Numerous organisations belonging to Dalits, Adivasis, OBCs Bahujan Samaj have called for a nationwide bandh against the oppressive and exploitative policies of the current regime. Right from virtually making the reservation in our academic and other power institutions, virtually redundant, the attack on forest zones of India to make over 20 million Adivasis as encroachers in their own land, the continuing suicides of farmers and the persistent favors to the crony capitalists of the government.
We stand in solidarity with all #BharatBandh in hope that political parties will realise that they cant make fool of India’s Bahujan masses and time has come to give them their due share in power structure.
The attempt to side track the issue in the din of the ‘Pakistan’ narrative will not work. We know well this narrative is being floated with those who have least contribution in our nation making.
The Bahujan Samaj is ready to join the armed forces and served the country and the need is to open doors for them in each sector.
India’s parliament must reflect our Bahujan diversity and our judiciary must have people from the diverse Bahujan communities otherwise it will be difficult to get justice. The attempt to use judiciary to legally deny the Bahujan communities their due must be resisted and opposed. It is the Supreme irony that judiciary is being used to scuttle the whole process of social justice.
It is important that the government must develop Indian Judicial Services just like Civil Services. Judiciary should be empowered with regular training of the international laws and human rights values to deal with the issue. Special courts must be formed with time bound framework to deal with the issues of atrocities on Dalits and Adivasis as well as their land and forest rights issues which are pending for years. In the absence of representation from our wider sections of society particularly Dalit Bahujan adivasis in the judical system we cant expect justice in true sense. Judiciary must reflect the inclusive system of representation so that its credibility is enhanced.
Thousands of people have died in this country in the gutter cleaning sewage line and carrying dirt of the people. The work is ‘reserved’ for one community. This despicable work has not yet been finished and yet leaders call it give them ‘spiritual’ relief. I am sure if this is where people get ‘mokhsa’ then those ‘learned’ ‘soul’ must get the moksha first and liberate all others who want to get rid of this brutal, barbaric tradition. That India’s various communities engaged in manual scavenging practices need honorable rehabilitation and a complete ban on the practice of entering manually into these sewage lines or carrying the human excreta manually. It must go but will not unless the communities engaged in it are provided a social acceptability as well as economic independence.
The other side of the story is that the same tradition gives enormous powers to a particular community to decide and dictate our lives. India’s powerful temples are ‘reserved’ for this particular community and none talk against this ‘birth based’ reservation. Not only in terms of economy but in terms of social acceptance, this is an absolute monopoly over privileges in our society.
If India is to feel proud and respect among the comity of civilised nations then India’s hidden apartheid must end. The caste system, the supremacy of one and contempt and neglect of the others must end not merely with legal and constitutional means but from the hearts of the people, from your personal values and social norms. It will not go with mere legal provisions as their implementation failed because of the existing caste mindset in our system and prejudices of the judiciary and media. Equally important is that India need a cultural Renaissance when the ugly reality of caste discrimination become a past and every live here in great dignity and honor.
So long as nationalism and globalism are being promoted to strengthen the hegemony of a few castes and individuals, India will never become a powerful nation if we fail to understand that power comes from the unity of people and there can be no unity if India’s Bahujan Samaj is being threatened, dislocated and denied justice. A country can not flourish if its Bahujan Samaj is in dire need which are not being fulfilled and state apparatus are being used to deny them justice. The Bahujan people will stand up and speak. They have already made their presence felt now. You will not find an Eklavya now as Bahujan students are ready to give a sound rebuff to all the Dronacharyas in the Universities. The brahmanical tricks will not work now as Ambedkar’s India has woken up and will challenge the power against all forms of discrimination.
A Bharat Bandh today is an assertion of the Bahujan communities that they wont accept the denial of justice to them any longer. This is also a message for all political parties as not to take them for granted as the community will not wait for parties to raise the issues and just be a ‘follower’. The bandh call is spontaneous and the common thread is discrimination based on their social location and denial of justice and use of judiciary to scuttle the provisions of reservations and other rights ensured by the constitution for them. Have you seen any country where judiciary is used to deny justice to its indigenous people and those on the margins ? It is important for all the justice loving people to support the Bandh call given by India’s Bahujan Samaj.
-Vidya Bhushan Rawat
