Why are you silent on discrimination against Dalit jawans? Macwan questions Modi
Close on the heels of releasing his book in Gujarati, "Bhed Bharat", which lists 319 cases of atrocities against Dalits and Adivasis across the country over the last five years, well-known Gujarat Dalit rights leader Martin Macwan has shot an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, telling him the reasons why he does not want vote for the BJP.
Giving graphic instances from the book, whose English edition was released on Friday, in order to give examples of how atrocities against Dalits and Adivasis have allegedly spiralled during the Modi rule, Macwan tells Modi, "It is a shame for the nation that your party has been intimidating common people and you are consciously silent."
The book seeks to answer the question as to why talk of atrocities when India is facing "serious problems post massacre of 40 security men by terrorists in Pulwama." According to Macwan, "It is not enough to merely condemn the attack at Pulwama", recalling a similar terrorist attack which took place in June 2016, in which eight jawans were killed in Kashmir.
While seven martyrs were laid to rest with full honours, Macwan says, one of them, Virsingh, "was not buried in the common village burial ground of his village simply because he was a Dalit." Wondering "why do we not brand Virsingh’s villagers ‘anti-national’,", he accuses Modi of remaining "completely silent" on the action of these non-Dalits, to whom he was an ‘Untouchable’.
Citing another instance, he asks Modi, "Do you have an answer to the question raised by Daivindran, a soldier with the Indian Army, who witnessed massacre of three Dalits, including his father and scores of other Dalits recuperating in the hospital with 40 to 80 injuries on their body in his village Kanchnatham of Shivgangei district of Tamilnadu on May 28, 2018? His only crime was, he asked with anger in his eyes: ‘I protect the nation; who will protect my family?'”
Titled "Why I do not want to vote for your party", and claiming a large number of followers, Macwan kicks off the letter by saying, he has addressed Modi as ‘respected’ in accordance to "our civilized Indian culture, which respects even those who may differ ideologically", even though Modi's behaviour as Gujarat chief minister towards the then Prime Minster, Dr Manmohan Singh, "was less than dignified, embarrassing the honour of Gujaratis."
Declaring that he is writing the letter as a citizen who is "not a registered member of any political party", Macwan recalls, he had also publicly critiqued former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who had sent an all-party delegation, which included two Congress Dalit leaders, Sushil Kumar Shinde and Meira Kumar, "to protest the inclusion of caste in the agenda of UN World Conference against Racism."
Saying that he does not want to vote for BJP because he fears that "not doing this would amount to betrayal to the ideological inheritance of Lord Buddha, Mahatma Jyotiba Phule-Savitri Phule, St Kabir, Sahu Maharaj and Dr Ambedkar", adding, this open decision is based not "on the basis of pre-election propaganda marred by allurements, false promises and irrational claims", but on an evaluation of Modi "for a full five-year term."
Macwan says, though the BJP won 41 of the 84 Scheduled Caste (SC) reserved Parliamentary seats, and 26 of the 47 Scheduled Tribe (ST) seats, apart from several seats won by allies, taking the total tally to SC-ST seats to 83, the letter says, "This voluminous SC-ST gratitude was, unfortunately, rewarded by your government in the form of increased atrocities on them."
Referring to instances from his book “Bhed Bharat”, the letter says, not only has the Modi's utilisation of poorly allocated budgeted funds for SCs and STs has gone down, it has successively undermined post-matric scholarship for Dalits, even as failing to find enough funds for to coach to qualify for professional courses. "Is this not a systemic bias you hold against the Dalits?", it asks.
Citing how indifferent Modi's administration has become towards Dalits, Macwan says, in 1992 forest-police-revenue officials raided a tribal village Vachathi, distict Dharmapuri, Tamilnadu, to hunt for sandalwood, raping 18 women. A court convicted the accused 21 years later, "yet you did not ensure that the women were paid compensation."
The letter says, though the malnutrition rate among tribal children has remained unchanged at 55%, Modi government has enough money to "buy multi-billion-dollar fighter jets and missiles, as modern and sophisticated as the US, China or Russia", yet it does not have money to "feed tribal children to end their malnutrition." He adds, this suggests, "we are not a poor nation, but we do not have money for the poor in India."
Calling atrocities against Dalits and Adivasis "state-sponsored discrimination", the letter gives instances of starvation deaths from deprived communities -- including that of Santoshi, a tribal girls from Jharkhand, who died after she did not get food for seven days; and four-year old Shivram Manjhi from Saraguja district of Chhattisgarh, who died while migrating with his father to a town in search of a job.
Macwan tells Modi, "Your manifesto for 2019 elections, Sankalp Patra, does not mention abolition of untouchability or ending atrocities on Dalits and Adivasis." And while it does mention the need to protect sanitation workers, "It is silent on ending of manual scavenging practices."
