Breaking Newsstream: Dalits Media Watch News Updates 11.06.15

JAIPUR: Heavy police force was deployed in Gandakya ki Dhani in Sikar's Dantaramgarh, a day after nine Dalit people were injured after members of an OBC community attacked them over a land-related old dispute.

The assailants also set on fire a thatched house belonging to dalit families. Two injured are undergoing treatment at SMS Hospital in Jaipur. The incident took place over a piece of land over which both the Dalits and Kumawats (an OBC community) claim ownership. Even as Dalit families live on the land, the dispute is pending in a court.

One Mularam Kumawat along with 50-60 others attacked the Dalit members and injured them. "Several members of a caste attacked Dalit people following a land related dispute which left nine people injured. Two of them were referred to SMS hospital in Jaipur for treatment," police said. Both the dalits and Kumawats (an OBC community) stake claim on the land and the matter is sub judice.

After the incident, Additional SP Rakesh Kachwal and others rushed to the spot and additional policemen were deployed in the area.

Zee News

Woman killed for practicing witchcraft in Gujarat; seven held

http://zeenews.india.com/news/gujarat/woman-killed-for-practicing-witchcraft-in-gujarat-seven-held_1611043.html

Last Updated: Wednesday, June 10, 2015 - 18:50

Vadodara: A 50-year-old woman was killed for allegedly practising witchcraft, following which seven persons have been arrested, police said on Wednesday.

The accused were arrested yesterday after they axed the woman - Kapuriben Rathwa, a widow - at Khandwaniya village on the night of June 5 after they suspected her of practising black magic, R B Devdha, Police Inspector at Chhotaudepur told reporters here.

According to police, fathers of two minor children who died in the village recently were among the arrested, who were told by a local that the woman killed their kids using black magic.

The arrested persons have been identified as Rasul Rathwa, Dhulia Rathwa, Khumtiya Rathwa, Fatehsingh Rathwa, Hitesh, Popat Rathwa and Ashvin Rathwa.

The murdered woman had returned to the village about a year ago after staying with her parents in another village.

Earlier, she was rebuked and thrown out of the village for allegedly practising witchcraft but was later taken in after a reconciliation with the locals. PTI

The Tribune

DEPARTMENTAL PROMOTIONS Haryana puts quota for Dalit staff on hold

http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/haryana/haryana-puts-quota-for-dalit-staff-on-hold/92239.html

Pradeep Sharma

Tribune News Service, Chandigarh, June 10

Barely four months after offering quota to Dalit staff, the Khattar government has put on hold 20 per cent reservation for the Scheduled Caste (SC) employees in departmental promotions.

In a circular issued here yesterday, the Haryana Chief Secretary directed the departmental heads to put on hold the promotion quota for class III and IV employees.

While the circular seems to be an offshoot of the stay granted by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on May 27, the decision is set to cause major embarrassment to the Khattar government looking to widen its base among the Dalit community.

On January 30, the Haryana Cabinet under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had accepted the P Raghvendra Rao Committee report paving the way for quota in promotions for the Dalit employees. The government's notification issued on May 15, 2015 was supposed to come into effect from April 1, 2013.

The government, which does not see eye to eye with its employees on several issues — especially after it rolled back retirement age from 60 to 58 years and put "on hold" Punjab pattern pay scales — was in search of a way out to mollify state government employees, especially the Dalits.

The acceptance of the Rao committee report, which was touted to be a major "pro-employee" by Khattar, was seen as a political decision.

In last year's parliamentary and Assembly elections, the BJP reportedly drew a large number of non-Jat votes.

However, the Dalit voters reportedly did not go with the BJP and chose either the Congress or the INLD. The current move to provide quota in promotions was seen as an attempt to woo the influential Dalit community in the state. The Rao committee was constituted to assess the backwardness and inadequacy of representation of SCs in promotion in government service.

The committee concluded that there was inadequate representation of SCs as compared to their proportional representation in the total population of the state at almost all levels of service and the administrative efficiency was not likely to be affected by promotions in service

The Times Of India

Association demands adequate compensation for 16-yr-old dalit girl's death

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/madurai/Association-demands-adequate-compensation-for-16-yr-old-dalit-girls-death/articleshow/47621969.cms

TNN | Jun 11, 2015, 03.38 AM IST

MADURAI: The Tamil Nadu Association for the rights of all types of differently-abled and caregivers has demanded the government to adequately compensate the family of a 16-year-old dalit girl who committed suicide after she was allegedly raped in her village near Sankarankoil in Tirunelveli district on June 7.

Shanmugapandi of North Street in Vanniyampatti near Sankarankoil is a coolie. His wife Rajeswari is also a daily wager. Their eldest daughter was 16 years old and had 80% physical disability. On June 7, the girl was alone in her house when one Mahesh, 28, son of Madasamy, a local milk vendor came there and sexually abused her.

