Dalits should unite cutting across party lines to oppose the growing number of atrocities on them, Communist Party of India (Marxist) State Secretary and Kulavivaksha Vyathireka Porata Samithi (KVPS) vice-president B.V. Raghavulu has said.
Participating in the dalits’ “Aatmagaurava poratam” (struggle for self-respect) here on Thursday, Mr. Raghavulu said it was time the State government took up the matter seriously and resolved the problem of the dalits.
Pointing out that justice had not been done in any of the eight cases of atrocities on the dalits in recent times, the CPI(M) leader said that the movement for self-respect was peaceful at this stage but if there was no response even after the agitation the “consequences would be severe.”
The Justice Punnaiah Commission had clearly stated that lower rung police officials were unable to deal with cases of atrocities on SCs and STs and that an officer of the rank of deputy superintendent or above should conduct an inquiry into these cases. This was not being done according to the KVPS activists, Mr. Raghavulu said.
No action
The CPI (M) State secretary said that the details of the atrocities in which no action was taken by the Government machinery would be taken to the notice of the Home Minister, DGP and even the Chief Minister.
Unless the dalits opposed the atrocities with unity the perpetrators would not stop, he said, giving the example of a dalit youth of the Congress party being beaten up and not rescued by the other parties. “Next time a dalit of a different party is attacked, dalits of the Congress will not go to his rescue,” he said.
KVPS State leader Annavarapu Nageswara Rao said neither the Krishna district superintendent of police nor the Vijayawada commissioner of police went to inquire about the atrocities in their respective jurisdictions because the police were trying to protect the interests of non-dalit sections.
Not booking cases
The police were not even booking cases against the non-dalit perpetrators without the dalits launching agitations, he alleged. KVPS had the support of 35 dalit organisations and civil societies in this agitation that would be intensified if the Government did not take proper action.
KVPS district president Neelam Pullaiah said that the police who should protect the weaker sections were ganging up with the rich and powerful.
KVPS State secretary J. John Wesley and MRPS district secretary Manda Venkateswara Rao spoke.
