Ssc             SOCIAL STUDY CIRCLE                di

                                                                                        (ESTD 1982) 

                                                  dalitindia

www.dalitindia.com                                                                                                                         ssc@dalitindia.com

*****************************************************************************************************

 

DELHI CENTER                                                                 

10-02-2001

 

SSC NEWS

 

       EARTH QUAKE,  ESCAPE FROM DEATH, REFORMED MEN!

 

No Never - the Hindu is too Evil an Animal to Change or Reform even in the Face of Death, and after just escaping from the Jaws of Death!  He can't ever loose his caste marks even after death!

 

 

Look at these News Reports in The Times of India and Hindustan Times on the 5th and 8th of Feb 2001 -

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1

 

Shunned by the Govt, these villagers just refuse to give in
Poornima Joshi & Amit Sengupta
Khavda (Rann of Kutch), Feb. 4)

 

THEY REFUSE to be defeated. Ten days of sleeping in the open, with food supplies getting exhausted and watching fresh tremors stalk the arid and saline landscape, the 25,000 Kutchies in this tip of the Rann of Kutch, close to the border of Pakistan, are resolute that they will not succumb.

 

And this, when not a single official or politician has visited the 25 villages around Khavda, ever since the quake razed every house in the region leaving 100 people dead and over 25,000 homeless. Relief supplies stop at Bhuj. Except for the Army, which has set up a camp hospital, Khavda and its mass tragedy do not exist for the Government and the rest of the world.

 

But the people, mostly Muslims, Dalits, Kolis and Sindhi worshippers of Jhulelal, despite the bitterness, refuse to shed tears. The Dalits and Kolis sleep next to the fire under the winter sky, while the mercury goes down to below five degree Celsius.

The Sindhis have set up a community camp with the help of the Swaminarayan trust. And the reasonably rich Muslims are enclosed in their clusters, thinking hard how to begin anew.

 

It was midnight when Bhuranatha was accompanying the Deputy Tehsildar to the district headquarters at Bhuj. This was a desperate attempt to draw the Collector's attention to their plight. The Dalit clusters have not received even emergency food supplies from either voluntary agencies or the Government. "No one comes to the Harijan basti. And we don't go to them to beg for food," he said.

 

So, it's the frozen expanse and empty stomachs for this artisan community, who, till yesterday, would display their meticulous craftsmanship in major metros of India. They have no land, the harvest has failed and daily wages for sharecropping did not come by. And now the quake has damaged all the craftwork they had made through the winter.

 

But the Dalits are still upbeat. Thin and wiry, they laugh easily. Their women in black and maroon dresses do not have tears in their big black eyes as they watch the fire sparkle in the night. The hard struggle of years to survive in this harsh landscape has toughened these people. Adversity seems to have become integral to their lives. They are angry, but not afraid.

 

"It's not easy to live invisibly and on the margin all the time. Will the Government refuse to look at us even after such a catastrophe?" asked veteran Nathuhira cynically. Will the Government care to look at them?

 

Postman Hiralal Thakkar, surrounded by his community members, said, "The bank, post office, telephone exchange, school, electricity office, Panchayat Bhawan, everything has been destroyed.” 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

2

 

Dalits, minorities cry discrimination 

 

Amit Sengupta, Rapar, Bhuj, February 7

 

-HTC, Thiruvananthapuram  

 

THE FIRST signs of Caste and other forms of Discrimination while distributing relief supplies have begun emerging in the rigid caste-divided society of Kutch.

 

Dalits and Muslims have started complaining that they are being pushed to wall by vested caste interests, including those in the political and bureaucratic establishment.   The Dalit Women in Rapar are an angry lot.

 

Reason: The dominant castes are cornering all the benefits of Voluntary Relief, and the Dalits have once again been marginalized. "They physically push us out of the queue. Or threaten us of dire consequences," lamented Ahilyaben, surrounded by wiry Dalit Women, visibly undernourished.  

 

Rapar is the fourth centre after Bhuj, Anjar and Bachau which bore the brunt of the earthquake. Over 100 people died here and the casualty was more than a thousand in the 115 villages in the taluka. By rough estimates, the homes of around 35,000 people were destroyed.   Villagers all over Kutch, including Khavda, where 25,000 people have been rendered homeless and no government relief had reached even 10 days after the quake, have been complaining that there have been cases of Caste Discrimination with regard to relief supplies. The powerful communities usurp warm blankets, foodgrains and tarpaulins, they allege in one voice.

 

The majority in these areas comprise Muslims, Dalits and Kolis, and it is transparent that they have been left to their fate. Even the Swaminarayan Religious Trust has only concentrated on the Sindhi Thakkars, who are its disciples.   In fact, the people and the Opposition have also alleged that the RSS and VHP activists were hijacking relief supplies.   The Gujarat Government, on the other hand, has been blamed for showing a subtle bias towards the RSS and VHP, which were active in many areas. An RSS activist in Khavda said that patrolling was on in the razed and empty mofussil township at night because the organisation was quite sure that members of a certain minority community would indulge in looting.  Muslims in Khavda, who constitute the majority population, have remained aloof and set up their own support mechanism.

