Dalit writer in trouble for book on Maharana Pratap
An acclaimed Dalit writer in Rajasthan has said she is being threatened for suggesting in a 2015 book that Rajput warrior king Maharana Pratap belonged to the Bhil community and was only elevated as the Rana of Mewar later.
Kusum Meghwal told Hindustan Times she has been getting phone calls from the past week from unknown people who abuse her and use profanities.
“I have been getting calls from unknown numbers who are threatening to kill me for writing the book. Some of the callers claim they are from the Karni Sena while others say they are Thakurs. I haven’t ventured from my house in the last seven days,” the writer said.
The author of over 65 books also alleged that she has received calls from individuals who claimed they were from the ‘Indian Army’ and also abused and threatened her.
Meghwal, who has made the claim in her book Maharana Pratap Bhil Rajputra The — Kshatriya Ya Rajput Nahi, said the word Bhil comes from the Sanskrit word Bhilla, which means brave and martial.
“The Bhil community has traditionally been spread all over Mewar and was known for its martial prowess. Maharana Pratap was also a Bhil, who was later elevated as the ruler of Mewar in a ceremony to make him a suryavanshi,” she said.
“If any person objects to what I have written, he is welcome to write something in retaliation or to even register a court case. But where does the freedom of expression go if instead of any debate, people start threatening the author?” Meghwal, the younger sister of Rajasthan assembly speaker Kailash Meghwal, asked.
Meghwal added that this was an effort to subdue the voices of Dalits. “I sent a written complaint to the police superintendent and range inspector general and got advice in return that I should switch off my phone. I am scared for my safety but the police haven’t provided me with any security cover,” she alleged.
Kavita Srivastava of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) strongly condemned the police inaction in the matter.
However, Chandra Purohit, station house officer of the Ambamata police station, told HT they have provided security to Meghwal ‘secretly’.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is likely to conduct the National Eligibility Test (NET) annually, rather than twice in a year, sources said.
Putting an end to speculations over conducting NET, the University Grants Commission (UGC) said CBSE will continue to conduct the exam, even though the board had earlier expressed its inability to do so.
The exam is held twice a year — July and December — for the grant of junior research fellowship and eligibility for assistant professorship in universities and colleges. The CBSE is likely to issue a notification in this regard.
Sources said looking at the poor response to the test — 6.5 lakh students register for the exam on an average and approximately 1.5 lakh take it, with a passing percentage of only 3.9% — the CBSE suggested conducting it just once.
However, a final decision on the matter is yet to be taken.
“CBSE has agreed to conduct the exam till the National Testing Service is formed, which will start conducting all competitive examinations. But CBSE has conveyed it to the UGC that the exam should be conducted once a year as a lot of time and energy is spent on organising it and few people take it,” said a source.
Qualification in NET is a must for recruitment of teachers in colleges and universities.
The CBSE wrote to the human resource development ministry in September last year, complaining that asking it to conduct various examinations that are outside its purview was creating an “extraneous burden” on it. The NET was conducted by the UGC till 2014, following which it was handed over to the CBSE.
Several students had protested outside the UGC last week, demanding that the uncertainty over the exam be cleared and a notification be issued in the regard.
6.5 LAKH STUDENTS REGISTER FOR THE EXAM ON AN AVERAGE AND APPROXIMATELY 1.5 LAKH TAKE IT, WITH A PASSING PERCENTAGE OF ONLY 3.9%