Hindutva is anti-thesis of Dalit power: Gau rakshaks, new low for India
Kashmir is on the boil. Vigilante violence against Dalits is on the uptick. Maoists are up in arms in the vast swathes of rural areas.
Rape cases against women are increasing with rapists on bail committing repeat offence against the woman-victim not far from Delhi.
Is it India of the 21st century one dreams of? Is it the story of the world's fastest growing economy, which our leaders are tom-tomming?
One needs to put the question to our rulers in Delhi. Please tell us which country with the fastest growing economy tag has such deep divisions along caste, religion, gender, class and whatnot? And please tell us why the divisions are widening?
Decades ago, one after noon this reporter was travelling through a mustard field in north Bihar when he heard a commotion.
Beyond the field on a fallow land, a group of men, women and children appeared to be bending on an animal carcass slicing away chunks of meat in bamboo baskets.
They were poor, landless Dalits from the village. None of them owned even homestead land, let alone land for cultivation.
They had carried the carcass of a cow that had died hours earlier to the outskirt of the village.
The landlord and nobody had told them to partake of the cow meat. The carcass was supposed to have been thrown to the consumed by vultures and pariah dogs.
But the reality was and everybody in the village knew it that the landless Dalit people would have a feast that night.
Eating cow, buffalo and oxen meat was a long tradition for them. Skinning the dead animals, using the skin for leather sandals formed part of the meager income for them.
Today, a Dalit family can be lynched if found skinning a dead cow carcass. Four of them were stripped and beaten mercilessly by a gau rakshak or cow protection vigilante group in Gujarat's Una taluka of Saurashtra region.
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| The so-called gau rakshaks are foot soldiers of the masters who are at the head of the Hindutva pyramid. |
Protests against the vigilante justice are taking place across several districts of Gujarat.
At least five Dalit youths tried to take their own lives by drinking phenyl, of whom one died, in protest against the government's inaction against the criminals.
The protesters unloaded a truckload of cow carcasses in front of Surendranagar district collector's office asking the gau rakshaks to clean the place.
A few decades ago as bonded labourers tied to the yoke of the village landlords the Dalits had unfettered right to skin and consume dead cow meat.
Now under the BJP government, much more aware, educated and empowered Dalit members are stripped and beaten with rods by a group of so-called cow protectors who take law into their hands and resort to medieval justice system.
The video of the incident showed four men stripped and tied to a car being mercilessly beaten up with rods and watched by throng of crowds.
In the violence that followed after the video went viral, one policeman was dead and properties were burnt.
The so-called cow protection groups have sprung up here and there. They are bold and brazen.
They catch people, especially Dalits, Muslims and poor who they accuse of smuggling cows from one state to another and hand out vigilante justice including brutal killings.
They are being encouraged to take law into their hands by senior functionaries of the RSS, the BJP and affiliated organisations in the name of cow protection.
They are becoming emboldened day by day because they realise that the leaders of the cow protection groups have the backing of the BJP governments in states and at the Centre.
They know that even those BJP leaders who make politically correct statements on the right to consume beef are speaking in forked tongues.
A Shiv Sena activist Ramesh Goswami was quoted as having defended the criminals saying, "We had information about some people killing cow for beef." He boasted that cow slaughter would not be tolerated.
The Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel had posted a series of tweets assuring the Dalit victims of justice and calling for peace.
Seven more arrested in Una case, total 16 accused held till now. State govt is taking strict action against all accused.
— Anandiben Patel (@anandibenpatel) July 19, 2016
Gujarat govt is making all efforts to ensure justice to victims of Una incident. Govt will make sure accused will face a speedy trial.
— Anandiben Patel (@anandibenpatel) July 19, 2016
I appeal to Dalit youth to not resort to desperate measures like attempting suicide & assure them that govt is with Una victims.
— Anandiben Patel (@anandibenpatel) July 19, 2016
She ordered a CID inquiry into the incident and also announced to set up a special court for speedy trial of the case.
Her words and assurances wouldn't comfort the victims. They know that the cow protection forms part of a larger scheme in the ruling party's ideology.
The so-called gau rakshaks are foot soldiers of the masters who are at the head of the Hindutva pyramid.
At the time of elections and when it comes to counting numbers, the beef-eating Dalits become part of the larger Hindu Parivar.
Because they form 16 per cent of the population, they are rising as a class or section of the people, they are asserting themselves and seeking a dignified and rightful place in the society.
The BJP under Narendra Modi would like to appropriate the greatest Dalit icon Dr BR Ambedkar. The party is plotting to garner Dalit votes in UP elections.
But it's time for them to realise that the ideology of Hindutva is the anti-thesis of what constitutes the Dalit power.
The gau rakshaks can only repel Dalit votes, can't attract them.
From the Hindi heartland hinterland where the tribal population is caught in a Maoist war to Kashmir Valley where the youth are feeling cornered to resorting to violence to Dalits who are increasingly becoming victims of a medieval and regressive ruling ideology, the country seems to be hurtling towards a tipping point of large scale unrest and chaos.