. After the marriage was completed, the daughter was sent off by giving her gold and silver jewellery and other gifts.
Father troubled by debt commits suicide
The SP said that Ram Asare (42) of Kamal Nainpur village of Thana Tilhar area used to drive a tempo and had a bank loan. Meanwhile, Ram Asare had fixed his 22-year-old daughter Mahima’s marriage with Manoj Kumar of Etmadpur village. Troubled by the worry of marriage as well as repaying the loan, Ram Asare committed suicide by hanging himself on 16 April. He said that when Thana Incharge Dayashankar went to the deceased’s house, he came to know about the whole incident. He said that when Dayashankar Singh told him the whole thing, he decided to get his daughter Mahima married with the help of the police.
The SP and the Kotwal performed the Kanyadan
Dayashankar said that the police printed the wedding cards and invited the bride’s relatives and on 12 June, policemen and officers reached the groom’s village to perform the Tilak ceremony and performed the Tilak ceremony with full rituals. A police officer said that in the marriage which took place on Thursday, Superintendent of Police Meena and Kotwal Daya Shankar Singh gave away Mahima in marriage and stayed in the wedding pavilion the whole night to complete the marriage. He said that the bride was also given a washing machine, fridge, double-bed, sofa set, chest and gold and silver jewellery. The bride was also given a mobile phone with the mobile numbers of the Superintendent of Police and the station in-charge so that in case of any problem, she can talk to them directly.
How Bhima Koregaon Became a Trope for Dalit Pride and Assertion
The national media coverage of the violence at Bhima Koregaon enhanced the historical significance of the place. Until 2018, Bhima Koregaon was not embedded in the popular consciousness outside Maharashtra.
Author Ajaz Ashraf
Below is an excerpt from the recent book of Ajaz Ashraf titled Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste. Publisher: AuthorsUpFront.
The story you are about to read does not begin with the beginning. It does not because it is difficult to identify precisely where and when the story began. The beginning is buried deep inside events that occurred centuries ago, recorded or remembered and passed down orally over generations, in what is now the state of Maharashtra in western India. As emperors came and went, empires fell and dynasties withered away, memory was continuously recast, holding out new meanings for people. The very act of remembering became a method of rewriting memory, designed to both inspire and horrify, a tool for legitimising the present or altering the future. It is this memory that both the educated and the unlettered recognise as history, regardless of whether it is documented and verified for its historicity, a task of historians.
The people’s history, or rather histories, were united by their search for answers to questions familiar to us, too. Who rules? Who frames laws? Who commands high social status? Who must toil and serve the elite? Who sits at the top of the social ladder – and who flounders at its lower rungs? Are those at the bottom doomed to languish there in perpetuity? Who is the exploiter and who the exploited? How does social change take place?
These questions were not couched in lucid ideological terms in centuries past, as is the case today. Yet, in India, these questions plumbed and probed the caste system, its rigid rules and its resistance to social change, which occurred, if at all, incrementally, at an infinitesimal pace. Quests for change were met with extreme violence, the reason why Buddhism perished in the land of its birth. Buddhism did not recognise caste, a construction of Brahminical Hinduism, and radically, for its times, offered equality to its followers. It is only a partial truth that claims that the challenge Buddhism represented was blunted through philosophical debate and co-option into Brahminical Hinduism. The story of the disappearance of Buddhism from India also involved the hounding and killing of Buddhists and the burning down or appropriation of their stupas and monasteries. The backlash compelled Buddhist monks to leave India with their sacred textsThe national media coverage of the violence at Bhima Koregaon enhanced the historical significance of the place. Until 2018, Bhima Koregaon was not embedded in the popular consciousness outside Maharashtra.
The story you are going to read is, in its essence, a clash between two worldviews over the principles of organising society.
