28.05.24.Untouchables News,chennai.India.by Team Sivaji.
Dalit man witness in relative’s killing beaten to death in Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar
Deceased Rajinder Ahirwar was called over by the accused men to talk over an incident in which his relative was beaten to death nine months ago, and he was a witness to that. The accused attacked him too when he refused to budge.
In a tragic turn of events in Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar district, a Dalit man on Sunday died in the Khurai vilage after some miscreants thrashed him for not complying with their demands of reaching a reconciliation in connection with a brawl that resulted in the death of one of his relatives, Nitin Ahirwar nine months ago, police said.
The accused had called Rajendra Ahirwar (24), who was a witness of the months-old incident, to one Pappu Rajak’s home to talk over the matter and get done with it. But they allegedly attacked him after he refused to give in to their demands.
Both Rajendra Ahirwar and Pappu Rajak got injured in the scuffle and were admitted to the hospital where the former died during treatment.
The police reached the spot and registered a case against five accused, Aashiq, Bablu, Israil, Faheem and Tantu on the basis of the statement recorded by Rajendra Ahirwar’s father.
Tragedy struck twice as what further shocked everyone was the death of Rajinder Ahirwar’s niece Anjana, who fell off the hearse van, when it was ferrying Rajinder’s body after his postmortem before it could reach Badodia village.
Notably, Ranjana was the one who narrated the whole story of the attack on Rajinder Ahirwar a day before and was at the Bundelkhand Medical College during his treatment and the postmortem as well.
Additional SP Sanjeev Kumar said that the investigation is underway in the entire series of events that have transpired in the last two days.
Meanwhile, former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh reached the residence of the deceased girl to pay his condolences and demanded proper action in the matter.
The senior Congress leader demanded the district collector and superintendent of police of Sagar be sacked and said “The administration promised to give Anjana a government job, did they give her one? They made some other promises too like demolishing houses (of the accused), did they demolish? I am not in favour of bulldozing someone’s house, but you demolish many persons’ houses in the name of action”.
Also, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra took to X (formerly Twitter) and alleged that the BJP was going to change the Constitution as they didn’t want women and the deprived section of society to live with dignity.
Nitin Ahirwar was allegedly beaten to death by a group of people in a matter of an old enmity in Sagar last August.
With inputs from Shiva Purohit
Courtesy : India Today
CASTE DALIT NEWS ELECTION 2024
‘Ten Years Ago, it Was ‘Hindu Khatre Mein’. Now Everyone Says Constitution Is in Danger’
Any chance that INDIA has in UP to crack the BJP’s mainstay would depend considerably on how those who usually press the button for ‘haathi’, or Mayawati, choose this time.
Author Seema Chishti
Ghosi, Ballia (Uttar Pradesh): As the campaign for the longest ever election in India gets into its final stages, this seventh phase in Uttar Pradesh (UP) is crucial. Thirteen seats of the last 57 out of the 542 for which elections were held will choose their representatives on June 1.
The main challenger to the dominant Bharatiya Janata Party is the INDIA alliance, steered by Samajwadi party’s Akhilesh Yadav and the Congress’s Rahul Gandhi, both of whom are also in the race to get elected as MPs from Kannauj and Rae Bareli, respectively. Many seats in this phase were closely contested last time, even if the overall results – BJP getting 62 of 80 – mask the close and bitter struggles.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
Akhilesh Yadav has often outlined how ‘PDA’ – his abbreviation for ‘picchda (backward), Dalit and alpsankhyak (minority)‘ – is an appeal to ‘Bahujan samaj (society)’. This ‘Bahujan samaj’ is not to be confused with the Bahujan Samaj Party or BSP, but refers to voters of the BSP and calls on them to help enable a bigger consolidation that can upend and bring about parivartan or change, a theme no one visiting UP can escape.
The ‘Bahujan samaj’ in UP has also been known to choose the BJP. This is true especially for youngsters, who are drawn by better prospects and the promise of acceptance in the larger Hindu fold. But that dream seems to have soured with ‘joblessness’ emerging a top-of-the-mind issue for quite some time now.
But while opposition voices are loud and impatient, they really will be translated on the ground into fewer seats for the BJP, if the majority of ati-pichhdas or the extremely backwards break away and thereby dilute the stranglehold of the BJP on the Other Backward Classes vote and if Dalits, in significant numbers, support the INDIA alliance.
