Personal Account: Uday Bhanu, Dalit Scholar to a Witness
Uday has been leading Dalit Students Union for Social Justice for quite a while now. He has spearheaded several struggles and confronted the castes of the ABVP cadre at various moments. His profile has been under watch by the intelligence police , he being a revolutionary writer too, raising a visible voice in literary circles.
Right now, Uday Bhanu , with acute pain between the legs, is not able to walk without any support, not able to chew food due to injured jaws, spewing out any food he takes in, as his abdomen is cramping under pain, scared of any solid food agonized by his bleeding anus. He was operated in three stages for his fistula complaint and he has suffered penile infection during the course of his treatment and was just recovering.
They dragged him by his hair and a group of police officers lifted him like a box on their shoulders and threw him down. There were people around stood in an appalling and shocking mood and some tried to cover him in futile. They were hit and drove off while he continued to be taken to a police van close by. He was forcibly thrown into the van of small room size.
.jpg)
The moment he realized that he was in dungeon kind of police van, 7-8 police personnel rushed closing down the shutters of windows of the van. All others stay outside and other 30-40 police ensured no one gets close to the van. His friends were scampering to pursue the police in reduced tone to release him. No police man is heeding to their request. Inside the van, all the police men are overwrought in applying third degree violence on him.
The van was closed and no one can peep into check what is happening inside. His mouth was shut with a piece of cloth around so that no sound traverses through the walls of the van to reach any outside person. All police men started hitting him on his face , back, chest and stomach black and blue. He is not able to vent out the pain nor able to get relieved by moaning loudly. Two policemen held his hands back and another two started blowing with fists on his jaws. A meek painful groan was clasped under his teeth. Few police men lie him down and started jumping on his body, like a cushion under their feet, from a two feet height seat. He was able to sense the muscles crumpling inside and lying with tears flowing helplessly. They turned him again upside down started hitting on his stomach and chest ruthlessly. He noticed the mufti man was exerting all his energy and hitting him “ you, son of a bitch” . Just before a while his iron fist was hitting on his face, he caught hold of the mufti man and pleaded “ I am operated and I am bleeding . Please spare me off “ . Mufti man cooled himself off and asked “ Where were you operated ? “. With a tinge of optimism , he widened his legs and showed the place of bleeding. His underwear was soaked in blood. The mufti man stared at the place and shot his foot on it like a foot ball. He held his anus up in a monstrous pain and cried aloud which could not be heard by any outsider. He then hit him on his testicles and abdomen. He was crying crouching down his body and tears are flowing off from eyes and pain is like a lava mountain inside erupting somewhere inside the body. Police using third degree on citizens of India is a common phenomenon. Generally, empirically, it was observed that they resort to physically assaulting the men under custody with a calculation to inflict and teach a lesson. The level of reaching to a man’s private organs is actually a higher level than treating an accused man , unless he is potentially threat to State.
It was exactly 25 minutes of torture in closed chamber ( van) . Before, he was let off, finally, the police men , with their spiked police boots, trampled the palms and his fingers and started thumping on it repeatedly and threw him out of the van. He rolled out of the van blood soaked.
Who is “ he” here ? “He” is not a person detained under UAPA or any other Act. He is not a man who planned a conspiracy against Government or murdered anyone. He is a Dalit student pursuing his Doctoral Research in Telugu literature. He is elugu poet too , who voiced through his pen in his book “ JangT “( War) . He also happened to be a member of Revolutionary Writers’ Association ( Viplava Rachayithala Sangham ). He is student who scored over 90% in his post graduation and got his JRF scholarship in an open competition. He is known as “ Uday Bhanu “, a clear and conspicuous symbol of the most oppressed voice within the pandemonium of recent uprising(s) of students in struggle at the Hyderabad Central University (HCU), protesting a host of issues. So far, he is one of the Victims, most cruelly treated student by the Police under the Regime indirectly controlled by by Modi.
Uday Bhanu preparing food for all of his friends
What is he guilty of ? What crime has Uday Bhanu committed and why he is looked at as a troubled citizen ? He , himself , did not realise what was the mistake he committed except when he, first, realized what mufti man shouted hitting his jaw “ bastard, you are the one who provoked Rohith’s mother on the day of post mortem to get the body “ .
Yes, he was the one persuaded Rohith’s mother at the time of post-mortem , who was pleading police that she is unconcerned with any politics but would only need her child’s body for proper funeral. The mufti man watched him that day fighting with the police for Rohith’s body garnering courage for Rohith’s mother too. The police realised that he is not the man of conventional convictions.
They spotted him when he started cooking food for his friends, while electricity, power , water and all amenities were cut off for the University of Hyderabad (HoU/HCU) students. He is the one who initiated this measure of “ self-survival” method and he was spotted by the police as not a student to be neglected but to be a fit model case to teach a lesson to entire student community through him.
Uday has been leading Dalit Students Union for Social Justice for quite a while now. He has spearheaded several struggles and confronted with ABVP cadre at various moments. His profile has been under watch by intelligence police , he being a revolutionary writer too, raising a visible voice in literary circles.
Right now, Uday Bhanu, has severe pain between the legs, he not able to walk without any support, not able to chew food for injured jaws, spewing out any food he takes as his abdomen is crumpling under pain, scared of consuming any solid food with the agony caused by by his bleeding anus. He was operated in three stages for his fistula complaint and he has suffered penile infection during the course of his treatment and was just recovering.
What is spine chilling and appalling is when a lady police officer approached him, while he was trying to regain himself to stand up after being thrown out of the van, whispering in his ears “ we will soon kill you “ !!!!
A student community, typically, stands for independence of thinking and courage of speaking truth unlike any other section in the society. Any world renowned movement is emanated from students and lead by students. The cultural baggage the students carry is a very important aspect in a society. As part of their cultural cleansing programme, the Manuvadi Sangh Parivar is repeatedly harassing student community , be it JNU or HCU, or FTII or IIT or Allahabad. Any free thinking person can challenge the stereotypical functioning of Brahminism. Having let series of generations gone through under the axe of casteism in India, Dalits, of late, getting equipped to dissect the functioning of Brahminism and are able to preempt the attempts of Brahminism before they sabotage with their tactics.
When I asked Uday Bhanu “ What actually was the most scary part: during this brutal attack , secluding you , segregating you and targeting you alone? “
He responded in a feeble voice “ Not really so scared but it gave me an unparalleled experience of myself; a ringside view of watching how the State behaves against Dissent. If at all anything concerned me – there are two things. One – who is the stout heavy muscle built in mufti man who hit me ? – is he a hired goonda or a BJP man or Policeman ? Secondly, the way, the lady officer whispered in my ear “ we will soon kill you “ is actually serious and everyone should be worried about this and not me alone. This is something we have to take it seriously how they don’t even flinch back in snatching your life if you express dissent “
(The writer is a CFO in a alrge infrastructure group by profession and is a dalit writer and critic. He may be accessed , for any queries, through his mail – pvvkumar@yahoo.co.uk or his facebook ID P V Vijay Kumar )