3-pronged bandh call – Telegraph India
Three organisations representing Dalits and tribals, farmers and retired defence personnel have announced a joint “Bharat Bandh” on August 9, also featuring a jail bharo by peasants, to protest the government’s “failure” to protect their rights.
The All India Ambedkar Mahasabha, an umbrella body of over a dozen Dalit and tribal rights associations, will hold the agitation with CPM-backed farmers’ body All India Kishan Sabha and the Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement, fighting for one-rank-one-pension (Orop).
At Thursday’s news conference, Mahasabha chairperson Ashok Bharati demanded the “restoration” of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, which the Supreme Court had “diluted” in March this year.
Following a call by Bharati, Dalit organisations had observed a Bharat Bandh on April 2 against the March 20 verdict, which had ruled out automatic arrests and allowed anticipatory bail under the atrocity act.
“The judgment finished whatever the Dalits had achieved in over 50 years of struggle. If the government is serious, it must bring in a bill in this session to overcome the dilution of the law,” Bharati said.
Bharati also condemned the invocation of the National Security Act against Dalit activists like Chandrashekhar Azad, Shiv Kumar Pradhan, Sonu and Upkar Bawre last year for an agitation against attacks on the community in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh. He demanded withdrawal of the “false” charges and their immediate release from jail.
Major General (retired) Satbir Singh, the leader of the movement for Orop, criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for saying that Orop had already been granted.
“Each of us (organisations) has been holding agitations separately on our issues. Now the time has come for a united struggle,” Singh said.
“The Prime Minister says Orop has been given. I appeal to (him) for a discussion. If he convinces us, we will withdraw our agitation.”
During his 2014 election campaign, Modi had promised Orop within 100 days if his government came to power. Singh said the version of “Orop” the government had implemented was far from what was promised.
“As per the definition of Orop, defence personnel of the same rank with the same (number of) year(s) of total service would get the same pension. The second part says any change in the rate of pension in future would be automatically passed on to the past pensioners. The government has removed the second part,” Singh said.
“It has introduced equalisation of pension (for) the same rank on a periodic basis of every five years. As a result, a retired jawan is getting Rs 5,000 less pension today than he deserves.”
Sabha general secretary Hannan Mollah objected to the way the government had fixed the minimum support prices for crops. He said the government had taken only the input costs and family labour into account, and not the rent the farmer pays his landlord or the interest he shoulders on loans taken.
Before the last general election, the BJP had promised to implement the Swaminathan Commission recommendations, which said farmers should be given 50 per cent more than the production cost, which includes input costs, family labour, land rent and interests on loan.
Mollah said the farmers would hold a “jail bharo” protest in 400 districts on August 9.
Bezwada Wilson, Magsaysay Award winner and national convener of the Safai Karmachari Andolan, which is dedicated to eradicating manual scavenging, said his organisation would support the agitation.
“Nobody has the right to kill people on the streets,” Wilson said, referring to the spate in lynching.
Source: https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/3-prongedbandh-call-248046
