This idea came about after meeting held one month back with the growing unrest amongst students, activists, journalists, academicians and civil society groups. Speaking with TwoCircles.net, the organizers of #EqualCitizen and Founder of Association of Muslim Professionals Aamir Edresy,  said, “We don’t want the right-wing forces to set our narrative, we want to set our own narrative and agenda, the people whom we vote should know that they have to talk about our issues. We are about 20% of the population and you cannot just isolate us. This is not only an appeal to the government it is also an appeal to the community members that they should come forward and speak out. We are not asking for anything that is not in the constitution, we are only asking for our constitutional rights”.

The #EqualCitizens campaign mentioned the family of Mustaqeem who was killed on camera by UP police stating that and there was absolutely no outrage, not even from the opposition parties. Was it because they were too poor, or is the killing of Muslims in India going to be accepted as a new normal? One of the main reasons to set of this campaign is also the rising sense of distrust rising with the way Naushad and Mustakeem case was handled, also how the Najeeb case was disposed by the Delhi High Court just a few days back. Since the BJP government under Chief minister Yogi Adityanath took office in UP in March 2017, there have been thousands of police ‘encounters’ in the state, which has been continuing despite receiving criticisms from various opp, human rights organisation including the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). In a statement in February 2018, NHRC said, “The Commission noted that it has already expressed concern while taking suo motu cognizance of media reports on the November 22, 2017, about the Government of Uttar Pradesh, allegedly, endorsing killings encounters by police seeking improvement in law and order situation. The Chief Minister was quoted, in a newspaper on November 19, 2017, saying, “Criminals will be jailed or killed in encounters”.

A report on these encounter killings by the citizens’ group “Citizens Against Hate alliance’ documented such incidents in UP and Haryana, said that in Haryana most of the victims were poor backward caste Muslims engaged in cattle trade and meat supply chain.  The report also claimed that the Supreme Court and NHRC guidelines regarding encounter killing had been flouted frequently.

Speaking about the campaign, activist and former student of Aligarh Muslim University Fahad Ahmad said, “The main agenda of this protest is how should we assert the rights that have been granted to us by the constitution. This is not an anti-BJP campaign, this is a pro-constitution campaign, we are talking about the rights given to us by Dr Ambedkar which talks about the social, economic and political equality…constitutional ethos cannot be denied whatever be the political situation in the country.”

Missing names in electoral rolls
The case of missing names of Muslims in various state electoral rolls has been highlighted during the Gujarat and Karnataka assembly polls. This erasure of eligible citizens in the electoral rolls is in complete denial of Article 326 of the Indian constitution which grants all citizens of India right to exercise franchise in elections under the principles of adult franchise. Before the recent Karnataka state assembly elections, the report by the Centre for Research and Debates in Development Policy, New Delhi indicated that about 20% of eligible Muslim adults were missing from the State electoral list.

Facebook Event – https://www.facebook.com/events/330275441113802/

Courtesy: Two Circles
 

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Shridhar, 34, came to Mumbai in 2007 after he completed his engineering in Tamilnadu. He started staying in Dharavi, where many of the Tamil migrants stay, and being new to the city Shridhar got in touch with other youngsters from Tamil Nadu in Dharavi. It was a time when the Tamil Eelam movement was at its peak.

This was also the time when he came in contact with people who were involved in the Ambedkarite and Periyar movement in Mumbai. Sridhar says that until he came in contact with them, he was a god-fearing person. He adds, “There was so much going on, so many people were being killed. I questioned my own belief system. I read Buddha, Quran also the Bible looking for answers. In school no one taught us about Ambedkar, no one taught us about Periyar”. He went back and studied both works of Ambedkar and Periyar. He worked in the Periyarist and Ambedkarite Movement and also started his own rationalist initiative called Awareness.

Sridhar adds, “ I had almost 12 cases against me because of the protests within a span of four years from 2009 to 2012. People said look you an engineer you have a good job, but I wanted to do something good for the society”.

It is at this point where he decided that he needs to change his life, he learnt about the Self Respect Marriages and he wanted to implement that in his life. At the same time his family wanted him to get married, he had only one condition that it should be an intercaste marriage. But this wasn’t as easy as he taught. He adds, “Caste is like a pyramid, I saw that caste is everywhere, there is caste within caste itself, even within the Schedule Castes”.
 
Miles away in Tamil Nadu, Mohan (30) who is a artist and a Parai Trainer based in Tamil Nadu is planning to marry in next six months. He says that the works of Periyar and Ambedkar influenced him a lot in making this decision, also a chance visiting a friend respect marriage left a lasting impression on him.

