DALIT RAGE SINGES NORTH INDIA; 9 DEAD
Bharat bandh against Supreme Court order brings northern states to grinding halt
Six people killed in Madhya Pradesh, two in Uttar Pradesh and one in Rajasthan Bjp-led Centre filed a review petition in the Supreme Court Chief Justice of India declined to hear the urgent plea More than 100 passenger and mail train services affected BJP, Congress blame each other for mess Centre closely monitoring situation in northern states
Six people were killed in Madhya Pradesh, two in Uttar Pradesh and one in Rajasthan and as Dalit groups clashed with the police to protest a Supreme Court order which allegedly dilutes a law protecting their rights.
Even as protests began to spiral out of control in some states, the Bjp-led Centre filed a review petition in the Supreme Court against its order last month, which barred automatic arrests on complaints filed under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
However, the Chief Justice of India declined to hear the urgent plea on the ruling. In its petition, the Centre sought the restoration of the earlier status by which any offence under the SC/ST Act was made a cognizable non-bailable offence.
However, the protests soon took a violent turn on Monday, with agitators resorting to violence and police using force to rein them in.
Curfew was imposed in parts of Gwalior and Morena in Madhya Pradesh after bouts of violent demonstration, in which six people were killed. Section 144 was enforced in Sagar. Protesters were seen pelting stones in Bhind.
The protests also claimed two lives in Uttar Pradesh — one in Muzaffarnagar and another in Meerut. Meerut saw widespread arson and clashes between police and protesters. In Hapur, protesters blocked the highway. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has appealed for calm, saying the Central and the state governments were are “dedicated towards the welfare of backward castes, SC & ST”.
In Ranchi, agitators clashed with police personnel, who resorted to lathi charge to disperse the crowd. A youth died in police firing in Alwar and internet services have been suspended in the area. The protesters blocked railway tracks and stopped a train in Jaipur. An apparel showroom was also vandalised, as per reports. Public property was damaged, and protesters torched cars in Barmer.
Dalits took out a protest marches in Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Ropar, Bathinda, Amritsar and Ferozepur in Punjab, even as the state government ordered the closure of educational institutions, suspended bus services, and curtailed mobile and internet connectivity. Protests were also witnessed at Ambala and Rohtak in Haryana as well as in the common capital of Chandigarh. The Army and paramilitary forces have been asked to remain on standby to prevent an emergency.
In the NCR region, protesters squatted on tracks in several places outside Delhi, stopping trains, including the Dehradun Express and the Ranchi Rajdhani, to enforce an all India shutdown. A mob at the Ghaziabad railyard disrupted services.
“MHA is closely monitoring the situation and is in constant touch with states. Central forces have been made available,” a home ministry spokesperson said. The Centre also asked the states to take preventive steps and maintain public order to ensure the safety of lives and property.
More than 100 passenger and mail train services were on Monday affected as protesters squatted on the tracks.
Earlier on Monday, Congress president Rahul Gandhi and the BJP’S Ravi Shankar Prasad slugged it out on the issue of the welfare of Dalits.
Rahul said that the “oppression of Dalits is in the RSS’S and BJP’S DNA”.
The BJP’S Prasad then hit back, accusing the Congress of “playing politics with BR Ambedkar”, a Dalit icon and the father of the Indian Constitution.