This is the story of the outbreak of violence on January 1, 2018, at Bhima Koregaon village, around thirty kilometres from Pune, where thousands upon thousands of Dalits – the erstwhile Untouchables – had marched to pay homage at the Vijay Stambh or Victory Pillar. It was here, on January 1, 1818, that less than 900 soldiers of the 2nd battalion 1st regiment of the Bombay Native Infantry, under the command of Captain F.F. Staunton, vanquished a 25,000-strong army of Peshwa Baji Rao II, already a fugitive by then, crushing his hope of retaining his kingdom and sovereigntyDuff, James Grant, A History of The Mahrattas, Vol. III, Longan, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, London, 1826, pp 432-433. The figures of troops on both sides vary across different sources. Philip Constable, in his paper, The Marginalization of a Dalit Martial Race in Late Nineteenth – and Early – Twentieth Century Western India, estimated that at least half of the British troops were Mahars, twenty-two of whom died in what is now remembered as the Battle of Bhima Koregaon.
The significance of the battle was underscored with the British laying the foundation stone, on March 26, 1821, for an obelisk, sixty-five feet high, mounted on a stone platform about thirty-two square feet, on the spot from where the first shot in the Battle of Bhima Koregaon was said to have been fired. The names of those who died in the battle are etched on the monument. The defeated Peshwa, a hereditary institution, was a Chitpavan Brahmin by caste. The Mahars were the Untouchables. They represented the two poles of the caste hierarchy. As it was then, so it is now.
The history of the 1818 battle was recovered and reimagined in the fight for equality a century or so later. It became a trope for the fighting prowess of the Dalits, and the possibility that they could turn on its head the social order of which they were decidedly among the exploited. Every January 1, they flock to the Bhima Koregaon Victory Pillar to celebrate their triumph, drawing inspiration from the past to renew their quest to flatten the social hierarchy existing today. Yet it would be a stretch to claim that the Dalits fought fiercely and valiantly because they wished to avenge the humiliation that they endured under the Peshwas. They were the recruits of the British Indian Army that comprised not just them but also soldiers from other social groups. The aim of the British was not to liberate the Mahars but to bring as much of India under their control as possible. It is certainly a myth to frame the Battle of Bhima Koregaon as the victory of Mahars, a myth created most notably by Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, popularly known as Babasaheb Ambedkar, to inspire the Dalits to fight Brahminism.
Yet a caveat must be added: it is easy to conceive why the Dalits would not have been dismayed, if not delighted, at the end of the Peshwa rule even in the 19th century, as I show in the section ‘Caste History in Verse’ of Chapter 2. Nevertheless, it is possible to imagine why the Battle of Bhima Koregaon became a trope for Dalit pride and assertion. Stories about the valour of individual Mahars abound, an account of which you will read later in the book. But 1818 was arguably the first time that they were officially recognised as a group and feted for their fighting prowess. It had all the elements of being turned into a myth, in the same way, the history of Maharana Rana Pratap’s guerrilla war against the Mughals has become one. Myths serve as a psychological salve for overcoming the traumatic past for the purpose of negotiating the present. It is for this reason that some myths acquire sanctity, as is the case regarding the myth of the Mahars winning the Battle of Bhima Koregaon.
The 1818 battle as the trope of Dalit pride and assertion came under attack 200 years after Staunton’s soldiers defeated the Peshwa’s army, through yet another battle waged in and around Bhima Koregaon on January 1, 2018. This modern battle was fought not with cannons and cavalry but with stones, rods and lathis, and vituperative taunts and insulting slogans. Vehicles were smashed and burnt, and business establishments set on fire. On the one side, in the modern reprise of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon, were the Dalits, largely Ambedkarites, or those who believe in the ideology of Ambedkar. On the other side were the Marathas, allegedly egged on by Brahmin leaders, such as Sambhaji Bhide and Milind Ekbote. With a large segment of Brahmins and Marathas aligned together, the 2018 battle was subliminally perceived – by both the elite and the subaltern – as a conflict between the Brahminical and Ambedkarite worldviews. The first justifies the caste hierarchy; the second seeks to flatten it.
