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Dalit rally foiled in Nagpur

Arunkumar Bhatt

Unprecedented police concentration; roads barricaded

— Photo: AP

TUG-OF-WAR: Police arrest activists who tried to enter the Maharashtra Assembly in Nagpur on Monday.

NAGPUR: The Congress-NCP led Democratic Front Government foiled a bid by Dalits to take out a protest rally here on Monday, resorting to a series of measures including a censure motion in the Maharashtra Assembly on the first day of the winter session in this city.

Authorities deployed police personnel in unprecedented numbers, and sealed all roads to prevent activists of various groups of the Republican Party of India from reaching the city to protest against the Khairlanji rape and killings of Dalits. The police, who denied permission for the protest march, started making preventive arrests on Sunday night.

Leaders held

The activists wanted to march to the Legislature from Deekshabhoomi here, but following police action they tried to begin their rally from the Patwardhan Park. However, the police picked up their leaders to prevent them from regrouping.

Among the arrested were Lok Sabha member Ramdas Athavale, Prakash Ambedkar, P.M. Kamble, Rajendra Gavai and the former minister, Sulekha Kumbhare. The police also arrested Communist Party of India MP D. Raja, who arrived here to support the protesters.

Most of the 300 arrested activists were released after the Legislature adjourned for the day.

The authorities deployed three companies of the Rapid Action Force, one unit of the Central Reserve Police Force, and two companies of the State Reserve Police, in addition to the 5,000-strong local constabulary.

Most roads leading to the Legislature complex and Deekshabhoomi were heavily barricaded and closed to vehicular traffic.

Emotional debate

Tabling an adjournment motion, Shiv Sena member and Leader of the Opposition Ramdas Kadam said the wife and the daughter of Bhaiyalal Bhotmange were raped and tortured to death; two of his sons, one of whom was visually challenged, were murdered. The police tried to save the culprits and tampered with evidence, he alleged.

Mr. Kadam wanted Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and Deputy Chief Minister R.R. Patil to resign on moral grounds. "Nobody involved in such a heinous act or supporting it should be allowed to go scot-free, no matter which party he belongs to."

In an emotional speech, BJP leader Gopinath Munde said the family was annihilated because Mr. Bhotmange dared to testify for Dalit police patil Siddharth Gajbhiye, who was beaten up by the villagers. Had the police invoked the Anti-Dalit Atrocity law, the culprits would not have got bail and killed the Bhotmange family.

Mr. Munde said the way the police tried to destroy evidence to help the culprits showed that the atrocity did not stop even after the killings. He took Mr. Patil to task for saying naxalites were behind the protests. "I may have my differences with the Dalit parties, but I will not say they are anti-national."

Congress member and Dalit leader Janardan Chandurkar said the Khairlanji incident was a result of the social evils the Dalits faced for many centuries. He blamed the electronic media for sensationalising the desecration of Dr. Ambedkar's statue in Kanpur. "Why are you calling this a Dalit agitation and separating the Dalits from the mainstream? Why can't you call it an anti-injustice stir," asked Prof. Chandurkar.

Doctors suspended

Replying to the marathon, emotionally charged debate, Mr. Patil said five policemen involved in the case were dismissed. The doctors who tried to tamper with the post-mortem report were placed under suspension and they could be dismissed.

The Deputy Chief Minister denied calling the victim a naxal, but pointed out that the village did fall in the naxalite-infested areas and that naxalites did try to fish in troubled waters.

The Government was accepting the suggestion made by a committee in 1975 that a commission be appointed every five years to review the condition of the Dalits.

Mr. Patil criticised the Dalit leaders, particularly Prof. Jogendra Kawade, and said they had not paid any attention to the Khairlanji carnage. Mr. Bhotmange had complained to the police as early as 2002 about the danger he was facing; the only leader to whom he submitted a copy of the petition for follow-up action was Prof. Kawade. "These leaders are out to salvage their sinking leadership for, they are startled by the fact that the response to their calls in the matter is nothing compared to people's spontaneous protests."

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