It is a disgrace that Dalits are segregated in society and in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state, Gujarat. Last Sunday 27 year old Jayesh Solanki, a Dalit was beaten to death by a group of upper caste Patels in Gujarat’s Anand district. The fight was over the right of Dalits to watch the Garba of upper caste Gujaratis. As a matter of course, the police registered an FIR against the eight assailants and a probe has been ordered. Why there should be a need for a probe in such a case is difficult to understand. Exemplary punishment must be meted out though that may not eliminate the evil. Last year, a cow vilgilante group had ruthlessly beaten up a Dalit family in Una. There the Dalits have been forced to give up their occupation of skinning dead cattle. The police are often in cahoots with the offenders in these places and the rule of law is thrown to the winds. Of course, four policemen were suspended in Una for their complicity in the crime but they were later released on bail. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s strong invective against such brutality on Dalits has not had the desired effect.
The Constitution is often disrespected in such cases. It lays down strict action against atrocities on Dalits. But the law is hardly enforced in those cases. Cases of atrocities against Scheduled Castes in the country increased in number from 26,127 in 2005 to 45,003 in 2015. Conviction rates on the other hand fell from 30% to 28%. Gujarat has a dismal record and there were convictions only in eleven out of the 949 cases charge-sheeted in 2015. For some years now, Dalit mobilisation has been going on but the law protecting them must be more stringent. It is a pity that Solanki was killed a day before Gandhi Jayanti, the birth anniversary of the Mahatma of Gujarat who called all low caste Hindus Harijans.
