Pushed Into Fire: Caste Violence During Holi in UP
Subhashini Ali
During the Holi festival, there were at least four reported attacks on dalits in Uttar Pradesh. In Farrukhabad district, dalits sustained gunshot wounds inflicted by members of a dominant caste. In Mathura and Basti, dalit families were brutally beaten by upper-caste men. In Sant Kabir Nagar, 20 huts belonging to dalits were set on fire.
THE festival of Holi was celebrated this year on Friday, March 14. In Uttar Pradesh, several police officers and then the chief minister himself exhorted Muslims to stay locked in their homes and offer their Friday prayers there if they wanted to avoid being sprayed with colour. The language and tenor of their pronouncements were extremely provocative and abusive. Despite this and the atmosphere of extreme communal polarisation in the state, Holi passed off peacefully in the state at least for Muslims who were greeted with flowers and sweets as they streamed out of mosques after the Friday prayers that assume a special significance in the month of Ramzan. Many dalits, however, were not so lucky. There were reports of some dalits being shot at as they went out to play Holi and, in Najibabad, Bijnor, Ved Prakash was actually pushed into the fire on the 13th when the burning of Holika was being celebrated by some members of the dominant caste in his village with whom he was involved in a land dispute. According to a case filed by him, they had forcibly taken possession of land that belonged to him and his family.
He had gone to participate in the ‘Holika Dahan’ (Holika burning) that was taking place about a kilometre away from his village. When he reached there, four persons who had been trying to pressurise him into withdrawing the case against them, caught hold of him and pushed him into the fire. None of the others there came to his help and he was only saved by the presence of mind that he displayed by rolling out of the flames onto the grassy patch nearby. His family members rushed to the scene with others from his village and he was taken to the district hospital for treatment. From there, he was referred to the Meerut hospital and then to Safdarjung Hospital, Delhi.
Ved Prakash’s wife and son went to the police station but the policemen present refused to register an FIR despite the fact that they named the persons responsible for the attempt on Ved Prakash’s life. On their part, the police put out the completely false report that Ved Prakash had been drunk and had fallen into the fire accidentally. Of course, they had no explanation for the fact that no one had come to his help.
The local unit of the CPI(M) protested against this denial of justice and met the district authorities, unsuccessfully.
On March 30, Subhashini Ali, (Polit Bureau member) and Vikram Singh (Central Committee member) were informed that Ved Prakash had been discharged from Safdarjung Hospital and was convalescing in the Dharamshala attached to the hospital. They immediately visited him and talked to him and members of his family who were looking after him. Ved Prakash told them about the land dispute in which he was involved and the kind of pressure that was being exerted on him to withdraw the case as the land was extremely valuable. He said that the people he was fighting against were very powerful with links to the ruling party and they had had no compunctions about pushing him into the fire and burning him to death.
Ved Prakash had suffered severe burns on his arms and around his waist but prompt treatment saved his life. He refused to be cowed down by this cruel attempt on his life and said that he would continue to fight.
The next day, the Bijnor police came to the hospital and tried to get him to change his statement but he refused. They then went and tried to pressurise his wife but were not successful.
Subhashini Ali and Vikram Singh were able to study the discharge slip given to Ved Prakash when he was sent from the Safdarjung Hospital to the Dharamshala. It stated clearly that he had come from the UP hospitals to Safdarjung without any documents. There was no medical report sent with him. This certainly seemed to indicate that the medical test that must have been undertaken in Bijnor had not revealed any intake of alcohol and so it seems to have been suppressed. They shared these facts with officials in UP and with the district Party leaders in Bijnor.
On April 2, CPI(M) leaders of Bijnor led by Rampal Singh took Ved Prakash’s wife to the police officials and insisted on an FIR to be registered against the accused.
Despite this, no arrests have been made till date. Now CPI(M) leaders in Moradabad (Commissionerate headquarters) will meet the DIG on April 9 to demand arrests of the accused and compensation to be paid to Ved Prakash. In Manuvadi-ruled Uttar Pradesh, denial of justice to dalits is a harsh reality.
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