Mohan whose partner is an artist, have mutually decided to have a Self Respect Marriage. Mohan says, “ Ours will be an inter-caste and inter-religion marriage. Self-Respect marriage is about equality…I want to give equal respect to my partner”.

He further adds that he is planning to call people from the movement to the marriage so it can make people aware of this.

Contested ideas of self-respect
Both Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have seen a long tradition of the non-Brahmin movement. This radical anti-caste movement or the non-Brahmin movement was started by E Ramasamy Periyar in 1925. During 1925 in the midst of the nationalist movement, Periyar put forth the discourse of Self Respect. He proposed that every non-Brahmin caste should have equal human rights. This formulation of the idea of self-respect was different than what was propagated by Gandhi and Nehru. The Gandhian idea of self-respect came from more spiritualistic tenets of Hinduism specifically the varna system, where he said that the one should take dignity in labour and all occupations are equal. In contradiction, Nehru’s idea of Self Respect came from more of nationalistic discourse and taking pride in being a nationalist. Periyar contested both of these ideas, saying that self-respect should start with the individual himself, and that there and said that basic Self Respect will only come through over-throwing Brahminical Hegemony and bring in rationality amongst the citizens. Periyar spoke in the context of caste-based society and said that national freedom is of no use if there is no individual self-respect. To break the hegemony of the Brahmins, Periyar conceptualised Self Respect Marriages. One of the earlier self-respect marriage took place between Shanmugam and Manjula who was a widow in Araku near Madurai in her early 1920’s. But it was only in 1967 when DMK, which came from the Periyarite tradition under the leadership of Annadurai came to power, that Tamil Nadu became the first and only state to legalize Hindu marriages conducted without a Brahmin priest.

Hence a self-respect marriage saw marriage as a contract in a more constitutional non-sacred non-religious way. It encouraged inter-caste marriages and widow remarriage. An amendment was brought under section 7A of Hindu Marriage Act which validated self-respect marriages.

Basically, legalizing Self Respect Marriages threw out the regressive practices built on Brahmin Hegemony, firstly that being that it can take place without a Brahmin priest

The Provisions of section 7 A Amendments are 1)Section 7-A of the Act applies to any marriage between two Hindus solemnized in the presence of relatives, friends and other persons. 2)The main thrust of this provision is that the presence of a priest is not necessary for the performance of a valid marriage.3) Parties can enter into a marriage in the presence of relatives or friends or other persons and each party to the marriage should declare in the language understood by the parties that each takes other to be his wife or, as the case may be, her husband.4)The marriage would be completed by a simple ceremony requiring the parties to the marriage to garland each other or put a ring on any finger of the other or tie a thali. The validity of Self Respect Marriages was critiqued on basis that, the movement of Self Respect was basically a political philosophy and marriage which is considered as a sacred and non-customary institution cannot be based on a radical political philosophy. It was also further objected on basis of Section 3(a) and Article 14 stating that it was contrary to the very tenets of Hinduism. The High Court ruled that it does not violate Article 14 since whoever wants to marry according to the Hindu Custom can do so through Hindu Marriage Act 1955. The High Court further ruled that the Hindu religion by itself is pluralistic in character and thus various forms of marriage have traditionally existed.

Legal framework
In 2011, the Supreme court declared the caste panchayats illegal and barbaric. In the purview of increasing caste violence perpetrated after inter-caste marriage, the Prohibition of Unlawful Assembly ( Interference with the Freedom of Matrimonial Alliances) Bill, 2011 proposes no person or any group of persons shall gather with an “intention to deliberate on, or condemn any marriage, not prohibited by law, on the basis that such marriage has dishonored the caste or community tradition or brought disrepute to all or any of the persons forming part of the assembly or the family or the people of the locality concerned.” Marriage, according to the draft law, includes a proposed or intended marriage. Though the Bills for Matrimonial interference and Unlawful assembly have been proposed since 2011 in the wake of increasing Caste/Honour Killings, it is yet to be made into a law.

