In a novel protest, Dalit leaders staged a demonstration and submitted a representation to the statue of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar here on Wednesday.
The symbolic protest was to invoke his attention to the recent humiliating incident in East Godavari, wherein a Dalit was tonsured allegedly for questioning the excesses of the ruling party leaders.
Amid chanting of slogans against Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, members of the Scheduled Caste community led by leaders Venkata Ratnam and Gangulaiah said the government was in no mood to repent for the incident, nor relent on its excesses. “The aggrieved Dalit man went to the extent of threatening to join the Maoist movement. This is the state of affairs in Andhra Pradesh,” they fumed. TDP leader M. Sugunamma alleged the government was oppressing the voice of those questioning it, instead of cracking the whip on the perpetrators of the crime.