The Dalit Vote in UP
About 20.5% of UP is Dalit, as per the census in 2011. This is more than the national average of 16.6%.
With the emergence of Kanshi Ram and his Bahujan Samaj Party in the late-eighties, there was finally a political party in India that was able to successfully transform fruits of its training and organisation via BAMCEF, to provide a voice to the Dalit community and make sure it got recognised and was able to make a difference in state politics. There was an alliance with the Samajwadi Party in 1991, which was able to counter the first wave of the Ayodhya push that BJP got on its own. Eventually aligning with the BJP, then going it alone, and finally forming a government in Lucknow on its own in 2007, Mayawati came to stay as a premier Dalit voice on the national scene.
After the ascent of complete Hindutva in the state in 2014, BSP scored a duck. It did align with SP in 2019, securing 10 seats. But in the 2022 assembly polls, its vote share, so far continuously on the rise, took a hit, with 12.88% and just 1 MLA.
This time, INDIA is not in alliance with BSP. Where BSP’s voters go is crucial to deciding how far the call and desire for change will go. With 80 seats, winning which has been crucial to forming governments in Delhi for the BJP since 1996, this has a direct bearing not only on INDIA, but also India.
More than Mayawati not aligning with INDIA, her political statements (equivocating between BJP and Congress), actions (seat changes, allotment of candidates clearly targeting INDIA more than the BJP, removing emerging nephew Akash Anand) and lack of political activity is getting noticed by her voters on the ground.
In a Ghosi village, amidst several persons belonging to the Dalit community, there is deep anger against their state of affairs, which they attribute to the “complete capture by one party”. Frying pakodas and making tea at her stall, Malti Devi is incensed at the suggestion that the BJP wants 400 seats.
“Is he [Modi] the only person there is, whom we should look upto? All this must end.”
There are no jobs and no prospects for her children, she says. “Sabka baccha ghar par baitha hai. Koi bhi, lekin yeh [Modi] nahi,” she says. Translated, this means, ‘Everyone’s kids are sitting unemployed at home. Anyone but him.’
Modi’s close association with all things local, including MPs has meant for many sections that he takes the blame for their perceived incompetence too.
At the little stall she and her husband run, there are others from her community. Shiv Pratap’s life has changed beyond recognition as COVID-19 shut down his factory he used to work for “in Delhi”. He came back for a break before COVID-19, and then lockdown struck. He has never been able to go back and just sits about all day now, worrying over how to feed his children. “Is this what we gave power for 10 years for? I am in no doubt about panja [the Congress’s hand symbol], or whoever is with panja now.”
There are others here who join, making a vigorous case for the BSP as the prime mover for Dalit consciousness in the state. Munna Paswan was working with BAMCEF in 1988 as a teenager, he says. Now, he says it is time for a change. Sceptical of Mayawati’s politics now, but respectful of her role, he says, “Hum parivartan ke lakshya ke saath hain (we are aligned with the larger aim of a change of government now). We will do what it takes.”
His associate, an older man, Kedarnath comes alive recalling how in groups of four, they would go about trying to build confidence in Dalit tolas (areas), despite being derided by others as chamar party-waale in BSP’s early days. The commitment to BSP principally is intact he says, as he sets about to sell the vegetables he has bought but “we know what we must do this time.”
Is he not a BSP worker? “I am, but I have the right to vote also, no?”
In a larger Dalit village in Ballia district, with “80-90 Dalit homes”, there is a large and distinct statue of Dr B.R. Ambedkar holding the constitution of India. You can only approach the statue without footwear.
The mood is sombre here as young and the old discuss the privatisation that has marred prospects of jobs and paper leaks that have blighted the lives of the young.
A diploma holder from Jaunpur gave the police constable examination where the paper was leaked. “Yogi ji has said he will hold it again in 7-8 months but I don’t think he will,” says Deepak Kumar. He is set about pushing for “change”. Appalled that the constitution will be changed. “Women in India do not become mahants or mullahs, but can become PM, president, CM and DM. That is because of the constitution, alone. The Right to Equality in India is only given by the constitution, not anything else.”
“Whatever progress the Dalit community has made is due to education and jobs, and that is at grave risk now. Any more of this and we will suffer irreversibly.”
