Hold Accountable Yogi Govt For Heinous Gang Rape, Murder of Landless Dalit Girl in Hathras!
Land Reforms are the Key to Fight Caste Oppression and for Caste Annihilation.
In a brutal, heinous gang rape and murder, on 14th September a landless Dalit girl was brutally gangraped by upper caste men of her village while she and her mother were foraging for fodder. Her mother was just a little distance away but could not see her due to visual problems. The girl’s spinal cord was damaged, her tongue got bitten away between her teeth, yet she fought for days for life, first at JLN Hospital at Aligarh and then at Safdarjung Hospital Delhi where she died yesterday i.e. September 29 morning.
In a terrible yet hardly unanticipated further show of insensitivity and brutality, Modi-Yogi Rule (Police of Delhi and UP administration) did not hand over the body of the girl to her parents and brother standing outside the hospital. Instead it was smuggled out of Delhi and secretly cremated at Hathras, denying even a decent funeral to the family.
When it was clear that the girl was desperately serious, fearing criticism the UP police hurriedly arrested the four guilty named by the girl. But the Khairlanji case, so many cases of upper caste senas wiping out landless Dalits in Bihar, scream out the harsh truth of what will be the fate of such cases in Courts of the country. In the case of a sathin of Rajasthan on which rests the much violated Vishakha Judgement, a Judge had remarked that upper caste men would scarcely sully themseves raping a lower caste woman! This brutal gangrape and murder of Hathras is also strongly remniscent of the Nirbhaya case of 16th December 2012 and adds to the annals of violent sexual crimes against women in India.
The Hindutva dispensation in rule via RSS-BJP Govts in power at Centre and UP any way stands for a Manuvadi patriarchial and casteist stratification in which the Dalit woman is the lowest in the low as she is both Dalit and woman.
There is crying need for all forces to come out and demand justice for both the victim and the family, and keep vigil on the case to ensure fast track disposal of the case and conviction of the guilty. Also the guilty police officers who delayed action in the case should be booked and responsibility of the same should be fixed up to the top.
But the larger issue must not be lost sight of. It is a harsh fact of life throughout the country that landless, maximally Dalits, face terrible humiliation at hands of upper caste while looking for fodder. In places where latrines have not been built this is so for answering calls of nature too. Dalit women are victims of sexual violence of all varieties for the same reason. It is crystal clear that to talk of caste annihilation or for elimination of caste exploitation cannot advance much without pointing out the need for land reforms in the same breath. Struggles of Dalits for their share in Panchayat land in Punjab and role of women in that struggle under the leadership of Zameen Prapti Sangharsh Committee prove the importance of land question in fight against caste oppression especially of oppression of Dalit women. It is obviously linked to break down of law and order in UP under Yogi, but it is not limited to that, it has been the lived reality of the lives of Dalit masses in UP and elsewhere.
The Union leaders of Safdurjung Hospital employess and also members of PMS Delhi were with the family of the victim at Safdurjung Hospital yesterday. PMS and PDSU Delhi are part of protests centrally and in areas of Delhi today i.e. September 30.
CPI(ML)-New Democracy strongly condemns the police repression let loose on those protesting against this brutal gang-rape and murder. Besides colluding with perpetrators of this crime and not handing over even the body to family members, police of Yogi’s UP govt. arrested today morning more than 50 activists from the village and have taken them to police station. Not to be outdone, police of Modi’s govt. arrested protestors from UP Bhawan in Delhi. Later in the evening over a hundred protesters, including PMS General Secretary Poonam Kaushik, have been arrested from India Gate. Voice of the oppressed is sought to be silenced through brute force.
Protests have broken out at several places. At several centres in Delhi including Mayapuri, in several villages in Hathras and at the police station where detained persons have been taken, in Vijaywada (AP) demonstrations have been reported. Many more protest demonstrations are being held at several centres in different states.
CPI(ML)-New Democracy calls:
Let us organize protests countrywide.
Fast Track disposal of case and give justice in time bound period for gang rape and murder of the young girl!
Enquire into why the family was denied access to body, into why arrests were delayed for so long and take action against guilty officers.
Rise Against Patriarchy and its reinforcement through open advocates of Manuvad- Ruling RSS-BJP!
Land Reforms are the key to Caste Annihilation, end to Caste Exploitation and Oppression.
Central Committee
CPI(ML)-New Democracy
September 30, 2020
