A DEPUTATION consisting of three members of the Dalit Shoshan Mukti Manch – Nathu Prasad, Surinder and Subhashini Ali (ex MP) met the National Human Rights Commission chairperson and gave him a memorandum on the brutal attack on dalit families in Shabbirpur village in Uttar Pradesh on May 5.  Members of the DSMM have been visiting the village and also the injured in the district hospital several times since May 9. The memorandum gave a detailed account of the incident and the background to it.

“There are 12 crore tribals in the country. There is a large tribal population in 170-175 districts in the country. The SECC survey of 2011 has shown that tribals are the most backward sections of society. 65 percent of tribals are landless. The income of 90 percent of tribals is less than Rs 5000 per month. Why has such a situation arisen even after 70 years of independence? This is because of the disastrous policies of successive governments, and the current BJP regime is the worst in this regard.“Tribals have lived in the jungles and mountains since generations.

On February 9, 2017, 26 MPs, cutting across parties barring the BJP, have written a letter to the prime minister to restore the Special Component Plan (SCP) and Tribal Sub Plan (TSP). The current budget had discontinued SCP and TSP and replaced it with allocations for welfare for Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST).

There has been a long standing nexus between the RSS and big capital. Funding of Hate, a report published in 2002 clearly pointed to the nexus between the RSS, its affiliate organisations and foreign funding. The India Development and Relief Fund (IDRF) and Sewa Bharti International are the two main channels through which Vanvasi Kalyan Ashrams, Ekal Vidyalayas get their funding. In fact the facebook page of the Akhil Bhartiya Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram based in Jashpur says that all cheques and donations to it should be routed through Sewa Bharti or Sewa Bharti International.

Resolution adopted at the Central Committee Meeting held on January 6-8, 2017 at Thiruvananthapuram, KeralaTHE Central Committee of the CPI(M) in its session at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, expresses solidarity with all those organisations of dalits, students, women and democratic sections who are observing the first anniversary of the institutional murder of Rohith Vemula on January 17, 2017.  It is a travesty of justice that a brilliant, young dalit student was pushed into committing suicide because of the brutal insensitivity and caste prejudice displayed by two cabinet ministers