Lockdown impact: In Modi’s constituency, Dalit kids forced to eat grass, reporter faces DM’s wrath

In one of the most bizarre and inhuman incidents that has come to light during the 21-day lockdown announced by PM Narendra Modi, Musahars – a Dalit community living in the eastern Gangetic plains – has been pushed to eat grass to ease hunger pangs in PM’s constituency, Varanasi.

According to media reports and documents accessed by National Herald, news of Musahars eating grass was first published in Jan Sandesh Times last Wednesday… However, instead of appreciating the media’s role for highlighting the community’s plight, the administration slapped a notice “for defaming the Musahar community” on Vijay Vineet, author of the story and Subhash Rai, editor of the newspaper.…

Starving since March 24 – the day when the PM announced the lockdown -the children were eating the grass usually given to cattle as fodder from a wheat field in the village out of sheer desperation and hunger, reported the local media.… Ever since the DM has issued a notice to the newspaper, reporter Vijay Vineet is living in fear. He told the media that he feared that he could be arrested any time by the UP police.…

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