The CPI(ML) expresses deep concern over reports of widespread anti-Dalit violence by mobs of the dominant Maratha caste as well as by the police in Nashik district of Maharashtra. The police in the BJP-Shiv Sena ruled state have failed to register cases against the perpetrators and have instead unleashed violence on Dalits inside their own homes in the name of combing operations.
In recent times, huge silent processions of Marathas had been witnessed in Maharashtra. While the agrarian crisis, farmers’ suicides and joblessness were factors in the Maratha unrest, the agitations had a disturbing anti-Dalit edge right from the start. The agitations began following the gang rape and murder of a Maratha minor girl allegedly by Dalit youth, and the demand for dilution of SC/ST Atrocities Act was raised. In Nashik, again, the alleged molestation of a minor Maratha girl by a Dalit teenager was the pretext for the latest round of anti-Dalit violence accompanied by demands to dilute or scrap the SC/ST Atrocities Act.
For allegations of rape and molestation to be used as pretexts to raise the bogey of ‘misuse’ of the SC/ST Atrocities Act is highly condemnable. The issue of justice for women and girls should not be pitted against that of justice and dignity for Dalits and tribals. Incidences of rape in which Dalits happen to be accused must not be used to profile Dalits as sexually predatory. Atrocities against Dalits and tribals – including instances of organized sexual violence and gang rapes – continue to be rampant, and justice is hard to come by in these cases thanks to police collusion with the perpetrators.
The CPI(ML) demands stern and prompt action against all the perpetrators of anti-Dalit violence in Nashik. The BJP-Shiv Sena Government must be held accountable for the safety of the Dalits in the state, and all police and administrative personnel involved in anti-Dalit violence must be punished. Political leaders attempting to instigate the Maratha community against the Dalits must also face action.
