The main accused in the Saharanpur violence and Bhim Army founder Chandrashekhar Azad ‘Ravan’, the 30-year-old lawyer who heads the Dalit-rights outfit, was arrested from Dalhousie in Himachal Pradesh. Recently, UP Police had declared a reward of Rs 12,000 each for information leading to the capture of Chandrashekhar, the 30-year-old leader of the Bhim Army, along with two of his associates. Chandrashekhar, who is wanted in connection with violence in Saharanpur on May 9, offered to surrender to the court when he emerged on stage at a massive rally in New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar. He feels Dalit needs justice, but UP has been ruled by Dalit CM – dalit mobilization happened long ago. Now, it is time to stop the over reach!
Earlier, two members of the Bhim Army were arrested in Saharanpur for their involvement in the Ramnagar caste violence on May 9 after one person was killed and several others were injured in a clash between Dalits and Thakurs at Shabbirpur village in the district on May 5. About a dozen police vehicles were set ablaze and 12 policemen were injured on May 9. Chandrasekhar, who had since been evading arrest, was carrying a reward of Rs 12,000 on his head.
The Uttar Pradesh police had recently constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) comprising 10 inspectors to probe 40 cases, registered between May 5 to May 23, in Saharanpur district which has seen bouts of inter-caste clashes last month. The district has remained tense ever since and violence has erupted repeatedly. On May 23, another person was shot dead and two others were wounded, following which the government had suspended the senior superintendent of police and district magistrate and transferred the divisional commissioner and the deputy inspector general of police.
BSP leader Mayawati visited Shabbirpur to counter the growing influence of Bhim Army by mobilising her party cadre in the region. Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi had met the victims of Saharanpur caste clashes and their family members at the district’s border after authorities denied him permission to visit the violence-hit area. The Centre has since sent 400 anti-riot police personnel to Saharanpur to help the district administration restore peace in the region. But the atrocity by the police and authorities tells another story. Chandrashekhar belongs to Chhutmalpur village adjoining Shabbirpur, the epicentre of recent troubles.
This new brigade Bhim Sena that is said to be funded by some prominent Muslim Leaders to divide Hindus, are too much at decisive politics these days. Earlier, it was always Hindu Vs Muslim politics in India, where in political parties used to derive benefit by polarizing Muslim votes and used them as a vote bank. But in the recent past these parties realized that the strategy actually started backfiring when Hindus too started voting unitedly and obviously they are the majority population. So as a new strategy these political forces and Muslims are trying to play it smart by funding organizations like “Bhim Sena” which emerged from nowhere, to fight against Hindu upper caste, so the entire battle can be settled on caste politics. The intent is to divide the majority population on the basis of caste and unite the Muslim, other minority votes with Dalits and backward castes as they’ve realized that they won’t exist politically if Hindus start voting unitedly.
Chandrashekhar Azad the so called Bhim Sena leader titled himself as “Ravan”. These people kept such name just to demean Lord Rama who is worshipped by the majority and known as Maryada Purushottam but while glorifying Ravan they forget that Ravan was actually a Brahmin and a literate one. This is the irony of these Anti Brahmanical forces. Meanwhile it is worth noticing that those days the human beings were not divided into caste politics, it was always a God vs Demon and Good vs Bad, and Ravan was king of Demons which is chosen by today’s so called Dalit mascots as their lord. They have nothing to do with Dalit welfare, education or rights but only interested in keeping them so called deprived community to derive political mileage. Some Dalits should actually question their Messiah the Ravan, what is his contribution towards his own community’s betterment? And how much he earned for himself in the name of “Dalit’ and Bhimrao”? They have not spared a legend that has shown them a right path to live with self-respect and dignity, by mortgaging their loyalties to politics than the community itself.
If Dalit leaders and Politics could really change the fate of Dalits in India, trust me today they wouldn’t have been on roads, protesting against so called upper caste. Meanwhile no Dalit wants to be at par on merit basis with others in spite being given all facilities and reservations. The reason, their political motive will come to an end. Atrocities against Dalits have given them topic to chew their vote back sentiments. Why don’t they ever become aggressive or harsh educating their people about their rights? Why these Dalit leaders for their own advantage get sheltered under parties like BJP? There are many Dalit leaders who are part of BJP/ RSS wings; they laugh at these parties called “Bhim Sena”. The need of the hour is that, Dalit should fight against Dalit leaders and bureaucrats who failed to serve their own community and serving the Brahmanical administration. Their fight should be against those people who sabotaged community, their fight should be against those leaders who took their votes but could not make much difference to their lives. By misguiding youth and dragging them towards violence is not solution towards betterment.
