Is watching garba a crime, ask kin of Gujarat youth
Jayesh Solanki (20), a daily wager from Bhandariya in Gujarat’s Anand district, took up the job of a security guard at a garba venue in Vadodara, 45 km from his village to earn some extra money.
But by the time the Navratri festival came to an end, he could not protect his own life.
On the last day of the festival, he was killed in his village allegedly by some upper caste men, who believed dalits have no right to watch garba.
“Is watching garba a crime?” asks Prakash Solanki, his cousin and witness to the atrocity unleashed by eight men, all of whom have been arrested.
Apart from losing a cousin who was more like a friend, something else has added to the emotional trauma of young Prakash. “He died protecting me.”
Prakash told HT that Jayesh had only tried to stop one of the accused, Sanjay Patel, who slapped him while they were watching garba at a village temple. “Sanjay probably did not like Jayesh’s firm reply that we were there just like them to watch garba. He then hurled abuses at us and left. He soon returned with seven others who thrashed Jayesh, banged his head to a wall,” he said.
“If I had stopped Jayesh from going out in the wee hours after he returned home from his temporary job, he would have been with me today,” his mother Madhuben
AHMEDABAD:
said. Jayesh’s father Bhailal(50) is an agricultural labourer.
The accused have been booked for assault, murder and under provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Police had sought to remand them for 7 days but the court sent them to judicial custody, said a Borsad police official. One of the accused is a minor and has been sent to a juvenile home.
The week Solanki was killed, a couple of Dalit youth were beaten in Gandhinagar district for sporting a moustache.
The community in Jayesh’s village, however, does not want to take things for granted. “We organised a village meeting on Monday to make sure that the family gets justice. Today (Tuesday), Anand collector visited us and handed over a cheque of ₹4 lakh ...” said Prakash. The administration has announced a compensation of ₹8 lakh in total.
The village has some 20 Dalit families and around 100 Patels. The Dalits in the village maintained that discrimination is not the way of life there but they do have to face it some time.