By TCN News
Hyderabad: Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee of India (CLMCI) have expresses its deep anguish, grief and sorrow on the massacre of Dalits at Lakshmipet village of Vangara Mandal in Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh. The Committee said that this heinous crime is nothing but a crime against humanity; CLMCI also condemned the government’s stepmother attitude towards the Dalit community and also the Dalit political class who failed to protect their own community and neglected to restore the self-respect of their community.
CLMCI general secretary Lateef Mohd Khan in its press statement said that this incident is another blot on the face of Indian society where six people were brutally killed and nearly 50 people were seriously injured in a planned attack by the strong BC community known as Kapu with the help of political leaders belonging to that district.
The statement said “It is a matter of concern that the APCC president and Minister Botsa Satyanarayana who belongs to the Kapu community, instead of protecting the Dalits, provided them shelter and all kind of support to the mass murderers. State and all the political parties are trying hard to somehow shield this incident due to involvement of the Backward Class (BC) community in this massacre. BC community has strong political force and a deciding factor in state political affairs. Because of this, no political party is serious about this incident.
The statement of CLMCI general secretary alleged that Dalit’s have become a victim of vote bank politics. “It should be noted that in this state BCs comprise of more than 50% of the population. So for the sake of vote bank political benefits, this case is not given such attention as was in the case of Karamchedu and Chunduru. The government and leaders of all the political parties are not honest; they are looking at their larger interest, which is vote bank of BCs. What these political parties are doing is nothing but eyewash.”
CLMCI alleged that this incident was conspired in a well-planned manner to take revenge from Dalits. “By taking into confidence the police officials, revenue officials and politicians, this heinous crime was done in the early hours of 12th June. When the by-elections were going on Hundreds of men of Kapu community from Lakshmipet village and other surrounding villages, along with deadly weapons moved towards the Dalit locality and started attacking one family after the other. While attacking they were shouting that, ‘how dare you people register cases against us?’, ‘you want land, we will give you death’ and they were also shouting, ‘killing one or killing many, the punishment is the same, no one can dare to take any action against us’.” It was said in the statement.
Giving the background of the incident, statement reads. “This village was earlier on the banks of Swarnamukhi River, a dam was built there and this village was re-established besides the dam. 30 years back, Dalits were given 20 acres of land under the Indiramma scheme. During the construction of dam, the land was taken by the government by paying meager compensation to the Dalit’s and a good amount of compensation was paid to the Kapus. With this amount Kapus bought lands and built houses. But Dalit’s were given lands by the government. So there is only a lane difference between the Kapus and Dalits locality. There was also the land that does not belong to anyone, which was used by the Dalits for agriculture purpose. The Kapus were claiming this land. So, the reason for the clash is that the landless who earlier worked under the Kapu community now became the owners of the land, and this was not tolerated by the Kapu community. They were unable to digest as to how the agricultural laborer can become the owner of the land.”
CLMCI observed that Dalits are deprived of their fundamental rights, “With this incident, we can say that Dalit’s are still not given the status of human beings. In this era of 21st century, where Human rights is the matter of universal issue, the Dalits don’t have any right even the right to land and shelter. This reflects how the Indian society is behaving with the Dalit’s even after these rights are being guaranteed by the fundamental rights and directive principles of state policy in the constitution of India. If justice has to be done to Dalits, they first have to consider as human beings and their identity should be protected.”
Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee appealed to the civil societies all over the world, to protect the human rights and civil liberties of the Dalit community and to protect their identity as well. “We appeal to every concerned citizen to pressurize the Indian government to restore the right to life with human dignity of Dalit community.”
CLMCI put the following demands in its statement. “We demand Indian government to take firm action against the members of politically strong BC community who are involved in the massacre of Dalits. We demand the Chief Minister of AP to act decisively and should not compromise with the vote bank politics of the BC community. If the inaction continues, the oppressed Dalit community may resist in such a manner that may lead this country into a civil war like situation, we also demand Indian government to work honestly and see that no such incident takes place in future.”
Press statement of CLMCI also added that, “If such an incident had taken place at some other state, the government would have resigned taking moral responsibility. But, it is a matter of shame that, in the incident of Lakshmipet massacre, neither the AP government has taken moral responsibility nor a single minister has resigned. The government is not conducting free and fair investigation by any independent agency like CBI. This attitude of the government reflects the weakness of the people’s movement, who failed to pressurize the government. This committee believes that this act is crime against humanity and the criminals should be prosecuted accordingly.”
In the end of its statement CLMCI paid homage to Dalit people who sacrificed their lives by resisting Hindutva caste hegemony. The ending line of the statement reads, “At this high time CLMCI express its solidarity with Dalit community and appeals them to fight and liberate themselves from the clutches of Hindutva fascism and protect their identity.”
[All photos by CLMCI]
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