A dangerous demand
While it is true that violence against Dalits has increased , arming them for their safety cannot be a solution
On July 11, Shiv Sena members stripped four Dalit men, tied them to a car and thrashed them in a village of Gir-Somnath district in Gujarat for skinning dead cows. While such incidents should not happen in the first place, it is futile to wish them away because India still remains a feudal and casteist society. So what is the best way to respond to such incidents? Most of us would argue that proper implementation of laws, quick police and legal action, and deep social changes could ensure that people don’t indulge in mindless violence. The new junior social justice minister Ramdas Athawale, however, has some unusual thoughts on tackling such attacks.
In an interview to HT, the minister reaffirmed his demand to allow Dalits to keep weapons for self-protection. This is the second time that Mr Athawale, once a firebrand activist who, under the banner of the Dalit Panthers (a revolutionary organisation inspired by the Black Panther Party in the United States), joined causes that are dear to the Dalit constituency. Mr Athawale also had a remarkable explanation for why there is so much violence against the Dalits. The main reason, he said, is inter-caste love and marriage. Mr Athawale’s demand for weapons for Dalits is not new. He made the same demand in January after Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula’s suicide. His argument: The Sikhs are allowed to keep arms and, so people are afraid to get into a fight with them, forgetting effortlessly that Article 25 of the Constitution deems the carrying of ‘kirpan’ to be included in the profession of the Sikh religion.
While it is true that violence against Dalits has increased over the years — 47,064 cases of crime against Dalits were registered in 2014, up from 39,408 in 2013 and 33,655 in 2012 — arming the community is not the solution. Moreover, it will open a floodgate of similar demands from others. Mr Athawale should take note how lax gun control laws are creating havoc in the US. Mr Athawale as the social justice minister should be the last person to propose such a silly idea. There are different ways of empowering a community, arms licences for everyone is definitely not one of them.