U.K. Dalit groups question Modi’s silence on Cobrapost revelations
New Delhi: Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the United Kingdom, four U.K.-based Dalit organisations have written to Mr. Modi expressing dismay at his silence over the revelations made by news portal Cobrapost on the alleged involvement of senior BJP leaders in the massacre of Dalits in Bihar.
Their letter questions why Mr. Modi has neither spoken out against the self-confessed killers and their accomplices nor taken any action against the senior BJP politicians allegedly involved in the massacres of some 144 Dalit men, women and children in Bihar.
In the August 19 letter, the groups have urged Mr. Modi to act as his “lack of action on this issue gives the shocking message that Dalit and oppressed caste lives do not matter in India.” The groups are: the Dalit Solidarity Network; the Federation of Ambedkarite and Buddhist Organisations, U.K.; the Caste Watch U.K.; and the South Asia Solidarity Group.
The letter condemns BJP leader Giriraj Singh for having earlier described the slain Ranvir Sena leader Brahmeshwar Singh, known as ‘Mukhiya’, as “Bihar’s Gandhi” as the Cobrapost documentary exposes the man to be the mastermind of the killings of Dalit men, women and children. It has also noted with concern that the Amir Das Commission, which was set up in 1997 after the Laxmanpur Bathe killings to investigate these massacres, was disbanded in 2005 by Nitish Kumar, then in alliance with the BJP, “in order to appease and shield his erstwhile BJP allies.”
Raising the question whether such horrific violence could be tolerated in a democratic country, the letter demands that all the politicians including senior BJP leaders named in the Amir Das Commission report be dismissed from their posts. It has also demanded that the Army and ex-Army personnel who allegedly trained and armed the banned Ranvir Sena members be brought to justice.
Sting operation
The sting operation by Cobrapost’s K. Ashish, released last week, had revealed that senior BJP leaders Murli Manohar Joshi and C.P. Thakur had instigated the Ranvir Sena commanders, comprising upper caste landowning men, to murder Dalit villagers, who were increasingly organising themselves under the CPI(ML) banner and demanding better wages and asserting themselves. It also revealed other high-profile politicians aiding the Sena’s work such as former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar and JD (U) leader Shivanand Tiwari. Most of the accused in the various massacre cases between 1995 and 2000 were let off by the Patna High Court for want of evidence.
Source: The Hindu
