Can detain activists, cannot detain anger: Jignesh Mevani

Image Courtesy:nationalheraldindia.com

“If they had given just one percent police cover to Amrabhai Boricha, as compared to the number of policemen deployed to detain us, he would have been alive today,” Jignesh Mevani, did not mince words as he announced that he will intensify the fight for justice for Amrabhai Boricha.

The independent legislator from Vadgam was detained on Tuesday, for the entire day, along with other activists, who had come from across Gujarat in solidarity with Mevani. The protestors were all rounded up roughly and were forcibly removed from the state’s Sachivalaya complex and taken away on waiting vehicles. According to Mevani, thousands of such detentions were carried out across the state, and instructions were issued to senior police officials to “prevent people from reaching Gandhinagar.

Mevani, and thousands of others have been protesting and seeking justice for the brutal killing of Dalit RTI activist Amrabhai Boricha. Mevani has demanded that security be provided to Boricha’s daughter Nirmala and son Mahesh.

He also announced that the detentions will not “detain anger” against the governmental “apathy & oppression”. He announced that on April 14, Ambedkar Jayanti, he and his group of activists will “free encroached land of Dalits in 14 villages of Gujarat”. This, he said, is a step towards ending the oppression of Dalits, adding that even the Amrabhai Boricha’s lynching was connected to his work on ladn rights for Dalits. Mevani, saluted all those who had reached the Gandhinagar Assembly and were detained, as well as those detained in their home districts. “This is just the beginning,” he said, that the movement will continue.

पूरे गुजरात के हर एक जिले, हर तहसील से अमरा भाई बोरिचा को न्याय मिलने की मांग रखने के लिए जो भी साथी गांधीनगर विधानसभा तक पहुंचे और जिन्हें अपने घरों में , रास्ते में ही डिटेन कर लिया उन तमाम क्रांतिकारी साथियों को सलाम।
अभी तो ये अंगड़ाई है, आगे और लडाई है।#DalitRightsMatter pic.twitter.com/HY8fvWdAmm
— Jignesh Mevani (@jigneshmevani80) March 24, 2021

Mevani, and the others detained outside Gujarat Assembly on March 23, had come out in a public protest to seek justice for Dalit RTI activist Amrabhai Boricha who had been lynched at his home. The last time Mevani raised the issue in the Assembly, asking why the policeman who is stated to be one of the accused has not yet been arrested, he was suspended from the House. Mewani had then said, “Everytime I have demanded arrest of PSI Solanki in relation to a Dalit activist’s murder, I have been suspended from the Assembly. Now, we will put our demands on the street.”

Amrabhai Boricha, the Dalit RTI activist was hacked to death, allegedly by a group of Kshatriya men, in his home in Sanodar village of Ghogha taluka in Bhavnagar district earlier this month. It has been alleged that the investigations into the gruesome murder are proceeding at a snails pace. On Monday, March 22, activists had assembled at the Bhavnagar Collector’s Office to submit another memorandum of demands. Mevani had called for a protest the next day, outside the Gujarat Assembly Gate No.1, from where they were all detained. On April 14, Ambedkar Jayanti, members of the Dalit community are also planning to take out a Lalakaar Yatra, or Challenge March, against oppression by the so called ‘upper castes’.