Elders here swear by the BSP and say that “we must understand why she did not go with the alliance. We will definitely see change this time. We will stay with her. Because if we don’t, and drift away, they will stop valuing us, and they won’t even believe us, that we have not voted for haathi [BSP’s elephant symbol] so we will stay with it.”
Kedarnath, who farms here and also does a private sector job says, “If Ambedkar was a Brahmin, he would have been turned into a God. But as he is a Dalit, they dare talk about changing the constitution.”
More cynically he remarks, “Isn’t it odd that when reservations and other things about the constitution were at risk, only BSP came out in Delhi to protest? Where were Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi then? Now suddenly, it is the constitution.”
“How odd, isn’t it, that 10 years ago, it was Hindu khatre mein, now everyone says that the constitution is in danger?”
“Tell me, the BJP and RSS people want a Ram Rajya – they want a Hindu Rashtra – that means, a lohaar does iron-mongering, a shoemaker makes shoes, a kumhar does pottery and a Nishad does fishing and pandits are ministers. They want a jaat vyavastha (caste system). Tell me how dare they think of changing the constitution?”
He goes on, “If the 85% (referring to the entire population minus the forward castes, believed to be about 15%) throw up one big leader, yeh sab theek ho jayenge – everything will be corrected.”
Younger people in the village quietly say that they have made up their mind, not because they have shed their reservations about Yadavs or the Samajwadi party, but see it as an effective tool to get rid of the ek chhatra raj (single person rule) that prevails, that they feel is stifling the progress of their samaj and their future generations.
The Dalit vote, assumed to have been with the BSP and unconditionally for over two and half or three decades, in what was termed the “silent revolution” by political scientists, is in the midst of a churn.
Loyalty to the BSP runs deep and there is scepticism about social conditions that prevail, making it tough to openly say they will go with “the cycle”. But they are as, if not more restless, as a large section of UP. There is anxiety but also a sense of clarity on what must be done, at least in the immediate term.
What it all adds up to will be revealed on June 4.
Courtesy : The Wire
Survey | The BJP and the Dalit Vote: Limits of the ‘Viksit Bharat’ Narrative
In a move that echoed its 2004 ‘India Shining’ campaign, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s decision to use the slogan of ‘Viksit Bharat’ (developed India) as the centrepiece of its 2024 campaign was a measure of its high confidence. The slogan explicitly conveys a message of ‘mission on track’ about the project of economic development – which will supposedly be complete by 2047.
Smriti Rao
But this claim that economic development is ‘on track’ has always been in serious doubt. Numerous writers have pointed out the lack of improvement in the few macro-level economic indicators we have data for anymore, even as inequality has shot up. They argued that while the BJP might be able to declare ‘mission accomplished’ on the Ram Temple, the same could not be said for economic development. Of course, these scholars were dismissed as anti-national and out of touch by the BJP and its supporters.
Midway through this electoral process, it seems that ordinary voters are also not convinced that Bharat is becoming ‘Viksit’. A series of household-by-household in-person pre-election surveys (table 1) conducted amongst Dalits in two key constituencies – Jalaun in Uttar Pradesh and Muzzafarpur in Bihar – may help us understand, on the one hand, the limits of the BJP’s ‘economy + Hindutva’ strategy, and, on the other hand, the challenge of converting voter scepticism about the BJP’s achievements into opposition votes.
The core BJP voter is upper-caste – as much as 61% of general category caste groups voted for the BJP in 2019. These shares were 82% for Brahmins, 89% for Thakurs and 70% for Vaishyas in UP, for example. But Dalits are an important constituency for the BJP. The BJP has made serious, and to some degree successful, attempts to make inroads into Dalit communities. The BJP went from 24% of the Dalit vote in 2014 to 34% in 2019 nationally. However regional differences persist. In state assembly elections in UP for instance, per a CSDS post-poll survey, the BJP went from 5% of the Jatav vote and 11% of the non-Jatav vote in 2012 to 21% of the Jatav vote and 41% of the non-Jatav vote in 2022. The surveys discussed here were conducted to understand these trends in the Dalit vote. It must be noted that in our survey, when asked an open-ended question about who the respondent would like to see as prime minister, preference for Modi as prime minister began from a much higher starting point amongst Dalits in Bihar than in UP (table 2).