Ambedkar says that Endogamy is the only characteristic that is peculiar to caste. Thus the superposition of endogamy on exogamy means the creation of caste and both the surplus man and the surplus woman constitute a menace to the Caste if not taken care of. Like Ambedkar, Periyar did not trust to the enabling power of individual consciousness alone to bring about transformation. Consciousness war for him always already collective. Ambedkar in his thought-provoking essay, What is worse untouchability or slavery? mentions two kinds of law. One is the legal law and another is the public law which according to him in India works on the caste-normative. This public law often overpowers the legal constitutional laws in India. Not only that, observing closely, this public law undermines the practice of legal law in day to day life. The caste-normative propounded in the Manusmirti always looked down upon women as the citizen of fundamentally a human being. Therefore, even in the presence of constitutional law in front which men and women in India have equal rights, the public law that has been the everyday philosophy behind people’s action in public and personal places does not fully allow people to perceive women as an equal citizen. The instances of rape or domestic violence are often found dealt with as per the caste-background of the victims.

Sridhar wanted to prove a point to the society, to turn around all the religious mores, he says, “I started right from the invitation card, and quote of Dr.Ambedkar. We had called people from the Periyar and Ambedkarite Movement. My wife was worried as to what will people say if she doesn’t wear a Mangalsutra. But then we both decided that we will wear a gold chain with a Bodhi tree leaf.”

Its been a few years since his marriage, although in Mumbai it is not yet legally validated. Sridhar says he has no choice apart from getting it registered in Tamil Nadu, but he is hopeful that some intellectual discourses have been created to take the idea of self-respect marriage forward.
Like Mohan, Sridhar adds , “Many people are having inter caste marriages, but they might do it according to the customs of either of the community their partners belong”.

Sridhar echos similar sentiment , he says, “ Its now that people are learning to give self respect to themselves, they are refusing dowries and other such things, so it is slowly catching up”. Sridhar aims to take up the Self Respect Marriage and hopes that it is validated in other states. He says, “ There needs to be a community of people who do not adhere to any caste or religion, or those who don’t believe in it, we need such people to come together, to form a community on their own”.

Courtesy: Two Circles
 

The post A marriage of, for and with self-respect: Remembering Periyar 140 years after his birth anniversary appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The BHARIP president addressed the protesting students of TISS along with Rekha Thakur, General Secretary Of BHARIP and said that education is a constitutional right to be guaranteed by the state. But the current and previous governments are acting like it is a family responsibility. Further, he said the fight for educational rights have been going on for long and it is appreciable that TISS students have been fighting not only for their rights but for the future generations also. The issue of scholarship, said Adv. Ambedkar, is such that in colleges in small towns, students have not been paid scholarship and had to discontinue their education. He also added that the fight is against the management and also against the state.

In a Government resolution released 10 days ago, the Maharashtra government said that the state will only fund 30% of OBC scholarship. It was declared that BHARIP will submit petitions to the District Social Justice department regarding the issue and will see that the issue of scholarship is raised in the current session of Vidhan Sabha. Rekha Thakur, General Secretary of BHARIP also spoke in support of the students strike.The students also handed over a memorandum to Adv.Prakash Ambedkar regarding their demands.

Fahad Ahmed, the General Secretary of TISS Students Union said that the students are trying to have a dialogue with the administration, but if the demands are not met then they might be forced to go on a hunger strike to claim their rights. The current fight is for guaranteeing the rights of affirmative action initiated by Babasaheb Ambedkar, he added.

According to a recent update, TISS administration has appointed a Empowerment Committee to address the issue of the students. The committee consists of various senior faculty members as well as SPO Dean Vijay Raghavan. This committee was appointed after repeatedly failed negotiations with the the Acting Director Shalini Bharat. After the formation of this committee, the students have consistently raised questions regarding the “power” that this committee holds. The students have stated that they do not wish to dialogue with the Empowerment Committee and would like to dialogue with the governing body of TISS to address the issue.

So far the demands which have been met are partial in nature, and their is no mechanism the institute has worked on for the upcoming batches. None of the issues put forth by the OBC GoI PMS scholars and upcoming batches have been concretely addressed till date.

Courtesy: Two Circles
 

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Image: PTI

Student politics in Mumbai has taken a backseat ever since the Maharashtra University Act was passed in 1995. This was enacted in the wake of a student murder during Mumbai University student elections in the 90’s. The implementation of this Act became a watershed moment for student politics in Maharashtra. A clear fallout of such step is visible today, with very few young faces visible today in Maharashtra student politics. Talking about the current situation, Kiran*, a young student of Mumbai University said, “During the 1970s when the Dalit Panther Movement was strong, a generation of those students from the Dalit Bahujan Community had strong idols in front of them like Namdeo Dhasal, Raja Dhale, J V Pawar and others. These are people who rose from the ground and influenced the student movement during those days. Now I don’t find there are any such idols in context of Maharashtra who can really inspire students. There is a need for debate and discussion. Politics is not in isolation, politics is something connected to the economy, the medical facilities, almost every aspect of our life. Only youth can connect with youth, we need someone who can connect with the young people”.