 

In Rapar, Dalits are bitter that even voluntary groups were being manipulated. "We have got nothing. I have only this coat, and even this I managed to get after several days," said Shagun, 60, a Dalit, wearing a kid's tweed coat. But the richer communities like the Thakkars and the Jains, whose houses were also destroyed, think otherwise. Said Paras Mehta, a Jain activist, "We have self dignity. We have organized our own support systems. The Dalits are shameless. They are appropriating everything and hoarding relief material."  

 

In Dholavira and Gaddar, which are distant, poor villages beyond Rapar which emerge after miles of no-man's land comprising saline islands of the sea, every house has been destroyed, but there is no sign of any official or voluntary relief. Even the Army is not active here. Somehow, as in Bhuj, all relief trucks stop at the Taluka Head-Quarters at Rapar.   Thanks to the Sikhs of Punjab and the Jats of Haryana, Rapar has been able to face food scarcity with dignity. Hundreds of Sikhs have gathered here and built huge tents with langars. Everyone is welcome.   "We can cook food for 50,000 people at one time," said Baba Lakhbir Singh from Ratwaria Sahib near Chandigarh. "We have huge utensils and 50 specialist cooks. About 200 trucks will be arriving soon with foodgrains. We can feed the population for as long as it takes."   However, the poor are disgusted. Once again, they are face to face with the oppressions of an entrenched caste society.

 

There are murmurs of protests against the State Government all over Kutch. The first organized Protest against Discrimination in Relief and total lack of official accountability was staged at the Collector's office in Bhuj. Surely, more Protests are bound to happen in the days to come.  

 

VHP criticised  

 

Archbishop Cyril Mar Baselios has condemned the VHP’s demand to reject the Vatican's aid for the quake victims. In a statement, the Archbishop said it was unfortunate that some organisations were questioning the integrity of those helping the victims of one of the worst natural disasters.

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

Friends,

 

The above is not a Govt Note or Press Release secretly written by an unknown cowardish clerk from behind the Govt Disk with Official and Stste Protection, but by a Press Correspondent in a leading News Paper in Delhi!  Many Journalists, TV Crew, Politicians, Representatives of various Political Parties, Members of many National and International NGOs, Voluntary Organisations, and International Rescue Workers have been witnesses to these sad facts!

 

Many Dalits and Muslims struggle in the Cold Winter Nights in the open, with nothing to cover or protect or save them, but sheer determination and tough nature of their lives and bodies that could stand many trials and abuse by the dominant caste hindus!

 

Look at what really is happening in this Country!  The brahmanic hindus and their agent baniyas, with the help of some of their traditional kshatriya associates, and the Govts have been trying to project and rewrite the image of RSS VHP and other fundamentalist outfits as not being Political or Sectarian Religious groups, but as Voluntary Organisations engaged in humanitarian social service!  Govt and the brahmin-bania media are also actively engaged in this!  What humanitarianism and social service this is?  They have fully exposed themselves in the most tragic circumstances and failed before the people, inspite of what the lumpen elements of their parties belonging to the enslaved shudra communities and co-opted casteless outcaste ati-shudra SC&ST Dalits may say or swear for their bones!

 

But shameless caste hindus, take even the little money and material of the Govts that belongs to the People, majority of whom are the SC&ST Dalits, Minorities and Other Backward Classes!  They take all the Foreign Aid and Relief Materials that is pouring in from the Soverign Countries of the World that are Buddhists, Christian, Jewish and Islamic!  Shamelessly these fundamentalist hindu brahmin-baniyas are appropriating them all, not providing them to any of the buddhist christian and muslim SC&ST Dalits and also not yet converted SC&ST Dalits!  How shameless are these brahmin-baniya hindus!  Howcruel are they! 

 

While the whole Buddhists, Christian, Jewish and Islamic World including Pakistan are rushing with aid men material money medicine equipments, sniffer-dogs and rescue workers, to search rescue render first-aid provide relief and rehabilitate the injured and the victims, as well as with due respect dispose off the bodies of the dead, crores of sinned hindus officials politicins and Govt Functionaries are busy washing their unwashable accumulated sins and crimes against humanity and their fellow neighbours brothers and sisters, over days and weeks endlessly, in the dirty waters of the rivers Ganges and Yamuna flowing into Allahabad.  They are perhaps not just trying to wash their sins, but are trying to avoid their inevitable end in the hell for what all the crimes they had done in their short lifetimes, and yet are trying to book and reserve their seats in the heavens of their choice in the company of the people of their liking!   And a few amongst them calling themselves as enterpreneurs are further cruel enough to organise sight seeing tours for those equally cruel fellow caste-hindus to go and see the damages and sufferings of the people of the quake-ravaged areas!  And some others are still cruel enough to loot the damaged houses and shops, as well as steal and rob the Relief Materials and sell them in distant markets right from Ahmedabad to Surat and beyond in Delhi and Punjab!

 

This is the hindumind!  And this is hindu India!!  And this exactly is hindutva of the hindus, Govts and their Courts!!!  

 

 

 

Home                               News Home