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Dalit Bahujan Adivasi Politics

Accused of not voting for “free ration”, Dalit man beaten brutally in UP

Two home guards beat a Dalit security guard brutally in broad daylight at the tehsil office in Bareilly for not voting for ‘taking free ration.’ The incident has gone viral on social media and is a reminder of the violence that has often been meted out to the Dalit community for exercising their right to vote.

A Dalit security guard was beaten by two home guards in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, After a video emerged showing them allegedly assaulting a Dalit person, the two could be seen beating the victim mercilessly in broad daylight as a group of people watched. According to reports, the attackers taunted the victim, and accused him of benefiting from government-issued rations without voting. The victim was reportedly slapped, kicked, and beaten with a rifle while being held down on the ground. The victim Veerendra Kumar Jatav, a watchman from Bahorangala village, was at the tehsil to get some documents when the incident took place. The home guards, who have been identified as Veer Bahadur and Rampal, are now detained by Bareilly police after the video went viral on social media. A case under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 has been registered as the investigation continues.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal shared a video of the incident on its X, formerly Twitter, page. One of the attackers can be seen saying, “You take free ration and don’t even vote for the government.”

As of now, reports say that the victim has written to the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath, for action against the accused. Speaking to Times of India, he stated that his attackers were verbally abusing the Dalit community and not just him. When he asked them to stop abusing the community, that is when they started beating him.

The opposition has called out the BJP government on the attack, as Priyanka Gandhi took to X to say, “Does the BJP government want to make the public hostage by spending a little of their money on them? Where did these policemen get the courage to behave like BJP goons and be so cruel to our Dalit brothers.”

 

This is not the first-time members of the Dalit community have been beaten in relation to voting. During election time over the years, scores of reports have emerged where Dalits have been beaten and abused. In May 2023, a young Dalit man was beaten for noting in favour of his attackers in a local panchayat election, similar was the case in Mathura in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election where Dalit voters were beaten for not voting for a specific party and instead “pressing the elephant” button.

Similarly, in 2016, several members of the Dalit community were beaten and attacked with bricks and batons by almost a 100 youth in Jharkhand’s Giridih because they took part in the electoral process and cast their vote.

 

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