LUCKNOW: Police rushed forces to a north Indian town on Wednesday and arrested dozens of people to stop clashes that erupted when upper caste Hindus fired on Dalits belonging to the lowest rung of India’s caste hierarchy.
Police officer Aditya Mishra said one person was killed and dozens injured in the violence Tuesday. Angry Dalits set the homes of some upper caste Hindus and police vehicles on fire in retaliation.
Mishra said the Dalits were attacked while they were returning from a rally led by their leader Mayawati in Saharanpur, a town in Uttar Pradesh state.
The ruling and the opposition parties in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday trained guns at each other on the caste clashes in Saharanpur, with Mayawati holding the government responsible for the violence and a senior minister accusing them of “shedding tears”.
Mayawati, during her visit to Saharanpur, had accused the ruling party with failing to stop its own brigade from attacking weaker sections.
As the caste clashes, seen as the Yogi Adityanath government’s first major law and order challenge, kept erupting every now and then over the past two weeks, Mayawati on Wednesday alleged that casteist forces in the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh have been given a free hand to misuse official machinery in order to harm social amity and brotherhood.
“After having damaged the communal atmosphere to gain political and electoral victory, the casteist, mischievous and criminal elements in the BJP and RSS are now bent upon unleashing casteist violence,” she said in a party release issued after another round of violence claimed a youth’s life in Saharanpur on Tuesday.
She also alleged that the administration was hand in glove with BJP and RSS leaders.
Akbar, a 50-year-old fruit-seller, said Dalits were attacked by upper caste Hindus with spears, sticks and handguns as they were returning to their homes after attending Mayawati’s rally. “I was injured in the neck,” he said from his hospital bed.
“Police are on high alert and people have been advised not to venture out,” Mishra said.
No fresh violence was reported as of Wednesday afternoon.
The area has been simmering with tensions since one person was killed in a clash earlier this month. The violence erupted when upper caste Hindus objected to Dalits installing a statue of their leader Bhim Rao Ambedkar in a temple complex in Saharanpur.
Dalits then objected to a procession by upper caste Hindus on May 5 to observe the birth anniversary of their Rajput King Maharana Pratap, triggering violence in which one person was killed and 15 others were injured.
Dalits in India continue to face discrimination and acts of violence by upper castes. Indian society is divided by clan loyalties, caste divisions and religious animosities.
Caste-related violence is common as Dalits and ethnic tribespeople continue to face discrimination and exclusion. The government says it provides them protection through stringent laws, but the laws are loosely implemented by local authorities.
On Sunday, thousands of protesting Dalits converged on the streets of New Delhi, defying a police ban on the rally. They alleged that dozens of their homes had been burnt by the upper caste Thakur community in Saharanpur, and that police arrested 30 members of their community to frighten them.
Mayawati alleged that it was because of the neglect of the administration that BJP supporters targeted Dalits and indulged in violence after she left Saharanpur on Tuesday leading to the death of one person.
She said a four-member delegation of her party will meet the chief minister to demand adequate compensation for the victims, stern action against the guilty and free treatment for the injured.
“Ever since BJP came to power in the state, law and order and crime control has deteriorated as in other BJP-ruled states and the saffron brigade has got a free hand to carry out communal and casteist activities to harass people. every one needs to remain vigilant,” she said.
“The Dalits are demanding their constitutional rights but casteist forces in the BJP and RSS are out to crush them,” she said, adding that those who had condemned Dalit icons all their lives are today out to proclaim themselves as the saviours of Dalits and backwards for the sake of votes. However, at a press conference on immunisation campaign, Siddhartnath Singh, who is the state’s health minister and also the official spokesperson, took the opportunity to target the Opposition parties by saying it would have been better if those shedding tears over Saharanpur caste clashes had got themselves associated with this campaign.
It was a reference to Mayawati who visited the spot on Tuesday, though he did not take her name.
