Anger among Dalits makes ripples across poll-bound UP

A FEW DALITS IN A VILLAGE NEAR LUCKNOW SAY THEY ARE YET TO EXPERIENCE TRUE FREEDOM AND EMPOWERMENT

LUCKNOW/MEERUT/ALLAHABAD/ VARANASI: Expelled BJP leader Dayashankar Singh’s derogatory comment against BSP chief Mayawati has added fuel to the overall Dalit discontent in UP, as the community is angry about “being taken for granted”.

In Meerut’s Abdullapur slum cluster, some residents declared they will tear into Singh, who is on the run, if they are able to lay their hands on him. “Bring him here and I will cut him to pieces,” says Satish Kumar, a mason.

But fellow Dalits Rajpal and Surendra Gautam reasoned: “Behenji (Mayawati) wants to maintain peace and harmony”.

In the slum, 60% of its 11,000 voters are Dalits or people from the lower castes — four-time chief minister Mayawati’s support base.

These people wondered why PM Narendra Modi is silent on atrocities on Dalits.

“The BSP chief is a mass leader. Dayashankar should be taught a lesson so that upper-class men don’t dare make such comments in the future,” said village headwoman Heerawati Devi, a Dalit who has been a BJP member for about 20 years. Her village, Bhitara, in on the outskirts of Varanasi, which is Modi’s parliamentary constituency.

“I am in the BJP. But that doesn’t mean I will not speak on Dalit issues. I have condemned the filthy comment against the BSP chief,” she said.

Some Dalits in a village on the outskirts of Lucknow lament that they are yet to experience true freedom and empowerment.

“We are being subjected to the same caste discrimination that our community faced during the British era. The BJP leader’s remark is a glaring example,” said Parshuram, a farmhand.

Residents of Pura Padain, a Dalit slum in Allahabad, live without a single toilet, ration card, legal electricity or water connection, and access to school and government health centre.