The incident at Una in Gujarat, where Dalit youths were paraded and flogged for allegedly killing a cow, caused nation-wide outrage after its video went viral. The victims’ contention was that they were skinning a dead cow and had not killed it. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi has maintained a stoic silence on the issue on the contrary he has been vociferous on issues lesser volatile. The leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha and senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad was right when he said the BJP Government should see the unrest that is building up in the society for the first time after independence and take action against the right wing groups that are becoming bold every day to take law in their hands. There is a message for the saffron party not to play with the sentiments of minorities. Bearing the Opposition onslaught laced with potshots against Modi for not speaking on the issue of Dalit atrocities even when it happened in his home state, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh at the end of discussion announced giving Gujarat Government a 60-day deadline to file the charge sheet and bring the perpetrators of Una incident to justice within six months. Since BJP Government has come to power, new avenues have been opened up in terms of attacks against Dalits… The ideology of RSS gives theological justification towards ill-treatment of Dalits. They believe in Varnvastha, which states that if a person is born Dalit he will remain backward, this is how CPM leader Sitaram Yechury reacted to the incident. Gujarat has a history of atrocities against Dalits. In 2012, three Dalit youth were killed in police firing in Thangarh town of Surendranagar District. The state government, headed by the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi, had set up a three-member committee to inquire into the incident and submit a report. Till date, the government has not made the report public. For the first time after 1985 Gujarat is seeing protest against atrocities on Dalits in such a massive scale and the Prime Minister has maintained silence. Agreed you cannot blame Prime Minister alone for what is happening in his state but does it not become obligatory on his part to at least break the silence and say few words on the situation?
