In Solidarity with the Movement in Una against Caste Oppression

Kisan Sabha to Join in the March and the Rally at Una on 15th August!

The public flogging of four Dalits in UNA, Gujarat on 11th July for skinning a dead cow saw widespread protests and united action in which thousands took part. They registered their protest and also took the pledge to stop lifting or disposing carcasses of dead cattle. The Una protest and Dalit Asmita Rally are a historic response against attacks on Dalit lives, dignity and livelihood. All India Kisan Sabha considers it our responsibility to actively support the movement as well as their struggle for land rights. It is as much a struggle of the peasantry as much as it is for dignity of the Dalit people. AIKS expresses full solidarity with the ongoing movement under the banner of Una Dalit Atyachar Ladayee Samiti. A delegation of AIKS and other fraternal organisations will march in solidarity and take part in the Rally on 15th August, 2016. Attacks by vigilante groups in the name of “Gau Raksha” on Muslims and Dalits have increased after the Narendra Modi led BJP Government has come to power. Most inhuman kind of torture has been meted to people on the pretext of cow protection and they have uploaded their brutal acts on social media with utmost impunity. Incidents of public flogging, force-feeding cow-dung, stripping and parading the victims have come to light. BJP Governments in the Centre and different States have implicitly endorsed the violence by either refusing to take action against the culprits or even directly glorifying such acts. Different Hindutva groups and vigilante “Gau Rakshaks” are perpetrating such acts seeking to dehumanise certain communities and launch an assault on their basic dignity. There are also concerted efforts to infringe upon the food habits of people by bringing legislations for cow-slaughter ban and beef ban. BJP-ruled States like Haryana and Maharashtra have sought to give a cloak of legal sanction to such acts by enforcing beef ban. The ban on sale of cattle and beef-ban is pushing millions of farmers into distress by preventing them from selling cattle during drought and buying new ones when their earnings rise after monsoon. This money also helped them to invest in seeds and other inputs. Cheap source of protein to poor farmers and agricultural workers and toiling masses is also threatened. Abandoned stray cattle have also caused immense damage to crops. The millions engaged in leather industry are also threatened of their livelihoods. The Una incident is in continuation of a series of attacks like the lynching of Akhlaq in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh, a truck driver Zahid Ahmad in Udhampur, Jammu and Kashmir, hanging of Mohammed Majloom and a 12 year old child Inayatullah Khan in Latehar, Jharkhand by vigilante groups. Different videos of brutal attacks by such groups in Punjab, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka are circulating but culprits are moving around scot-free. It was followed by attack on a Dalit family in Karnataka allegedly by Bajrang Dal activists on the charge that they ate beef. The tacit support from the BJP government has only emboldened such groups. Broadest possible issue-based unity has to be built against the casteist and communal forces. With elections to different States due in few months the Prime Minister finally broke his silence and made some melodramatic statements criticising these vigilante groups as anti-socials. His own record as the Gujarat Chief Minister and even later to encourage such groups and create communal polarisation during elections has rightly led people to question his sincerity and demand strong deterrent action rather than empty words. Within days after his Statement two Dalits have been brutally beaten up in Amalapuram, AP on false charges of cow slaughter. AIKS demands that there should be an immediate ban on activities of such vigilante groups in the name of “Gau Raksha” and strong deterrent action should be taken against them. AIKS calls upon its units to have solidarity actions in support of the Una Dalit Asmita Rally.

Chalo Una!

Sd/-
Amra Ram, President
Hannan Mollah, General Secretary
New Delhi
11th August, 2016