The caste conflict underpinning the violence at Bhima Koregaon was arguably one of the reasons why the media headlined it, for, as far as the rioting goes, the casualties were minor, in comparison to many caste and religious conflagrations that have occurred since India’s Independence. In the Bhima Koregaon violence, one person died, forty-eight were injured and properties worth Rs 9 crore were devastated.
The national media coverage of the violence at Bhima Koregaon enhanced the historical significance of the place. Until 2018, Bhima Koregaon was not embedded in the popular consciousness outside Maharashtra. But, even that state awareness about the events of 1818 was largely confined to the Dalit community, brought out vividly in a 2011 survey in Pune, which was once the capital of the Peshwas and is today a thriving hub of information technology. It was conducted among 130 members of “high-caste, neo-rich people,” all of whom said they had not heard of the Bhima Koregaon memorial. They also expressed hostility to the policy of reserving government jobs and seats in educational institutes for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes (OBCs).
The media’s interest in Bhima Koregaon and the subsequent police investigations into the violence spotlighted the Elgar Parishad, a cultural programme held on December 31, 2017, as the cause of the rioting. Organised by two retired Justices, P.B. Sawant and B.G. Kolse Patil, at the Shaniwarwada Fort, Pune, once the seat of the Peshwas, the Elgar Parishad saw the participation of 260 civil society groups. The Elgar Parishad was styled as a challenge to the emerging new Peshwai, or the Rule of Inequality ushered in by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) governments, both at the Centre and in Maharashtra. The organisers of the Elgar Parishad sought to underscore to visitors, expected to be in Pune on their way to Bhima Koregaon, the necessity of opposing Brahminical Hinduism. On December 31, speeches were made, songs sung, and a play performed. These performances mocked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and blamed them for the ostensible revival of Brahminical Hinduism. Since the cultural programme was a no-holds-barred criticism of Brahminical Hinduism, it was perceived by many, including the Pune police, as an attack on the Brahmin community.
A reading of the songs, speeches and the play during the Elgar Parishad would show that these were critical of Brahminical Hinduism, not Brahmins, for extolling and justifying the Hindu caste hierarchy. Brahminical Hinduism is a social philosophy. All those who subscribe to the caste-based social stratification, regardless of their social background, are considered votaries of Brahminical Hinduism. Every member of the upper castes does not automatically become a follower of Brahminical Hinduism. For instance, both the late Sawant and Kolse Patil are Maratha by caste! And Marathas consider themselves Kshatriya. It is also true that several Maratha organisations, such as the Maratha Seva Sangh (MSS), are as committed to fighting Brahminical Hinduism as any.
Ajaz Ashraf is a Delhi-based journalist.
Courtesy : The Wire
Uttar Pradesh: Body of Dalit youth found inside the house under suspicious circumstances
Amethi, The body of a Dalit youth was recovered from inside his house under suspicious circumstances in Amethi district of Uttar Pradesh. Police gave this information on Friday.
According to the police, the incident took place in Purva village of Peeparpur police station area.
In-charge inspector of Peeparpur police station Ram Raj Kushwaha said that the body of Swami Prasad Kori (45), a resident of Purva village, was recovered from his house.
He said that at the time of the incident Swami Prasad was alone in the house and his wife was living with her children at her maternal home since a month ago.
The officer said that Swami Prasad died three to four days ago, but the incident came to light when people living nearby started smelling a foul smell from the house.
He said that at the time of the incident Swami Prasad was alone in the house and his wife was living with her children at her maternal home since a month ago.
The officer said that Swami Prasad died three to four days ago, but the incident came to light when people living nearby started smelling foul smell from the house.
He said that the neighbors informed the police about the foul smell coming from the house, after which the body was taken out of the house.
The Inspector in charge said that the body has been sent for post-mortem and investigation is being done from both the angles of murder and suicide.
UP barber shaves Dalit boy’s head ‘to teach parents a lesson’ for supporting BJP and not BSP
BAREILLY: A 12-year-old mentally-challenged boy’s head was shaved by a barber in Budaun ostensibly because his parents had supported BJP instead of BSP or SP in the polls, police said. The barber who has a shop at Bilsi in Budaun, has been charged under the SC/ST Act.