Following the incident, the girl doused kerosene and set herself on fire. Though she was rushed to the Sankarankoil government hospital, she succumbed to burn injuries. In her dying declaration, which was also recorded on a cellphone, the girl stated that Mahesh had raped her and that's why she took the extreme step.

The Palavadavichathiram police registered a case for attempt of sexual harassment against the man, who is also a dalit. However, the association demanded that Sections, 4 and 5-K of the Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences Act and Sections 306 and 376 of IPC be included in the FIR against the man, as the dying declaration of the girl clearly states that she was raped.

Although the police assured that the Sections could be altered once the postmortem details are received, the state president of the association, P Jansirani, said that the family of the girl should be adequately compensated with not less than Rs 10 lakh.

The Telegraph

Ambedkar tour carrot for Dalit students

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1150611/jsp/nation/story_25083.jsp#.VXkSAbW3sqQ

Our Special Correspondent

New Delhi, June 10: The Modi regime plans to take 100 Dalit students on a tour of British and American institutions where B.R. Ambedkar studied ahead of his 125th birth anniversary next year.

The all-expenses paid "study tour" is seen as part of the BJP's attempts to woo the Dalits in the run-up to the anniversary celebrations that began on April 14, Ambedkar's birthday, this year.

Union social justice minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot, whose ministry is planning the tour, said not just Scheduled Caste students but also those from the Scheduled Tribes would be chosen as the trip would serve as an "inspiration" and encourage them to "break new ground".

While the itinerary is yet to be chalked out - the key points include the Columbia University in New York and the London School of Economics - sources in the ministry said the students would fly out in three months.

The 100 - from Class XII students to undergraduates to those from vocational courses - will be chosen on recommendation from central school boards and state universities, the sources said, adding the trip intended to "familiarise inspire" the group with places where Ambedkar studied and worked.

But not everyone saw it that way. Dalit activist and teacher Kancha Ilaiah termed the trip "politically motivated" and planned with an eye on Dalits who account for 17 per cent the country's voters. He said the students were unlikely to benefit much.

"They should have sent these students to study social sciences and political science in world-class universities, then it would have really benefited them," Ilaiah said.

He accused the "Modi government of trying to own Ambedkar, saying his image was no longer restricted to a Dalit icon". "He (Ambedkar) is an international figure who finds mention in (the speeches of) Barack Obama, Unesco, IMF, World Bank in relation to social justice and equality. It is a compulsion for the government to try and own him. Rahul Gandhi too is trying to do the same," Ilaiah claimed.

Sources said the trip could also cover places where Ambedkar lived, including a residential property on King Henry's Road in London where he stayed in the 1920s while doing research at the LSE.

The Hindu

Dalit priest's father objects to O. Raja's plea

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Madurai/dalit-priests-father-objects-to-o-rajas-plea/article7300154.ece?ref=tpnews

Special Correspondent

The father of a Dalit priest, who committed suicide in Theni in 2012 holding Finance Minister O. Panneerselvam's brother O. Raja responsible for his death, has decided to file an intervening application in the Madras High Court Bench here objecting to a plea made by the accused to order a lower court to dispose of his bail application on the day of his surrender.

When the direction petition filed by Mr. Raja came up for hearing before Justice M.M. Sundresh on Tuesday, advocate R. Alagumani, counsel for the priest S. Nagamuthu's father N. Subburaj, said that his client wanted to file an intervening application and oppose the petitioner's plea.

Hence, the judge adjourned the hearing to Thursday to enable counsel to file the application.

DNA

Ambedkar continues to be only a vote-catcher

http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/column-ambedkar-continues-to-be-only-a-vote-catcher-2094401

Thursday, 11 June 2015 - 6:35am IST | Place: Mumbai | Agency: dna | From the print edition

The ugly controversy triggered by the decision by the Dean of Students at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras to de-recognise the student body Ambedkar-Periyar Study Circle has ended. The Institute director restored its recognition following a spate of protests in numerous cities by students and political parties, and a meeting with APSC members. The conflict's continuation would have generated protests from the international scientific community and brought more opprobrium to IIT-M.

The episode began with the Union human resources development ministry's deplorable action in forwarding an anonymous complaint against APSC for "spreading hatred" between Dalits-Adivasis and "the Hindus" and issuing a pamphlet critical of the Modi government. Under official guidelines, such anonymous complaints must be ignored. Yet, cavalierly sacrificing institutional autonomy to the ministry's pressure, the DoS summarily de-recognised APSC without giving it a hearing, on the ground that it abused its "privileges" by using the IIT-M name. But the pamphlet was issued four days before the privileges were notified.

