The extended Diwali on Tuesday brought unthinkable humiliation upon a poor and ill Dalit man in kakori town near Lucknow.
Mr Rampal an elderly Dalit man was not in good health, and had visited a temple, where he faced incontinence due to his poor health conditions.
The incident provoked, the poorly masked caste hatred of a few upper caste men in the temple, who abused, assaulted and forced him to taste his own urine in front of the gathering there.
While the state administration would be on a moral trial for their actions against the perpetrators of this inhumane crime, the entire country is already guilty of its unclean conscience. That in this age, after 8 decades of independence and constitutional protections, if the society harbors such contempt and prejudice against the Dalits, it is an abject failure of the “India project.“
The incident is not unheard of in our society, but the impunity with which these acts are committed and the discourse, especially on social media, supporting such acts is novel.
The silence of the top leadership, of the bjp-rss system, including the prime minister is encouragement enough for such elements.
Anti Dalit prejudice is deeper than anti Muslim feelings within this ideology and it surfaces in face of a favourable government and environment.
Over the past month, the state has seen a horrific incident of mob lynching of a mentally challenged Dalit man in Raebareily, and there have been incidents like a senior Dalit IPS officer harassed to suicide in Chandigarh, a Dalit woman assaulted in Rajasthan and even the chief justice of the country was not spared.
All these incidents, hint of a dark force let loose on our country and civilization by a satanic cult.
As Gandhiji had said before ‘if untouchability lives, Hinduism dies’. We as a society and civilization will have to rise to this challenge.