SHO (Bilsi), Kamlesh Kumar Mishra, told TOI, “An FIR was registered under IPC sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult with intention to provoke breach of peace), and SC/ST Act against the accused following a complaint filed by the boy’s mother. We are investigating the entire matter and action will be taken accordingly.”
In her police complaint, the boy’s mother, Munni, stated: “During the Lok Sabha polls, our family opted for BJP, owing to which the barber and a few others in our locality were unhappy. They forcibly took my son, who was playing near our house and shaved his head. My son is very upset after this humiliation. My husband later confronted those people, but they misbehaved. So, we approached the police.”
The accused barber’s uncle refuted the parents’ claims alleging that his nephew had shaved the boy’s head on the mother’s request. In Budaun, SP’s Aditya Yadav defeated BJP’s Durvijay Singh Shakya by 34,991 votes. Muslim Khan of BSP finished a distant third.
Hate Watch: Violence against Dalits being ignored
With the election fever over, reports of violence against Dalits have started coming in. In the first ten days of June, three incidents of violence against Dalits were reported from Uttar Pradesh.
Sabrang India and CJP have been tracking hate against Dalits and other communities in the country. The following incidents of violence against Dalits have been compiled from June 1 to June 12.
Mainpuri, Uttar Pradesh
A Dalit youth in Mainpuri was working on his land when some people attacked him. Authorities have registered a case of assault and harassment against the Dalit community under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. According to reports, the police are now searching for the culprits who are currently absconding. The police have filed a complaint against Munshi Khan and his associates.
The victim has said in his complaint that on June 9, he was working on his plot when some people came and started abusing him. When he stood up to them, they threatened to kill him and started beating him.
On June 7, it was reported that a group of Dalit women protesting against liquor shops in Mainpuri, Uttar Pradesh were beaten up by shop owners. The women were also hurled casteist abuses and given death threats.
Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
Another horrific incident took place in Lucknow on June 2, where a man urinated on the face of a Dalit labourer who was taking an afternoon nap. The incident was also captured on camera and uploaded online, after which it quickly went viral on social media.
The victim, Rajkumar Rawat, was resting after a long day of work when the accused urinated on his face to wake him up. Rawat’s family has written a complaint to the police, who say an investigation into the matter has begun.
This was the third incident reported in Uttar Pradesh in June. According to statistics, UP accounts for 28% of the total crimes against Dalit people across India. In 2022, a total of 57,428 crimes were registered against Dalits in UP alone.
Morena, Madhya Pradesh
In Madhya Pradesh’s Morena, a Dalit sarpanch was allegedly tied to a tree and beaten up. Following the violence, the man was forced to flee his native village. The sarpanch of Kautharkalan panchayat filed a complaint at the Porsa police station on Thursday. He was allegedly being harassed for the past two years. The attackers had pressured him to resign from his post and hand over his digital account details. However, when he refused to give in to their demands, the goons allegedly took him to the outskirts of Kautharkalan, tied him to a tree and brutally thrashed him.
Youth beat Dalit woman with slippers in public, police searching for accused
A shocking case has come to light from Sonbhadra, Uttar Pradesh. Where a stubborn type of youth has beaten a Dalit woman riding an auto with slippers. On receiving information about the case, the police have registered a case and started searching for the accused.
The case is being told of a village in Chopan police station area of ????Sonbhadra district. Where a stubborn type of youth beat an elderly woman riding an auto with slippers in public. However, this whole case is being told of Wednesday. After the incident, on the basis of the complaint given by the victim, the police have registered a case against the accused under the relevant sections of the IPC and his search has been started. Now the video of this whole case has started going viral on social media, seeing which a wave of anger has run among the people.
Elderly beaten with slippers
In the viral video, it can be seen how the accused is beating the elderly woman riding an auto. Not only this, the accused has also used abusive words while abusing the woman. According to the information, the 70-year-old elderly woman was returning to her home in an auto. During this time, she started quarreling with the auto driver over some matter, after which the angry youth beat the elderly woman with a slipper. Someone made a video of this entire incident and made it viral on the internet, after which there was a stir.
