The room in which a once happy family of four was sleeping on the night of 20 October in Sunped, Haryana now smells of burnt flesh and blood. The flames that leapt through the room left their mark on the walls and partially burnt the bed on which two-year-old Vaibhav and 10-month-old Divya slept. The fire took their lives and severely injured their parents.
“It must have been around 3 am when the killers, Rajputs from the same village, threw petrol through the grills of the window,” alleges Jitender, father of the children. “The doors were locked and before we could react, the damage was already done. My two children and wife had received critical burns before the main door could be opened.”
It was around 3 pm when this correspondent reached the village where the atrocity took place. The village, which until then had little claim to fame, now swarms with police forces, vip vehicles and media of all hues. The killers succeeded in not just murdering the kids, but also in bringing the remote village to notice, albeit for horrifying reasons
The gutted house was filled with vips and yet, the cries of the women were the only audible noise. The scenes were so drastically different to what the poor family was accustomed to, that they were overwhelmed. Jitender, whose hands and feet were severely burnt, sat in the courtyard narrating the tale to a stream of journalists. The scene was reminiscent of Palestinian poet Rafeef Ziadah’s lines: Today my body was a TV massacre that had to fit in the sound bites and word limits.
It was ironic that just a hundred metres from the house, several villagers were watching Ram Leela, that theatrical enactment of the victory of Ram over Ravan during the nine-day Navratri festivities. While the audience cheered the victory of good over evil, other ‘Ravans’ were at work at the house of late Vaibhav and Divya.
The official police version is that the incident is an outcome of a feud between two families and that security was already being provided to the victims’ family, as they had complained of receiving threats. However, local Dalits say tension had been simmering between the Dalits and the upper castes in the village for the past one year. It started with a trivial issue: a fight between kids of the two communities over a mobile phone that fell down the drain.
~Also Read~
The Dalits allege that the upper caste Rajputs asked their kids to fetch the phone from the drain in an apparent act of casteism. Rajputs, on the other hand, deny this, saying no one would dare to give such a demeaning order to the Dalits in these times. After this incident, three Rajputs were murdered, allegedly by theDalits, in October 2014. But the Dalit families living in the village refute the allegations. “There is no question of murder. How will we murder someone when we do not even have weapons to defend ourselves?” asks a local Dalit man.
The police has so far arrested three suspects in connection with the triple murder and booked nine others. According to a source within the police, Desh Raj, whom the Dalits accuse of being part of the group that committed the arson, was a complainant in the case. According to the fir, Desh Raj’s relatives — Pappu, Indaral and Bharatpal — were allegedly stabbed to death by the 11 Dalits, including two brothers of Jitender.
At around 4 pm, there was a sudden hustle in the village as a rumour spread that former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was to arrive at the spot. TV crews started unlocking their cameras from their tripods while print reporters pulled out their notepads. Hooda, ignoring them all, went straight to Jitender, sat next to him and consoled him.
Meanwhile, villagers and family members approached him with their lists of demands. They wanted Rs 1 crore as compensation for the family, a government job for the father of the kids and for him to raise the question of security of Dalitsin the Parliament. Some even wanted licensed weapons for self-protection. Hooda heard them patiently and assured that he would raise these issues.
Later talking to the media, he said, “Ever since the BJP government came to power, law and order in the country has been dismantled. The Congress party firmly condemns this brutal incident.” Replying to the question posed by Tehelka whether this incident was an attack on the Dalit community, he said, “If theDalits, who were given security by the police, are not safe, then what will happen to the others? This government is prejudiced against the lower castes and the minorities and is doing nothing to protect them.”
Indeed, the family was given security and they had recently lodged a complaint with the local police that a woman relative was verbally abused by the Rajputs. However, the Station House Officer (SHO) allegedly told them that they will have to bear the brunt in view of the fact that three Rajputs died last year.
The locals also hold the Commissioner of Police responsible for overlooking grievances of the Dalit community and the dismal law and order situation. Raghvir Singh, the pradhan of the Jatav community tells Tehelka, “If policemen had done their duty, this wouldn’t have happened. Ever since Manohar Lal Khattar of theBJP became chief minister, atrocities against Dalits have increased.”
Local Dalit women present at the spot also talked about the sense of insecurity that stemmed from living in a village dominated by the upper castes. The village has 70 percent upper castes and 30 percent lower castes. Chamla (name changed) tells Tehelka, “We are consistently eve-teased by the upper caste men from the village. It is difficult for us to come out of our homes because of them.”
However, the Rajputs who had assembled almost 50 metres from the spot denied all these allegations. Bijender Singh, a former sarpanch, says, “We have been living together for hundreds of years and there are no streaks of casteism here. We have always treated everyone equally. In fact, three Thakurs were murdered by theDalits last year and they are blaming us for this unfortunate incident.”
Raising doubts over the narratives of the Dalits, he asks, “How can someone throw petrol and light it in a room that is only metres away from the Ram Leela venue without no one getting to know? How did the father only get burns on his hand while others in the room were critically injured?”
In his election campaign last year,Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted his OBC identity at several junctures. He spoke about the plight of Dalits and other backward castes and the need to uplift them. However, the incident in Faridabad is yet another reminder that theDalits remain one of the most vulnerable communities in this country. Dalits in the past one year have been under consistent attacks despite the promises made to them by the prime minister.
In a similar incident in another part of Haryana, Dalit women were gangraped and tortured in Bhagana village of Hisar district. After a two-year sit-in protest at Jantar Mantar, members of the Dalit community gave up hope of redress of their grievances and converted to Islam as a mark of protest. Instead of being invited for a dialogue, the protestors were ruthlessly beaten up by the Delhi Police after their conversion and new charges were slapped on them. However, they still persist with their protest.
The list of atrocities on the Dalit community across the country is endless, despite the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act being in force. India, while claiming to be an emerging world economy, has not yet been able to obliterate its centuries- old regressive caste system. In fact, as if to add insult to injury, there has been talk of scrapping the reservation system which is sometimes the only lifeline that givesDalits access to mainstream life. Recently, none less than Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat went so far as to speak about the need to rethink the reservation system. This is a clear enunciation of what lies ahead.
Amidst all this, elections are underway in Bihar and the Dalit and Extremely Backward Class (EBC) voters remain on the focal point of every party. The politicians are doing their best to woo the Dalit votes, which is said to determine the fate of the election. However, most of them, if not all, have Dalit blood on their hands. It is now upto political parties to decide if they consider Dalits and minorities as equal citizens or just votes to help their ship sail through electoral waters.
The blackened walls of Jitender’s house will be repainted, the burnt bed will be replaced and the media will soon forget the village that briefly atracted their attention. However, will the fate of Dalits in the country be any different in the future?
asadashrafblog 