THOUSANDS of dalits and adivasis from the remotest of villages and from every corner of the state, rallied in Bhopal on September 20 and announced their intention of struggling for their fair share in the natural resources and wealth of the state.  They were determined to ensure that there would be no further compromises as far as their self-respect was concerned.  More than 5000 dalits and adivasis and other sections of the poor participated in the rally organised by the Dalit Shoshan Mukti Manch and the Adivasi Ekta Mahasabha and various Leftist mass organisations.  The main speakers in the rally were Subhashini Ali, vice-president of AIDWA and Jiten Chowdhury, MP and tribal leader. 

Subhashini Ali said that the BJP government was trying to substitute the constitution with Manusmriti and had already started implementing policies influenced by a casteist ideology.  The MP government had announced that it would close down more than 1,10,000 government schools (it has already closed more than 14,000).  This would deprive the poorest children, mostly dalits and adivasis, of any access at all to education.  Health budgets had been cruelly cut by both the central and state governments with the result that poor people, especially adivasis, were dying due to complete lack of medical attention.  The MP government spent crores on organising the Singhasth Kumbh at Ujjain and huge corruption was indulged in – even water pots were bought at hugely inflated prices – but could not provide either water for the fields of poor peasants or rations for them and their families.  The government’s intention to treat adivasis like Eklavya and dalits like Shambhuk would, however, be resisted by the people and their united struggles.

The Gujarat model had been exposed as a fraud on the common people, especially the poor who had been deprived of their land which was handed over to corporates and of their right to all minimum services and, of course, to jobs.  This model was a model of oppression, a model of communal violence and a model of corporate loot.

Jiten Chowdhury expressed anguish over the fact that despite the fact that MP was home to the largest tribal population in India, tribals were suffering every kind of deprivation.  He said that when a small state like Tripura could ensure that all tribals were educated, that they were helped to become self-reliant and given access to all government schemes and benefits, why could that not happen in MP?    He said that unless the poor united and unleashed a wave of struggles, they would not be treated as being on the agenda of anti-people governments. 

Various leaders from Madhya Pradesh also addressed the rally.  Among them were Rambabu Jatav (AIAWU), Jugal Kishor Pippal (DSMM), Premnarain Mahaur (Kisan Sabha), Nabi Noor (Adivasi Ekta Mahasabha), Vidya Khangar (CITU), Nisha Singh and Mathura Solanki (AIDWA), Ganga Singh Gaur (DYFI) Kuldeep Pippal (SFI).  They reminded the audience of the heroic struggle by tribal leader Tantya Mama against the British colonialists and said that they would fight the ‘brown’ sahabs in the same way.  They said that the MP government was doing everything to oppress and exploit dalits and adivasis.  There were cases where the electricity bills of others were being forced upon poor tribals living in huts with no electricity connections. Dalits were being beaten when they dared to fill water from village wells.  All constitutional guarantees were being flouted and adivasis and dalits were the victims of widespread malnutrition, illiteracy, disease and poverty.  Atrocities against women, especially those belonging to these communities, were becoming more brutal and innumerable.

The meeting was conducted by Jasvinder Singh, state president of the Kisan Sabha, on behalf of a presidium consisting of Jokhu Lal and Budhsain Singh Gaur (Adivasi Ekta Mahasabha), Phoolsingh (DSMM), Sandhya Shaili (AIDWA), Deepak Paswan (SFI), Karan Singh (DYFI).

As the rally ended, the participants streamed out of the gate to the park with their placards and banners.  They were determined to block the road until some government official arrived to accept their memorandum.  The police were taken by surprise.  They begged the participants not to resort to rasta roko and ensured that an SDM arrived immediately to receive the memorandum.