Giving instances from the book ranging from how 63 Dalit labourers from Chhattisgarh, including children and pregnant women, were held captive in a brick kiln unit in Rajouri District of Jammu & Kashmir, to a racket of trading minor tribal girls from Chhattisgarh and Odisha in the name of supplying domestic servants in Delhi, Macwan says, these and other instances show that the poor have no place in the development map.
Pointing towards the "havoc" created by cow vigilantes assaulting Dalits, Adivasis and Muslims across the country, the letter says, "You had publicly said, 'Shoot me if you want, but don’t target my Dalit brothers', directing state governments to prepare dossier on cow vigilantes". It asks Modi, "How many dossiers have you made? How many people have you punished? One of your Ministers garlanded the cow vigilantes in public after they secured bail!"
Questioning his Swachh Bharat campaign, and Gujarat being declared as open defecation free, the letter says, "Not more than Rs 3,000 have been spent on each of these toilets in place of Rs 12,000 allocated", adding, "I have hundreds of photographs of these toilets which stand broken, dilapidated, unusable. They have no foundation. Many do not have tub or soak pit, and if they have, they are unconnected... With such toilets in their homes, people have only one option: To defecate in the open."
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Click HERE for the letter
Courtesy: www.counterview.net
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Shivakumar clarifies on Cartier watch, hits back at BJP leader
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Friday hit back at senior BJP leader Chalavadi Narayanaswamy and clarified with records on the expensive Cartier wristwatch he had submitted in the affidavit to Lokayukta.
Claiming that he is a "transparent person", he asked whether he or Chief Minister Siddaramaiah should not have the right to wear a watch of their choice.
His clarification came a day after Narayanaswamy, who is the Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council, had questioned about the expensive watches.
"Mr Chalavadi Narayanaswamy, please take a moment to review the affidavit I submitted to the Lokayukta," Shivakumar said in a post on 'X', with documents of assets declared with Lokayukta on October 28, which mentions Rolex watch worth Rs 9 lakh and two Cartier watches worth Rs 23,90,246 and Rs 12,06,000 respectively.
The Deputy CM said, "As someone in a position of responsibility, speaking falsehoods for convenience is not only wrong but also undermines your (Narayanaswamy) integrity."
"I am a transparent person and have shared the truth openly. Do I, or even CM Siddaramaiah, not have the right to wear a watch of our choice? I urge you to refrain from making baseless remarks and exercise your constitutional authority wisely and responsibly," he said, adding that all the details are on record, and if the BJP leader wishes, he is welcome to visit the Lokayukta office and verify the affidavit himself.
Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar reportedly wore similar Cartier watches when the former visited the latter's residence for breakfast on December 2, and the opposition BJP has been critical of the expensive watches and has raised questions about it.
Pointing to reports that both the CM and Deputy CM were wearing expensive watches from the same company, Narayanaswamy on Thursday had accused Shivakuamar of not mentioning about the watches purchase to the Election Commission.
He said that Shivakumar's affidavit submitted to the Election Commission only mentioned a Rolex watch worth Rs 9 lakh and a Hublot watch worth Rs 23,90,246, but does not have any mention of a Cartier watch.
"Where have you (Shivakumar) declared a Cartier watch", the BJP leader had questioned while adding that the watch is currently valued at about Rs 47 lakh, including taxes.
Questioning whether the Cartier watch was stolen or purchased, Narayanaswamy accused Shivakumar of lying to the people by stating that he had purchased it using his credit card, and had demanded him to release the documents about the purchase.
The opposition leader, citing that the CM is a "watch lover", pointed out that Siddaramaiah, during his earlier tenure as CM, was embroiled in a controversy over a Hublot watch, which he had subsequently handed over to the Assembly secretariat, declaring it as state property.
Reacting to Shivakumar's post, Narayanaswamy on Friday, while stating that it is a well-known fact that the Deputy CM has the ability to buy and wear watches worth lakhs of rupees, asked him, "As you (Shivakumar), yourself have said, you have a Cartier watch that you bought 7 years ago, why did you not declare it in your 2018 and 2023 election affidavits?"
In a post on 'X', he said he has only put a legitimate question before Shivakumar to seek clarification. "It is up to you (Shivakumar) to answer in the right way or ignore it," he added.
Hitting back at Narayanaswamy, Shivakumar, speaking to reporters, said, anyone could check his Lokayukta affidavit and that he was ready to resign if he had lied. He also challenged the opposition leader whether he was ready to resign if proven wrong.
"Narayanaswamy lacks experience, I have filed (declaration of assets) before Lokayukta and wherever I have to. I have my watch with me. If I'm lying I'm ready to resign today itself. Is he ready? One should have basic common sense and should not speak just for publicity. I behave more responsibly than him. He should learn to work with responsibility. Let him go and see the Lokayukta affidavit that I have filed this year," he said.