Now, it's a well-established principle worldwide that university students and faculty are entitled to hold a range of opinions and express them while identifying themselves as the concerned institutions' members, as APSC did by saying it's an "initiative of IIT-M students". This is perfectly legitimate. Pro-Hindutva groups like the Vivekananda Study Circle and the RSS have been doing this for years in IIT-M. In fact, a highly conservative Brahminical culture prevails at IIT-M, documented in several accounts including a Tehelka article (June 16, 2007), under which right-wing views and organisations are favoured.

The MHRD demonstrated its brazen partisanship on the IIT-M issue through Smriti Irani's characteristically intemperate tweets. Not to be left behind, the RSS mouthpiece Organiser accused APSC of dressing up a "confirmed" anti-communist like Ambedkar in a "communist garb" and spreading the "anti-Hindu"-unity ideology which Ambedkar would "never have approved of".

Nothing could be more repulsively false. The very first party Ambedkar formed was the Independent Labour Party, which championed socialism and public ownership of the means of production, like the communists.

Ambedkar's life was devoted to exploding the myth of "Hindu unity" and struggling against the historic injustices heaped by caste-Hindus upon Dalits. He had his differences with the communists, primarily rooted in their insensitivity to caste and failure to fight shoulder-to-shoulder with the Dalits. But communist-Dalit differences aren't irreconcilable, and need healing. Ideally, Sitaram Yechury should have been at the IIT-M gate to begin that process and radicalise the APSC's fight.

Ambedkar's foundational opposition was directed not just at Hindutva, but at caste-sanctifying Hinduism itself.

Periyar's opposition was even fiercer. "Inequality is the soul of Hinduism," wrote Ambedkar, and publicly burned the Manusmriti. He struggled for a separate electorate for the Dalits, but was blackmailed by Gandhi's fast into giving up that demand via the Poona Pact (1932). Had the Pact not happened, India's history would have been different, with a higher priority for social-economic equality, empowerment of the underprivileged, and social reform, including campaigns against superstition, obscurantism and chauvinist ultra-nationalism, which help the BJP thrive.

The IIT-M episode is yet another contemptible attempt by the Modi government to muzzle dissent, as it's doing in the media, culture and social life. It also exposes the rank hypocrisy and severe limits of the BJP-RSS's attempt to appropriate Ambedkar in a year which marks the 125th anniversary of his birth. The BJP's intention is crass: to garner Dalit votes. But no party other than the BJP is as far removed from, indeed more hostile to, the Constitutional-democratic and pluralist-secular ideals that Ambedkar stood for.

The Tribune

Student gets Ambedkar merit award

http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/haryana/education/student-gets-ambedkar-merit-award/92157.html

Our Correspondent

SONEPAT, JUNE 10

Sheetal, a resident of Liwaspur village in the district, was given a cash award of Rs 20,000 by Sonepat SDM Amna Tasneem here today under the Dr BR Ambedkar National Merit Award scheme for passing her class XII examination from the Haryana School Education Board, Bhiwani, this year securing 92 per cent marks. Sheetal wished to make her career in civil services.

The award is given by the Social Justice and Empowerment Department of Haryana to SC students are placed in the merit list of the board.

The Tribune

Villages with 30% SC population to get more benefits: CM

http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/uttarakhand/governance/villages-with-30-sc-population-to-get-more-benefits-cm/92217.html

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, June 10

Chief Minister Harish Rawat today directed for giving benefits under a special component plan to villages that have 30 per cent of Scheduled Caste population.

The Chief Minister, who was in Nainital today, interacted with representatives of various organisations and administration officials. At his meeting with officials, the Chief Minister said even villages having SC population of more than 30 per cent would be benefitted under the plan.

He directed for continuing with Uttarakhand Poorv Sainik Nigam Limited employees working with Haldwani and Srinagar medical colleges till the Cabinet takes any decision on them vis-à-vis their permanent appointments.

The Chief Minister also directed for ensuring the inclusion of eligible beneficiaries in the Kanyadhan Yojana.

The Chief Minister also conducted public hearing in which he received many complaints regarding roads, electricity, water and health problems. He asked officials to keep a record of complaints and solve them at the earliest.

Finance Minister Indira Hridayesh, Labour Minister Harish Chandra Durgpal and state Congress president Kishore Upadhyaya were present on the occasion.

News Monitored by Girish Pant & AJEET

.Arun Khote
On behalf of
Dalits Media Watch Team
(An initiative of "Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC")

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Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre- PMARC has been initiated with the support from group of senior journalists, social activists, academics and intellectuals from Dalit and civil society to advocate and facilitate Dalits issues in the mainstream media. To create proper & adequate space with the Dalit perspective in the mainstream media national/ International on Dalit issues is primary objective of the PMARC.

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