Police is searching for the accused
If reports are to be believed, the victim is a Scheduled Caste woman living in Jugail police station area, whose age is 70 years. At present, on the basis of the complaint given by the victim, the police has registered a case against the accused and started its investigation. At the same time, the police says that the accused will be arrested as soon as possible.
UThe organisational structure of UP Congress is not such that Dalits can easily join it.
Even though Congress has received votes from a section of Dalits as part of India Alliance in Uttar Pradesh. A large section of Dalit intellectuals have also been sympathetic towards India Alliance and Congress, some have also openly expressed their support, some have also openly appealed to vote for Congress. All this had an impact. About 25 percent of BSP’s core voters also voted for India Alliance and Congress. This time a large section of non-Jatav Dalits voted for India Alliance and Congress in UP.
There were three main reasons for India Alliance getting Dalit votes and support of Dalit intellectuals. First, a large section of intellectuals and voters wanted to defeat BJP at any cost. They consider BJP and RSS as Manuvadi-Brahminist. They consider them to be trying to end the Constitution and reservation. They wanted to defeat BJP at any cost. The second reason was the call to save the Constitution and reservation by India Alliance, especially Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav. The third reason was that BSP, which is called the party of Dalits, was neither seen challenging BJP directly, nor was it in a position to defeat BJP. In such a situation, a section, while considering BSP as their party, decided to support the All India Alliance, which seemed capable of defeating BJP for the time being.
Despite all this, the organizational structure of UP Congress is not such that Dalits can connect with Congress organically. When I am saying organic, it means that Dalits can completely mix with the organization of Congress. Can consider it as their own organization. Where they feel that they will not be treated unequally. They can live there with the same status as a Brahmin-Thakur, Bhumihar or Lala. Everyone’s status will be the same.
No one will try to establish his dominance over anyone. There will be nothing in the offices and meetings of Congress that is against their dignity, against the dignity of their leaders. Against their sense of equality, freedom and brotherhood. Neither will there be any disrespect for the heroes in these offices and meetings, rather there will be respect on an equal level.
At present, such a situation is not seen in any Congress office in UP. First of all, let us talk about the current president Ajay Rai. During the elections, I got a chance to visit the Congress office in Banaras. When I went to the main meeting hall of the Congress office, the only picture there was of Parashuram. The grand picture seemed to be touching the ceiling of such a huge hall. There was no other picture in that hall. Can any person equipped with Dalit consciousness (Ambedkarite) feel comfortable in that hall?
Jyotirao Phule, one of the biggest icons of Dalits, whom Ambedkar calls his guru, calls Parashuram the killer of Bahujans in his book ‘Gulamgiri’. He portrays him as the killer of pregnant Bahujan women and children, with evidence. The so-called Kshatriyas whom he destroyed were Bahujan rulers and their family members. This is not all, as soon as he became the president, Ajay Rai offered prayers at the Vishwanath temple. All this in front of the media and cameras. This is also fine, prayers and deities can be the subjects of his personal faith, this is not a big deal, but repeatedly displaying it publicly is a different matter. Going further than this, he waved his sacred thread on the same day. The sacred thread is an obscene thread that insults the Dalit-Bahujans, which repeatedly labels those who wear sacred thread as high and those who do not wear sacred thread as low.
The question is not just about Ajay Rai, go to any Congress office. There the most central and the biggest picture will be of Gandhi. You will not see Ambedkar’s picture anywhere equal to Gandhi. If you see anyone’s picture after Gandhi, it will be Nehru, Indira and Rajiv Gandhi. Even though Rahul Gandhi is asking for votes for the Congress by carrying Ambedkar’s picture and a copy of the Constitution, there is no place for Ambedkar or the Constitution and the Preamble of the Constitution in the Congress offices of UP. Leave Gandhi aside, you will see Parashuram. As I have mentioned above.
