People's Democracy

HARYANA 

Fundamentalist Campaign Continues in Name of Cow Slaughter

 THREE Dalits were beaten up in Chamra village of Sonipat district in Haryana on November 5, on the charges of skinning a calf, and handed over to the police. The incident occured about 20 days after the Jhajjar killings. Instead of protecting the said Dalits, the Chautala government kept them in custody till some village elders intervened, the panchayat declared that the calf had died earlier and that the Dalits were innocent. The police released the Dalits only after the said panchayat decision. It must be noted here that such incidents have increased in Haryana after the Jhajjar killings.

What is a matter of concern is that, instead of fulfilling its constitutional obligation of maintaining law and order, the Haryana government is creating a situation that allows a free run to the same Hindu fundamentalist forces who perpetrated the Jhajjar massacre. These forces are spreading terror and hatred in Jhajjar and neighbouring areas through their vicious propaganda. As a result, many such incidents have happened since the Duleena episode, though only about half a dozen of them have been reported by the press. In these incidents, members of the Dalit community have been assaulted for carrying out even the legitimate trade of skinning dead animals, crowds have been mobilised against them, and the Dalits have then been handed over to the police.

The assembly organised at a Gurukul in Jhajjar in the name of a mahapanchayat openly threatened that any investigation or arrest in regard to the Duleena inicident would lead to serious repercussions. Apart from gurukuls and gaushala committees, panchayats of various castes and sub-castes were also misled to join the opposition to illusory cow slaughter.

It must be recalled here that the reactionary forces have made these panchayats issue pseudo-religious edicts and fatwas in matters related to marriage. The persons whom these caste panchayats declared as ‘guilty’ of inter-caste or inter-religious marriages have been hanged from tree branches or burnt alive. All this makes a mockery of the law of the land and violates the constitutional rights of women and common people.

Massive protests took place across the state on November 5 in protest against the Duleena killings as well as against the inaction of the Haryana government and its police. These protest actions raised the demand that the policemen present on the spot should be punished. The protestors said there was no need to wait for an enquiry as it was prima facie clear that these policemen had failed to protect those in their custody.

The protestors also demanded that those named in the FIR must be arrested, and that a CBI enquiry must be instituted to find out the forces behind this incident, particularly the role of the VHP in it.