MAINSTREAM, VOL LI, NO 18, APRIL 20, 2013
On Modi’s Social Engineering
The system of untouchability has been a goldmine for theHindus. This system affords 60 millions of untouchables to do the dirty work of scavenging and sweeping to the 240 million Hindus who are debarred by their religion to do such dirty work. But the work must be done for the Hindus and who else than the untouchables?
—Dr B.R. Ambedkar
Can
shit collection or cleaning of gutters—which has condemned lakhs of
people to a life of indignity since ages—be considered a ‘Spiritual Experience’? Definitely not. Everybody would yell. Well, Mr Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister of Gujarat, has a different take on this, which he mentions in the book ‘Karmayog’ (publication year 2007).
The
book is basically a collection of his speeches to high-profile IAS
officials. Herein he discusses the age-old caste-based vocation of the
Valmikis as an “experience in spirituality”. He writes: “I do not
believe that they have been doing this job just to sustain their
livelihood. Had this been so, they would not have continued with this
type of job generation after gene-ration…. At some point of time,
somebody must have got the enlightenment that it is their (Valmikis’)
duty to work for the happiness of the entire society and the Gods; that
they have to do this job bestowed upon them by Gods; and that this job
of cleaning up should continue as an internal spiritual activity for
centuries. This should have continued generation after generation. It is
impossible to believe that their ancestors did not have the choice of
adopting any other work or business.”
Looking
at the fact that a section of the Dalits themselves—especially its
upwardly mobile and more articulate section—has joined the Hindutva bandwagon,
it was expected that there would be no angry reaction to his utterances
within the State. A section of the Ambedkarite Dalits and many human
rights activists did protest but their voices got drowned in the
cacophony of voices of Modi supporters. It is a different matter that
when Modi’s remark got published in The Times of India in mid-November 2007, which was later translated in a few Tamil news-papers, it resulted in a massive reaction of Dalits in Tamil Nadu.
Not only did they stage protests for calling their menial job a
“spiritual experience” but Modi’s effigies were burnt in different parts
of the State. Sensing trouble Modi immediately withdrew 5000 copies of
the book, but still stuck to his opinion. Two years later, addressing
9000-odd safai karmacharis, he likened the safai karmacharis’ job of
cleaning up others’ dirt to that of a temple priest. He told them: “A
priest cleans a temple every day before prayers, you also clean the city
like a temple. You and the temple priest work alike.”
One was reminded of these ideas of Mr Modi when news came in that the Budget for the coming year passed by the Gujarat State Assembly has allocated a sum of Rs 22.5 lakhs for giving training in karmkand (rituals) to the safai kamdars themselves. The idea is to train them in scriptures so that they can perform puja.
It is clear that the ‘new scheme’, as it was presented before the
people, was just a revised version of its earlier version wherein
members of the Scheduled Castes were given training to become
‘Gurubrahmins’ so that they could also perform pujas. Insiders can also share with you that the said scheme has miserably failed and people who were trained to perform pujas are still searching for jobs.
It
could well be asked that if Modi values safai karmacharis so highly,
why is it that he has begun outsourcing all the menial jobs for a very
low pay, between Rs 3000 and Rs 3500 per month per worker? Why are they
not being employed on a permanent basis? A leading Dalitpoet
raised an altogether different question: “Why didn’t it occur to Modi
that the spirituality involved in doing menial jobs hasn’t ever been
experienced by the upper castes?”
It is worth emphasising that when the Gujarat Government declared its intention to train safai kamdars in karmkand, supposedly
to integrate them into the mainstream of the Hindu society, it also
happened to be the period when the anti-Dalit stance of the people in
power was very much evident in two clear examples: the manner in which
the State officials tried to cover up the social boycott of Dalits in a
village, and the way they tried to save the guilty police officials
involved in Dalit killings; both of these had already hit the headlines.
Not
very many people would have heard about the village Galsana, Dhanduka
tehsil, Ahmedabad district, which is around 100 kms from the city. The
Dalits in the village, who are about 500 in number, are not allowed
entry into any of the five temples in the village. The younger
generation of Dalits protested this ban which resulted in their social
boycott. When the news last came in, the boycott was already a few
months old. Incidentally when officers from the Social Justice
Department visited the village, they did not even acknowledge that
Dalits are facing social boycott, forget asking the police to take
action against the guilty.