It is possible that for Congress, Gandhi is the only great person. They may not consider Ambedkar to be their equal, but for Dalits, Ambedkar is much greater than Gandhi. At least they are not ready to consider Ambedkar to be inferior to Gandhi. They can accept Gandhi with Ambedkar or Ambedkar with Gandhi, but they can never accept sidelining Ambedkar.
The matter is not limited to symbolic pictures. The Congress organization in UP is dominated by those upper castes, who have never been able to believe from within that a Dalit (Jatav-ch…) can be their equal, at every level and in every matter. They like Dalits with a servant mentality. Ram’s Nishad or Shabari type. They cannot tolerate Shambuk who challenges the caste system of Ram or Ramrajya. If they have their way, they will slit his throat. Like their ideal Ram. Even if they accept Dalits to some extent due to political compulsion.
One can question that the Congress President is Kharge from the Dalit community, many big leaders of Congress are Dalits. Before Ajay Rai, the UP Congress President has been a Dalit. This is a very childish type of question. This question can be raised only by those who do not know properly about the behavior of the upper castes who have taken over the UP organization of the Congress. Forget about the Congress President, they can consider any Dalit who affects their political career or economic interests as their parents, but he should be powerful. He should have the capacity to make or break their destiny.
Many upper caste people used to touch the feet of Mahavir Prasad, who was the MP of Basgaon for a long time, and considered it their good fortune to feed him at their home, because they could take their political career to new heights, get them government jobs, get them contracts and leases. They could increase their status in the society. But there are many such incidents when the upper caste people, after giving them tea and breakfast and feeding them food, kept those utensils separate or separately. Jagjivan Ram was in a similar situation at the top level as Mahavir Prasad. It is said about Jagjivan Ram that he used to get food prepared for upper castes by keeping a separate Brahmin cook for them during his banquets.
Leave aside the leaders like Mahavir Prasad and Jagjivan Ram. The same upper caste people of the village are ready to give food to a normal Dalit sub-inspector in their house, run to welcome him, who cannot even see a normal Dalit of the village sitting on his chair. Leave aside the SP and DM etc. It is clear that the way the upper caste people who have taken over the organisational structure of the Congress treat big Dalit leaders like Kharge cannot be considered as a measure of their behaviour towards the majority of Dalits.
Dr. Ambedkar had a relationship with the Congress, which was mostly a conflict most of the time. Because he considered it a party of soft Hindutva serving the upper castes. Jagjivan Ram had a different relationship with Congress. He remained in it accepting and to some extent rejecting soft Hindutva and upper caste dominance. But the venerable Kanshi Ram has now raised the sensibility and consciousness of the common Dalit to a point where he is not ready to stay and do politics in Congress like Jagjivan Ram or Mahavir Prasad. Some special individuals can do this, but the majority of Dalits can connect with that party wholeheartedly, can work with full dedication only with that party where they get complete equality. Not only at the top level, but at the lowest booth level. Politics is now happening at the booth level.
For those Dalits who want to live and do politics for their personal benefit and career while accepting their second class status and upper caste dominance, BJP is a better option than Congress, where they are likely to get a bigger reward for betraying the majority of Dalits and Ambedkarite ideology. Like Ramnath Kovind, they can also think about becoming the President. Then why will they go to Congress? The situation is complicated and tangled for the Congress. Upper castes have deserted it as core voters and intellectual supporters, but they still have complete control and dominance over the organization. Rahul Gandhi was seen trying to make Dalit-Bahujans his core voters in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. By raising Dalit-Bahujan agendas. By appealing to the Constitution, by holding Ambedkar’s photo in his hand. He also benefited from this. India Alliance and Congress won where Dalits, Bahujans and Adivasis supported it on a large scale, but the majority of upper castes were nowhere seen supporting them. They all stood firmly with the BJP.
Dalits are no longer ready to do the politics of the upper castes, they want equality at every level, from the booth to the top level. The organizational structure of the Congress has long been built to keep upper caste ideology, consciousness, sensitivity and interests at the center and in priority, more or less the same still remains. Can Kharge and Rahul Gandhi break this structure? At present, they are not seen breaking away. In such a situation, can Dalits join the organisational structure of Congress, can they consider it their own organisation, the answer will be no.