Our surveys were conducted to understand these trends in the Dalit vote. Rather than treat these surveys as predictive, we use them here as a snapshot of views amongst Dalit respondents to see if there are any insights to be gained.
To what extent have Dalits bought into the BJP’s economic claims?
Our respondents overwhelmingly described economic conditions as difficult. This was expressed through answers across a variety of questions on the survey (see Table 3). In both constituencies, less than 10% reported their income being sufficient for their spending needs. Even more concretely, less than 10% in both constituencies reported that their economic situation had improved in the last 5 years. More than 60% of respondents in UP and Bihar reported that the gap between the rich and poor (inequality) had widened in the last 5 years.
Daily wage workers, who rarely have savings to fall back on, cannot afford ‘unemployment’ as it is conventionally defined. They tend to accept lower wages and/or worsening work conditions rather than remain unemployed. 68% of survey respondents in Bihar, and 75% in UP were daily wage earners (doing ‘mazdoori’). Nevertheless, 17% and 24% of our respondents in UP and Bihar respectively reported being unemployed, with women reporting almost double the unemployment rates of men. Finally, when respondents were asked to choose the most important local problems they face, around 90% across both constituencies reported that unemployment and/or price rises (‘mehangai’) were the most important local problems they faced (table 3).
Respondents who stated that inequality is increasing were less likely to choose Modi, although the direction of causality is unclear: do people say inequality is increasing because they have decided to oppose Modi, or the other way around? And we did find that amongst those who think their economic situation has worsened in the last five years, Modi’s vote share is lower than amongst those whose economic situation has improved. This is a strong correlation in both states, although again the direction of causality is unclear. Finally, when respondents were asked to pick a reason why Modi might lose, ‘unemployment and price rise’ was amongst the top two reasons chosen (table 6).
On the other hand, there was no direct correlation between reporting being unemployed and choosing Modi – in part because women were both more likely to report being unemployed and also more likely to choose Modi; and similarly, there was not a strong correlation in either direction between picking unemployment and prices as important local problems, and preferring Modi as PM. Clearly, the Dalit vote is mediated by other factors in addition to the economy.
How resonant are Hindutva issues? (Ram Mandir, Hindu Dharm ki Raksha, opposition as pro-minority/anti-Hindu)
It is notable that a little under two-thirds of respondents in Bihar and UP think that the demand for a Hindu rashtra is not justified. Read in one way, in the Hindi heartland, around a third of even Dalits were happy to openly express their support for it; read in another way, that share is far from being a majority. Furthermore, ‘Hindu’ issues are not ranked highly as priority issues for voting. When we asked respondents to provide some reasons why Modi might win, 20% in UP and 35% percent of respondents in Bihar mentioned Hindu issues such as the Ram Temple or Article 370. In UP, about the same share listed the Hindu-Muslim hatred engendered by the BJP’s policies as a reason why Modi might lose—this share was lower in Bihar, where support for Modi amongst Dalits began from a higher level (table 6).
The role of access to ‘schemes’
The third plank of the BJP regime, and its main defence when it comes to rising inequality and high unemployment and inflation, is access to ‘schemes’. Our survey reveals that not that much has actually changed on the ground in terms of the schemes accessed. Access to rations is at 90% amongst Dalit respondents (table 4), but of course the Public Distribution Scheme (PDS), which is the only (weak) safety net that India provides its citizens, is many decades old. The ‘free’ rations provided by Modi do seem to have some narrative effect, as we discuss below. The Ujjwala gas scheme appears to have significant coverage in the Hindi heartland – at around 45% of respondents. The Ayushmann health insurance scheme in UP and the Nal Jal scheme in Bihar are the only others that break 20% in terms of access. Meanwhile, access to MNREGA is down to single digits in a time of high unemployment, a lost opportunity given the widely acknowledged success of MNREGA, particularly for women (who notably report higher rates of unemployment in our survey).
Once we drop the PDS, therefore, on average each respondent accessed just one other scheme in both states. Furthermore, there was no clear statistical correlation across our dataset between a respondent’s access to any particular scheme and preference for Modi. There was more of a correlation between accessing three or more schemes (which between 3–8% of our respondents did) and voting for Modi.
