Dalit killings continue to haunt Congress, NCP

MUMBAI: The gory killings of four members of a Dalit family in Khairlanji of Bhandara district in Vidarbha in September do not augur well for the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party.

Chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh visited the village on Friday and met the lone survivor of the Bhotmange family who witnessed his wife, daughter and two sons being hacked to death allegedly by upper caste people on September 29. He has alleged that the women were raped before being killed.

Mr Deshmukh, who faced the wrath of Dalit activists who tried to storm his office last week, promised in Nagpur that the state would push for a CBI probe into the killings. The state government has already ordered an inquiry by the CID into the incident.

Sources said some the killings do spell trouble for the political prospects of the ruling alliance, the Congress in particular. “It’s certainly a setback that caste killings have happened in Maharashtra when the Congress is leading the government.

Worse, the victims happened to be Dalits, a constituency that has always had its loyalties divided between the Congress and several Republican factions. Even before the Khairlanji killings, Dalit activists and intellectuals had been voicing their concern that atrocities against Dalits were on the rise in the state.

“Maharashtra is not infamous for such brutal rapes and caste killings. The killings have already triggered violent protests in several parts of Vidarbha, and even secular parties like the CPM have hit out at the government for its failure to protect Dalits.

On a macro scale, the protests could lead to a political backlash,” said a Congress functionary. A much-delayed visit by Mr Deshmukh to Khairlanji has not helped the Congress cause, another leader commented. “Such incidents merit immediate attention. It’s not enough to say justice would be done. The chief minister must be seen doing something,” he asserted.

Khairlanji falls in the Assembly constituency currently represented by the BJP. Also, there are no immediate political dividends for the Congress as the polls are three years away. “But there are equally crucial municipal bodies and zilla parishad elections coming soon. Most importantly, caste killings are not easily forgotten. They would surely impact the Congress prospects,” a minister warned.