Dalits no longer feel safe in Khairlanji
Two months after four members of a Dalit family were brutally killed, this tiny dust-bowl has become a major challenge for Maharashtra’s political establishment to deal with.
By Girish Kuber, TNN |
KHAIRLANJI: Today, Khairlanji is a ghostly place: empty streets, deserted fields, curious eyes peeping out of shanties and policemen outnumbering the villagers.
Two months after four members of a Dalit family were brutally killed, this tiny dust-bowl has become a major challenge for Maharashtra’s political establishment to deal with.
On September 29, enraged villagers had killed four members of Bhotmange family, which sparked a violent surge of protests and revived the dormant Dalit movement in the state. This, in the process, gave an opportunity to many factions of the Republican Party of India to sharpen their ‘leadership’ skills.
In Khairlanji, villagers today cite their own different reasons for the killings: The family used to ‘misuse’ its ‘Dalit’ status, many in the village were threatened by the family and some of them were engaged in illicit relationships.
It seems it was one family versus the entire village. “Yes, the villagers attacked the family. But one should need to find out the reasons. It’s not for nothing that entire village takes such an extreme step,” an angry villager told ET on Tuesday.
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The village represents a solid, but invisible divide. The Dalits live in one corner while the Kunbi community, the socially dominant group, has houses in another. “Now, we don’t feel safe in the village. We want the government to rehabilitate us somewhere else. We won’t mind going to any place, but not in Khairlanji,” said a Dalit community member.“Socially, Maharashtra is sitting on a volcano. It can erupt anytime if the issue is not addressed at the highest level,” cautions Gopinath Munde, the BJP leader. Mr Munde lost no time in blaming the Vilasrao Deshmukh government for being “insensitive” to the cause.
The apparent “revitalisation” of the Dalit movement notwithstanding, many in political circles believes that Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party would emerge as the real political beneficiary of the entire issue and the state’s established Dalit leadership is totally incapable of addressing their constituency.
“The incident certainly has polarised voters. In future, Dalits won’t go with the Congress or with the NCP since there is a feeling of betrayal about these parties. The RPI is a divided house. So, it will be only natural for Dalits if they prefer BSP over others,” reasoned Mr Munde.
A senior Congress leader agreed, too. “Either way, we are damned. We can’t be pro-Dalit since it antagonises our cadres in villages. And our pro-Dalit stand is questioned by Dalits themselves,” he said, talking about the peculiar situation the party’s in. He admitted that it would take several years to recover from Khairlanji effect.
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