‘Loss of faith in law cause Dimapur-like incidents’

New Delhi: National Commission for Scheduled Castes Chairman P L Punia on Tuesday said incidents like Dimapur lynching occur when the underdog lose faith in law enforcing agencies as he made a strong appeal to Dalits to organise against crimes against women of their community.
Holding that the Dalits are today divided, he asked them to unite and organise while referring to the incident of alleged rape of a tribal woman in Dimapur after which a mob had pulled out the accused from jail and lynched him in March.
Punia was speaking at a function held under the auspices of National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Bhagwan Valmiki Foundation to commemorate the birth anniversary of Dalit icon B R Ambedkar.
He said when people from the deprived sections feel that law enforcing agencies are not working for them, “then only that happens what happened in Dimapur.” Punia said he “does not endorse” what happened in Dimapur, but expressed his happiness about the tribals organising against crime there.
“The tribals of Nagaland are the best.They showed courage and organised together,” he said, urging the Dalits to come together to oppose when any such incident happens with their sisters and daughters. “We should be organised in a manner that people fear us,” he said.
Later explaining his remarks, Punia said he was only citing an example to hammer home the point that the Dalits should organise. Punia had earlier also said such incidents could instill fear in those involved in crime against women even as he had condemned the Dimapur lynching. Speaking at a launch of Atrocity Tracking and Monitoring System (ATM), developed by National Dalit Movement for Justice (NDMJ) here on March 18, he had said, “Baba Saheb wanted us to get organised and be powerful, and the power should be such that people get scared of it.
There are families whose women cannot be misbehaved with as people fear them. Similarly, people should fear you as well.” “Fear should be such that people should tremble out of it. The Dimapur lynching incident was bad but in certain way it was good as such people will be scared (after this incident).
To generate this sort of fear, Baba Saheb had said that we be organised. He wanted us to be organised in such a way that nobody can think of victimising us.” (PTI)