Students like Kiran are of the opinion that although there is a huge willingness amongst students to contribute, there does not seem to be a single political organisation with a long-term sustainable agenda.

Another student activist Dinesh*from Mumbai added, “Brahminical agencies have always been scared of critical consciousness that can harm their hegemony. Students politics in Indian universities have recently witnessed a change in its student’s communities, especially after second Mandal Commission. More Dalit Bahujans with political/ social consciousness in Universities means a threat to Brahminical forces both inside and outside universities. To suppress and mutilate the growth of such consciousness resulting from the Dalit movement, especially Dalit Panthers, has always been a necessity for Brahminical forces in order to keep their oppression alive”.

Even before Panthers, there was an active student movement in the 1950s, when scores of students participated in the Samyukta Maharashtra Samiti. It was a movement demanding a separate Marathi-speaking state of Maharashtra with Bombay as its capital. Many youngsters joined the Samta Sainik Dal (Party of the Fighters for Equality) which was formed by Dr Ambedkar in 1926. Urmila Pawar’s book Amhi hi Itihas Ghadavala ( We Also Made History) painstakingly documented the history of Dalit women’s participation in the Ambedkarite Movement. Till date, it remains a fundamental text of women’s participation in the Ambedkarite Movement.

The government plans of lifting the ban on institutional student politics through the passing of New Maharashtra Public Universities Act is likely to create a new avenue for Dalit-Bahujan student voices in Maharashtra University spaces. In an atmosphere where administrative and state intervention is at its peak, it is important that issues of Dalit-Bahujan students do not get sidelined. Speaking on this scenario, Sourabh Wade, Research Scholar, IIT Bombay, added, “The ban on elections has definitely affected Dalit-Bahujan politics. Firstly, one can say that the crucial phase, whereby issues of identity and representation should have been resolved by now, are being faced even today. Secondly, the alignment of Dalits with the Left-Right binary in politics has limited them from realising their potential that lies in building a larger, autonomous Dalit-Bahujan politics. Thirdly, the repression on Dalits outside the campuses could not be highlighted in a vocal manner and the alignment with the binary limited the politics to sympathy/solidarity, which to me is a very patronising approach to any politics”. Students like Saurabh also feel that a single face in Dalit Bahujan politics is not necessarily mandatory and believes that there should be diverse representation.

The mainstream media is busy covering the student political movement in Delhi and Hyderabad, mainly highlighting the select few premiere institutes. There is a huge movement on ground level which has been away from the limelight. In case of Dharavi in Mumbai, youngsters from the largely-migrant community, mostly from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh and Telangana got together after the tragic suicide of S.Anitha in Tamil Nadu. S. Anitha, a young medical aspirant, committed suicide after the implementation of NEET (National Eligibility Entrance Test) which affected a number of poor students across the country. NEET, which required specialised training in the medical syllabus, was made mandatory with effect from 2017 in Tamil Nadu. This was also made the sole criteria for admission to medical colleges.

Speaking about the initiative in Dharavi, Francis from Jai Bhim Foundation says, “We mainly work on the ideology of Periyar and Ambedkar. We inform young students from our locality about the larger student politics happening in our country, like what happened during Rohith’s Movement or in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) for that matter. We also screen a lot of documentaries. We recently screened Kakkoos by Divya Bharathi, which is based on manual scavenging. Not only that, we lay equal emphasis on documentaries related to science.”. Francis opines that this is a part of the larger consciousness-raising amongst young students. Currently, Dharavi has different organisations like Jai Bhim Foundation, Mumbai Awareness Organisation, Liberation Panthers and also Dravida Kazhagam (Dravidian Organization) which work on various social issues and specifically on caste.

Many students who grew up during the 80’s and the 90’s post the Dalit Panther Movement had a different entry into the larger political realm of Maharashtra. Their involvement began with Dalit Sahitya Chalval ( Dalit Literary Movement). Magazines like Dalit Asmita by Gangadhar Pantawane and Samuchit by Yashwant Manohar raised a lot of critical questions regarding Dalit-Bahujan issues and politics.

