The plight of tribals during the Amrita period

The spectacle that emerged from Siddhi in Madhya Pradesh the other day is shocking but not surprising. There is no novelty in a local BJP leader urinating on the face of a tribal youth who asked for wages for work he had done. The BJP has been boasting about bringing the Amrit period at the same time. This is just a small sample of the brutalities faced by the grassroots community including tribals and Dalits in the country even as they celebrate seventy-five years of independence.

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The BJP government which rules Madhya Pradesh has tried to save face by arresting the accused Pravesh Shukla, the right-hand man of a BJP MLA, in connection with the incident. As the opposition's questioning intensified, a portion of the accused's house was bulldozed and demolished as it was an allegedly illegal construction, and a National Security Act charge was also slapped against him. However, Kedarnath Shukla MLA, one of the mouthpieces of the state BJP, does not admit that the accused is his aide. India is a country where it is laid down in the Constitution that if any person from the Dalit-Adivasi community is harmed even verbally, action should be taken without delay. However, in this case action was taken only when the video of this heinous crime committed months ago went viral on social media, and the opposition parties, including the Congress, raised it as an issue. The victim belongs to the Kol Grotra sect, which has been traditionally supporting the BJP and has the power to significantly influence the election results in more than twenty constituencies in the state. The BJP government was left with no alternative as it was sure that the opposition would make this an issue when the assembly elections are held this year. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, Madhya Pradesh is the state that commits the most atrocities against Scheduled Tribes in the country.

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Violence against minorities not only Muslims and Christians, but also Dalits and Adivasis, has seen a huge increase over the past century. Not long ago, a Dalit boy was beaten to death by his teacher for drinking from the school's drinking bowl. Casteists are upset over a ringtone of a song praising Dr Ambedkar, a Dalit groom riding on a horse, or someone from the lower caste marrying from an upper caste. They immediately execute the punishment. Just look at an incident in Karnal, Haryana, another BJP-ruled state. A fifty-year-old Dalit laborer named Premchand, who had been doing farm work for an upper-caste family for years, was beaten to death at his employer's home. The assailants were enraged that he entered the house wearing sandals and the 'punishment' was carried out. Premchand's son laments that they were not even ready to release a vehicle to take his father, who was beaten and bleeding, to the hospital.

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With the beating and killing of Dalit youths and the gang-raping of girls becoming daily occurrences, the media now gives them little news value. The fact that the 'public conscience' of the country does not feel much pain in the atrocities against tribals, Dalits, and Muslims is also a factor that deters them. It cannot be overlooked that the heavy punishments reserved by the BJP government for those who take a stance against caste terrorism have also served to deter and intimidate the media and public workers. Yesterday was the anniversary of the martyrdom of Fr. Stan Swamy, who was arrested for raising his voice for the tribals. Dalit human rights activists who have been arrested in the same case are facing denial of justice in jail. We have evidence in front of us of the severe torture faced by Keralite journalist Siddique Kappan and his team who set out to visit the house of a Dalit girl who was raped and killed in Hathras.

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The Sangh Parivar is preparing to build a Manurajya, using the Adivasi-Dalit community as pawns and not even giving them the dignity owed to humans. Once power comes to their hands, they will push them to an untouchable distance. And it was for no other reason that there was no place for the country's President in the grand opening ceremony of the new Parliament building.