The
other news concerned the arrest of guilty police officials involved in
the gruesome killings of Dalits at Thangarh. (September 2012) After four
months, cop Jadeja and two other accused police officials in the
Thangarh Dalit massacre case were arrested on February 23, 2013. It is
reported that the killings at Thangarh were the fallout of a minor clash
between Dalits and Bharwads over auctioning of stalls at an annual fair
organised by the Thangarh municipality. When the Dalits filed a
complaint against the Bharwads at the police station, the police refused
to take any action; the anger of the Dalits spilled over onto the
streets the next day which saw the participation of Dalits in large
numbers and the police resorting to strong-arm tactics resulting in the
killings. Despite knowing the fact that the infamous police officer had
on an earlier occasion also fired upon the Dalits without any
provo-cation, the administration tried every trick in its kitty to save
him and his colleagues. It was only because of judicial intervention
that they were ordered to be arrested.
Galsana
and Thangarh can be said to be tip of the iceberg as far as Dalit
deprivation and denial of justice is concerned. In fact much has been
written about the way the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes
(Atrocities Prevention) Act, 1989 is implemented in the State. One finds
that the rate of conviction of cases under the Prevention of Atrocity
Act against SCs/STs in Gujarat is a mere 2.5 per cent while the rate of
acquittal is 97.5 per cent. A 23-page confidential report submitted by
the State Social Justice Department to the State Chief Secretary and
Legal Department provides glaring examples of ‘mishandling of cases
registered under Prevention of Atrocities Act against SCs/STs’. (The Indian Express, September 15, 2006)
The
report provides details of how cases are not investigated properly by
the police and the hostile role played by public prosecutors during the
time of trials.
• The
Act clearly stipulates that offences which are registered under this
Act cannot be investigated by an officer below the rank of DySP but more
than 4000 such cases have been investigated by the Police Inspector or
Police Sub-Inspector.
• Acquittal
of the perpetrator because the victim not identified as a member of the
SC or ST community. Reason: not attaching caste certificate of the
victim with the case papers.
• Public
prosecutors’ false claims before the courts that the Act has been
modified by the State Government although it is known that it is a
Central Act.
• Granting
of anticipatory bails although there is no such provision in the Act.
Interestingly, the Parliamentary Committee on SC and ST affairs had also
expressed concern over such anticipatory bails granted ‘in atrocity
cases in the State of Gujarat’.
In
this backdrop it is worth underlining how little Mr Modi knew about
this important law and its implications. One could rather say that in
Gujarat the Chief Minister is directly responsible for the
non-implementation of the Atrocity Act. As Raju Solanki, the famous poet
and Dalit rights activist, writes in his blog:
It
was on April 16, 2004, that a question was asked to Chief Minister Modi
in the Gujarat Legislative Assembly: “Honourable Chief Minister [Home]
may oblige us to tell, is it true that the DSP is responsible for the
appointment of an officer not below the rank of DySP as investigating
officer in the offences under the Atrocities Act?” The answer of our
Chief Minister was shocking. He said: “No, but there is a provision
under rule 7 (1) of SC/ST Act, 1995 to appoint officers not above the
rank of DySP to inquire into all cases booked under atrocities act. It
is not the responsibility of the DSP.”
“The
officer not above the rank of DySP” means he may be a PSI or PI and in
most of the atrocities cases courts acquit the accused because the
investigation officer is either a PSI or PI. Over 150 such judgments
collected by the Council for Social Justice revealed that in 95 per cent
of the cases, the accused have been acquitted because of negligence on
the part of the authorities. In a number of these cases, while the
accused has been convicted under the IPC section for murder and attempt
to murder, he has gone scot-free on the atrocity charge.
In
the end, one would like to put on record the way the presence of Dalits
in records is being obliterated without any qualims. During the
panchayat elections, Nathu Vadla, a small village of Gujarat with hardly
1000 population, had suddenly hit the headlines. The panchayat election
in this village was to have been conducted on the basis of the 2001
data. The village has at least 100 Scheduled Caste people and one seat
was to be reserved as per law, but the census data has not been modified
since in 2001 the SC population was nil in the village; the election in
2013 was to have been conducted on the basis of the 2001 census. Here
also the courts had to intervene to stay the election in the village.
The Gujarat High Court stayed the election in the village saying that
the electoral exercise in the circumstances would be a ‘mockery of
democracy’.
