Varanasi: Hundreds of Dalits locked for hours before Modi’s visit
While PM Narendra Modi was inaugurating “Vishwanath Dham,” the so-called Kashi Vishwanath Corridor on the debris of the oldest living civilization in the world, residents of a nearby scheduled caste settlement were virtually locked-up in their premises due to a heavy security cover.
Forget the requests and petitions that they had prepared to present to their parliamentary representative Narendra Modi about the injustices meted out to them over the last few months, they were not even allowed to roam freely in the bylanes of their own neighbourhood and were forced to stay back on ghats for more than a couple of hours during which PM Modi stayed there. Vishal, a youth in his twenties, says, “Modi is scared of us. That is why he has kept us out of the premise which he visited.”
The plight of forty Dalit families living near Jalasen Ghat and only next to Manikarnika Ghat in Varanasi is a blot on the development model of Narendra Modi. This is a sordid chapter in the making of Kyoto from Kashi that has gone unheard in the media.… When the women retaliated, policemen attacked them in which Nityanand, Nirmala, Shashikala and Gudia got badly injured. A local filmed the whole episode on his mobile phone. NH has got the exclusive footage of the police assault.…
SEE ALSO:
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https://www.thecitizen.in/index.php/en/NewsDetail/index/2/16442/Award-Cancelled-They-Carry-a-Bhagwa-And-Think-They-Can-Attack-Anyone-Says-Dalit-Scholar - Dalit Labourer Burnt Alive in Bhilwara, Police Probe Suicide Angle (Mar 9, 2019, The Quint)
https://www.thequint.com/news/india/atrocities-dalits-sc-st-act-dalit-labourer-burnt-alive-in-bhilwara - After moment of fame with PM Modi, Kumbh sanitation staff back to work – and reality (Mar 5, 2019, Indian Express)
https://indianexpress.com/article/india/narendra-modi-sanitation-workers-kumbh-2019-manual-scavenging-5611133/ - Gaps in governance: Need for timely intervention in court cases pertaining to SCs, STs, SEdBCs (Mar 5, 2019, Counterview)
https://counterview.org/2019/03/05/gaps-in-governance-need-for-timely-intervention-in-court-cases-pertaining-to-scs-sts-sedbcs/amp/