Dr Awachar, Professor, Mumbai University recalls, “I grew up in Washim district of Maharashtra during the 90s. This was also a time when Congress was strong and Fascism in terms of extreme right-wing politics was at its peak. During this time, what shaped my political consciousness was the dynamic Dalit Literature movement, which was in full swing. We had great precedents in front of us, like the people who had participated in Samyukta Maharashtra Movement and also the Namantar Movement. The entry of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in the 1990s in Maharashtra also changed the political dynamics in Maharashtra hinterland”.

Dr Awachar points that the rise in the intensity of combing operations across Maharashtra to clamp down on protesters is not a new trend., “There was a similar effect on the students even after the Khairlanji massacre. My contemporaries were jailed for agitating. While I feel that such actions by the state hampered the political aspirations of the youngsters, these were the students who were at the forefront in questioning the state and the system. This rebellion is something which came out as an answer to state injustice and contributed to the Ambedkarite Movement”.

The youth resilience has been given an impetus lately due to the rise in local community consciousness, which is happening mainly among the marginalised localities of Mumbai. Many students who are not looking to align with a particular political outfit and want to work autonomously are keenly following Ambedkar’s footsteps with the call to Educate, Agitate and Organize. Many of these students want to work more keenly towards the aspect of education in their community as they feel this is a basic aspect required to create a larger political consciousness.

Kiran and his group of friends have started their own initiative called Jyoti Savitri Probhodhini which is working towards education. Talking about the initiative he added, “When Mahatma Jyotiba Phule and Savitribai Phule started a school, they only started it with eight girls. Did they imagine that there will be someone like Indira Gandhi or Kalpana Chawla who will benefit from their efforts? All they did was make a sustained effort. This is what is required.”

Courtesy: Two Circles
 

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Image: Hindustan Times

A young resident of Phule Nagar-Powai, Dilip* said, “There are at least 4-5 police vans outside Phule Nagar area. There are also plainclothes policemen right at the entrance of Phule Nagar surveilling the area 24/7”. Speaking about the protest, he added, “The police were constantly filming the protestors, also there are CCTVs everywhere, the police are questioning almost everyone seen in the videos”.

Many, like Hitesh* are in a state of fear as many of his friends are on a run fearing arrest. Speaking over the phone, Hitesh added, “It been three days I have not gone home, I have not even gone to college. The police are roaming around with my photograph in their hands. My parents are very scared, an arrest can be done anytime and any section can be imposed on us. I do not know when I can get back home”.

Although youngsters are fearful, they do not think that it is a set back for the youth participation in the Ambedkarite Movement. Speaking about the movement, Hitesh added, “Our Movement will not stop, we know the real history of the movement. The government wants us to come on streets and protest because once we are on the streets, the police can easily target us, and that is exactly what has happened. I merely joined in with the slogans, and now the police are searching for me. We don’t trust any politicians. They can impose any section on me, and my career would be ruined. I did not commit any crime we only followed Babasaheb… we protested that’s all. The freedom to protest is rightfully mentioned in our Indian Constitution”.

Youngsters like Hitesh are the first generation of people from predominantly Buddhist Colony of Phule Nagar to enter colleges and other higher education institutions. His father is an autorickshaw driver and mother works as a maid who came to Mumbai to make a living from the drought and famine affected area of Vidarbha. They have been residents of Phule Nagar since past 30 years.

Hitesh further added, “I have big dreams, tomorrow the police can brand me anything they want, then what can I do?”.

Another youngster, Rohit*, who was part of the protest at Powai, said,  “If nothing would have happened in Bhima Koregaon, nothing would have happened here. Our people left everything and joined the protests, even everyone from my family joined in the protest including my mother.
“I think the government has received the message that people will not keep quiet nor will they tolerate injustice anymore.”  There was a distribution of water and biscuits on the streets done by the youngster for the people who were stuck in traffic at Powai, which saw a protest gathering of about 5,000 people. Youngsters also narrated they asked the shopkeepers to cooperate with the Bandh.

Almost 300 youth have so far been arrested from areas like Vikhroli, Bhandup, and Ghatkopar and mainly implicated under Section 144, which was imposed in Mumbai. Another youngster, Nagesh* who has not been home since last week said, “The police should catch the real miscreants, why are they stalking innocent people like us?”.

The sense of resentment for Ambedkarite youth all over Maharashtra is largely due to the role of police in controlling the situation at Bhima Koregaon and the general state apathy towards marginalised which has become apparent through the government’s reaction towards cases of caste atrocities whether it be Khairlanji or Kharda.