Nevertheless, in our survey, the BJP’s ‘schemes’ were indeed amongst the top three reasons people gave for why Modi might win. Notably ‘economic improvement’ was not (table 5). Thus, access to schemes does seem to have some narrative effect, even if it does not as clearly determine an individual voter’s choice. It may be that this is what respondents reach for when they try to explain why Modi will win – which is a widely expected outcome – despite so few seeing any tangible improvement in their economic situations, and so many being sceptical (at least outwardly) that Hindutva alone could get Modi to victory.
Perhaps this information should help us revise our understanding of the role of what scholars have called the Modi regime’s ‘new welfarism’. Welfare schemes do not directly and immediately create a mass of grateful labharthis, as some have claimed, but must instead be understood as part of the BJP’s effort to construct an image of Modi as a larger-than-life figure, one who, as a result, escapes blame for the poor economic situation of the country. This effort, moreover, needs to be understood not in isolation but alongside Modi’s broader messaging and use of symbols.
The role of ‘chahra’
This brings us to respondents’ reliance upon the nebulous ‘chahra’ – the top reason given in UP, and the second most important reason given in Bihar for why Modi might win (table 5). In fact, Dalit women in UP, who did lean towards Modi in our survey, were more likely to choose ‘chahra’ (rather than schemes or economic improvement or Hindutva issues) as the reason why Modi would win (table 7). Discussions with respondents pointed to the influence of Modi’s media coverage, and the strength of the narrative building around Modi in particular (as opposed to the BJP more generally). The low shares of respondents in UP and Bihar who attribute any aspect of the opposition’s plans or actions as an explanation for a possible Modi loss or a Modi win indicates the well-documented weakness of any equivalent ‘chahra’ building amongst the opposition. This weakness was reinforced by the BJP’s increasingly aggressive attacks against the financial resources of opposition parties (beginning with demonetisation in 2014), as well as against the leaders themselves.
So what does chahra symbolise? Read in one way, it is the result of media brainwashing. But read in another, it suggests a hunger for leadership and a hope for a better future that, based on this survey, the Modi regime has not delivered. This undercurrent of discontent – especially with respect to unemployment, inflation, inequality and threats to livelihoods – might or might not be expressed electorally this year. However, the fact that it has emerged organically, despite a BJP advertising blitzkrieg, and without a sufficiently organised and resourced opposition, must be reckoned with. While there are many complexities and contradictions that emerge in this survey, the one thing that does become clear is that Dalit respondents do not agree that Bharat is indeed on its way to becoming ‘Viksit’. That mission is far from accomplished.
Dr Smriti Rao is Professor of Economics at Assumption University, USA.
Courtesy : The Wire
Government should take serious action on Dalit atrocities cases: Raj Mahe
Himachal Una. A meeting was organized in Santoshgarh of the district regarding Dalit atrocities cases and Dalit human rights. In the meeting, State General Secretary of National Dalit Human Rights Campaign and National Dalit Justice Movement Raj Mahe said that 15 Dalit atrocities cases from the district were discussed in this meeting. These 15 cases included cases related to land dispute, rape, caste exploitation, water problem and domestic violence.
Advocate Kulwinder Bains and advocate Sandeep Pahesh were present in the meeting as legal advisors. It was discussed in the meeting that unlike other states of the country, the implementation of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act in Himachal is not satisfactory. Even today, people of Dalit community have to put in a lot of effort in the police station to lodge an FIR of their complaint. Even if a case is registered, the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act is not added to the FIR.
Reservation was also discussed on this occasion. During this, a demand was raised that the government should instruct the administrative and police officers to fully implement the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act to end the atrocities and discrimination against the Dalit community. During this, Rajpreet, Randeep Sarkar, Vinay Kumar, Ram Asra, Anuradha, Deepika, Payal, Pooja, Vachan Chand, Ronit, Sailesh, Anirudh, Vikas, Ankush, Yuvraj and other members were present.
Courtesy: Hindi News
Pope to Buddhists: 'Let’s work together for a more inclusive world'
By Lisa Zengarini
Pope Francis on Monday reiterated the importance of a closer collaboration between the Church and Buddhists to address the pressing challenges facing our broken world today.
Welcoming a delegation of some 100 Buddhist monks from the Wat Phra Cetuphon temple of Bangkok, in Thailand, he expressed his deep gratitude and appreciation for their “enduring friendship” and willingness to work together “to bring a ray of hope” to our wounded humanity.
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