“Gau raksha jaruri hai (cow protection is necessary) but who will save humans”, newly-inducted Union Minister and Dalit leader Ramdas Athawale said.
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Several people accused of eating beef have also been attacked, including a Muslim man who was a year ago beaten to death by a mob in a town near New Delhi.
The situation worsened a week later, when a number of Dalit youth, including a Congress Councilor, attempted suicide to register their protest against the incident, by consuming poison and phenyl.
Critics say Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party’s Hindu nationalist agenda empowers hardline activists to believe they can take matters into their hands and target minority groups like Dalits and Muslims involved in the cattle trade. “Then I told them that suicide is not the way out, we will have to fight together”, he stressed.
Emphasizing that the 17 arrests made in this case were only to “show” that some action was being taken, Kejriwal added it can be seen in Gujarat that whenever any incident against the Dalits take place no charge sheet is ever filed. But the BJP on the other side had alleged that Friday’s protest was the first such event held by Dalit’s against the government, many other demonstrations weren’t Dalit.
Gujarat’s top elected official, Chief Minister Anandiben Patel, on Tuesday promised that her government would take strict action against those involved in the attack. Meanwhile, the stream of high profile political visitors to Mota Samadhiyala village to meet family of victims of July 11 continued. What wrong have they done? Dalits usually carry out undesirable tasks such as skinning dead animals, and many work in tanneries and in the leather industry.
Although Dalits have 7% reservation in education and government jobs, they are not allowed to progress, as rampant discrimination against them ensures they stay downtrodden. It’s what their ancestors did.
The incident at Una in Gujarat, where Dalit youths were paraded and flogged for allegedly killing a cow, caused nation-wide outrage after its video went viral.
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Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi and the Gujarat Chief Minister had earlier visited the Dalit families in Una and the youth admitted to Rajkot hospitals.