After seeing many offices and meetings of UP Congress, I can say that at least in UP, the organisational structure of Congress is not such that Dalits can consider it their organisation or party, can join it. Dalits may keep voting for Congress to defeat BJP-RSS. The weakening of BSP in Uttar Pradesh and the mentality of not challenging BJP has brought Dalit voters to a situation that like Muslims, they vote for this or that party, which can defeat BJP. At present, apart from BSP, they have only SP and Congress as options in UP. At present, they see SP as a better option than Congress in organisational terms, there are historical, social, cultural and psychological reasons for this. Even though they have bitter experiences with it. For now, more on this later. (Dr. Siddharth is a writer and journalist)
Delhi Police busts gang issuing fake caste certificates; govt. official held
Published - June 15, 2024 01:48 am IST - New Delhi:
Two of the accused in custody of Delhi Police Crime Branch. | Photo Credit: special arrangement
Four people, including an Executive Magistrate at the Delhi government’s Revenue Department, have been arrested by the police for issuing over 100 fake caste certificates in the national capital. The gang was busted after two Delhi Police personnel impersonating customers from the general category approached the accused to get fake caste certificates.
The accused would issue fraudulent Other Backward Class (OBC), Scheduled Caste (SC), and Scheduled Tribe (ST) certificates for ₹3,000-4,000 and upload the same on the Delhi government’s Revenue Department website, said a senior Delhi Police officer. The gang was active for nearly four months and thrived on an extensive network of touts, the officer added.
“We are in the process of ascertaining the authenticity of 111 certificates issued by the accused,” the officer also said.
An FIR was registered at the Crime Branch police station on May 10 under IPC Sections 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), and and 120B (criminal conspiracy).
When reached for comment, the Delhi government did not respond.
The accused were identified as Narender Pal Singh, the Executive Magistrate; Chetan Yadav, a contractual employee at the Executive Magistrate’s office; Waris Ali, Mr. Singh’s driver; and Saurabh Gupta, a vegetable vendor.
Trap laid
The police received a tip-off about the racket nearly three months ago. To verify the information, a constable impersonating a customer belonging to the general category was sent to the accused to get an OBC certificate on March 13. The accused furnished the fake certificate, issued by the Delhi government’s Revenue Department, for ₹3,500. The document was subsequently uploaded on the government’s portal, DCP (Crime) Rakesh Paweriya said.
The police then sent another decoy customer, belonging to the general category, on March 20. He also received an OBC certificate after paying ₹3,000.
“Both the decoy customers paid the accused through the online mode, the transaction details of which were recorded,” the DCP added.
Subsequently, a team was constituted to nab all the culprits engaged in the operation.
“On May 9, a trap was laid in Sangam Vihar, from where Saurabh Gupta was arrested. His mobile phone was checked from where the chats with the decoy customers were retrieved,” said Mr. Paweriya.
Documents seized
“Apart from chats, we also recovered snapshots and PDF files of many other documents from the phone. During sustained interrogation, Gupta revealed that he had issued the certificates from the Executive Magistrate’s office,” the DCP said.
From the leads obtained through the interrogation of Mr. Gupta, the police nabbed Mr. Yadav on May 14, Mr. Ali on May 22, and Mr. Singh on May 27.
“During interrogation, Saurabh Gupta disclosed that in January this year, he came in contact with Chetan Yadav, who earlier worked as a helpline service provider in the office of the Tehsildar (Executive Magistrate) in Delhi Cantonment through Waris Ali. They hatched a plan to earn money by issuing fake kinds from the Revenue Department,” Mr. Paweriya said.
“Ali used to apply for the certificates on behalf of the customers, for which he would upload their fake documents, such as residential proof, caste certificates of other family members, etc. Then, he would share details of the applicant, along with their application number, with Chetan Yadav,” the officer added.