Like thousands of youngsters across Maharashtra, even Nagesh’s friend was caught by the police. and it’s been a week and they have not let him off. Nor is anyone from the family aware that what sections have been imposed on him.
“People in my family are illiterate, I am the first generation who has attended college.  All my college life has stopped since these combing operations began. Even my friends are missing college. All my friends are at different places. It’s my last year of college and I have exams after two-three months”, Nagesh added.

It must be noted that similar combing operations had taken in Mumbai during the Panther Movement in the 1970s and also during the Ramabai Nagar Atrocity in 1997. “During those times, the police apprehended thousands of youth who participated in the protests and put sections on them, and these cases are still going on,” a senior Ambedkarite activist added.
 
*Names have been changed on request

Courtesy: Two Circles
 

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Like every year, Kiran*, a young graduate student from Ramabai Colony, went along with his family and a large group of friends to Bhima Koregaon. Unaware of the incident at Vadhu Budruk village where the discretion of the bust of Gopal Govind Gaikwad had taken place earlier that night, they started planning their day ahead.

Recalling the incident, Kiran* said, “When we woke up in the morning it was quieter than usual. We were trying to arrange breakfast, but we realised that the shops all along Bhima Koregaon were shut. It was then we panicked and realised that something was wrong. We had to walk few kilometers before we caught a ride to a near village in Pune. It was then that the driver told us that the “Bhagwa Zenda” people are out on the roads”.

The statue of Babasaheb Ambedkar that was constructed after the 1997 Ramabai Colony atrocities (Photo courtesy Daisy Katta)

It was only by the late morning of January 1 that the news started to trickle on the social media regarding the tense situation at Bhima Koregaon, following which they received the first reports related to stone pelting on cars. A call for Bandh was announced by Prakash Ambedkar of Bahujan Mahasangh (BHARIP) although almost 24 hours later.

For Kiran* and his family and many others who had travelled all the way from Ramabai Colony to Bhima Koregaon, it was a stern reminder of the horrendous morning of Ramabai Nagar Atrocity, which took place in 1997 with a very similar trajectory of events that of Bhima Koregaon.

In the early hours of July 11, 1997, bypassers from the main chowk of Ramabai Nagar, Ghatkopar East in Mumbai witnessed the desecrated statue of Dr.Ambedkar. Within minutes, the colony woke up with chants of protesters who gathered at the Eastern Express Highway which is one of the arterial roads of Mumbai. Within fifteen minutes of people gathering, people the State Reserve Police Force (SPRF) fired on the protesters killing eleven people and injuring twenty six others, many of them women and children. Even after two decades of the incident, the Colony still resonates with memories of that fateful day, many people from the families of the injured are still waiting for justice.

Amid rumours that stambh with the words ‘Jai Bhim’ written was vandalised at Siddharth Nagar, Kalyan (Mumbai), colony people feared that such an incident can easily take place again in Ramabai Colony. Kiran* added, “If they could easily desecrate the bust at Bhima Koregaon and now vandalise the Stambh at Kalyan, my main worry was such an untoward incident should not take place in Ramabai colony. By the time the protest was called off at 5.15 pm, there were only two beat policemen at the Ramabai Colony Chowk”.

Taking cognizance of the situation, Kiran and his group of friends approached the Pant Nagar Police station asking the PI to deploy more police at Ramabai Colony. The police further instructed Kiran to write a letter to the DCP stating his concerns regarding only two police officers being deployed at Ramabai Colony. Finally, by midnight, an approval was given on the letter written by Kiran and one fleet of Policemen with two police cars was stationed at Ramabai Colony. Kiran added, “Its been few days and the police fleet is still stationed here around the clock”.

Ironically, Ramabai Nagar area and the allied two areas (Kamraj Nagar and Nalanda) have been a Shiv Sena constituency for the past five years, even though the area has a large Dalit population and an active Ambedkarite movement. “This rhetoric that Ramabai Nagar is volatile place is a false narrative by the state… we are disappointed with the state response after the Ramabai Nagar Atrocity, and I do not know if Bhima Koregaon will have a similar outcome. During Ramabai Nagar Atrocity, the state tried their best to divert the issue and I see a similar pattern emerging with Bhima Koregaon”, a senior activist from Ramabai Nagar added.

Just a few days after the bandh, Deonar and Chembur, which saw a huge number of protests from Ambedkarites, was painted saffron. A large fleet of police vehicles was seen stationed, as Uddhav Thackeray was expected to inaugurate the “Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Pravesh Dwar”( A memorial commemorating Shivaji Maharaj). This was the same place where the protests took place just a few days earlier.

*Names have been changed on request.

Courtesy: Two Circles
 

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