“Chetan would forward the details to Waris, who would approve the application using the Executive Magistrate’s signature, upload the documents on the government portal, and pass off a share of the bribe to the official,” the DCP said.
“We are analysing the data obtained so far. We will also take action against those who got these certificates based on fake documents,” the DCP added.
75 percent marks a must for state’s foreign scholarships
Students’ organisations oppose new restrictions; limit of Rs 30 lakh, creamy layer condition seen as curbs on SC and ST concessions
- By PuneMirror Bureau
- Reported By Yashpal Sonkamble
- Fri, 14 Jun 2024
- 12:37 pm
75 percent marks a must for state’s foreign scholarships
The state government has tightened rules for getting foreign scholarships. Henceforth, only those who get 75 percent marks in education from Class X and XII to graduation will be eligible for foreign scholarships for higher education. The scholarship limit has also been increased from Rs 30 lakh to Rs 40 lakh. The new rules have sparked fury among Ambedkarite student unions, which are accusing the state government of playing a ploy to cut off foreign education avenues by curtailing concessions for students from scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.
The state government has released the advertisement for the Chhatrapati Rajarshi Shahu Maharaj Pardeshi Scholarship for the academic year 2024-25 along with the circular of new rules. New onerous conditions have been imposed in this circular. According to the new policy, it is mandatory for students applying for foreign scholarships to have 75 percent marks in their courses from Std 10 to graduation. There is now a strong backlash in Maharashtra over the possible injustice done to scheduled caste students due to the decision to limit the scholarship to Rs 30 lakh per annum to postgraduate students and Rs 40 lakh to those eligible for PhD.
Omprakash Bokaria, commissioner of state social welfare department said, "The state government has prepared the same policy for all departments. Accordingly, the social justice department has also advertised the new rules. We have also received representations in this regard. Appropriate action will be taken."
Rajeev Khobragade, a member of The Platform, an NGO, said, "The state government had imposed some oppressive conditions in the previous circular as well. It also introduced the concept of a creamy layer for scheduled caste students and imposed an income limit of Rs 8 lakh. Apart from this, the educational qualification was increased from 55 percent to 75 percent. Due to this decision of the government, there is dissatisfaction among the backward class students. The Constitutional concessions available to students have been determined not on the basis of economic backwardness but on the basis of social backwardness. However, the income and educational qualification criteria imposed by the government in the name of equality policy are inconsistent with the Constitutional principles. The oppressive conditions imposed by the government are unfair to the scheduled castes and tribes. We will fight against this in court."
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Home » South Shots » The Buddha Has Awakened Once Again In Andhra Pradesh 2
The Buddha has awakened once again in Andhra Pradesh
The abandonment of Amaravati as the capital city had stifled the interest in Andhra Pradesh's Buddhist heritage.
BySouth First DeskPublished Jun 14, 2024 | 5:00 PM ⚊UpdatedJun 14, 2024 | 5:00 PM
Chandrababu Naidu near the Buddha portrait in the Secretariat in Amaravati. (supplied)
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu sought the Buddha’s blessings by paying obeisance to his portrait in the Andhra Secretariat. The symbolism carries significant meaning for Amaravati, an ancient Buddhist centre. The YSRCP government, in neglecting Amaravati as the state capital, had also ignored the Buddhist legacy Naidu previously popularised. The wheel has now come full circle.
The abandonment of Amaravati as the capital city had stifled the interest in Andhra Pradesh's Buddhist heritage.
Published Jun 14, 2024 | 5:00 PM ⚊UpdatedJun 14, 2024 | 5:00 PM
Chandrababu Naidu near the Buddha portrait in the Secretariat in Amaravati. (supplied)
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu sought the Buddha’s blessings by paying obeisance to his portrait in the Andhra Secretariat. The symbolism carries significant meaning for Amaravati, an ancient Buddhist centre. The YSRCP government, in neglecting Amaravati as the state capital, had also ignored the Buddhist legacy Naidu previously popularised. The wheel has now come full circle.
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