DESPITE THIS DAMNING EVIDENCE PHEKU HAS THE COURAGE TO STATE THAT RAHUL ETC ARE MOCKING THE POOR Though Prohibited by Law, Manual Removal of Excreta (Scavenging) Still Prevalent in Ahmedabad Would Gujarat Government and Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation like to explain why is the prohibited act of manual scavenging still prevalent in Ahmedabad? Here is what Modi has to say about this practice. The evidence for this is irrefutably on record in Modi’s own words. In 2007 the Gujarat government brought out a collection of Modi’s speeches delivered to Indian Administrative Service Officials (IAS) from time to time. The book (sic) was instructively titled Karmyog. And in that book (pages 48-49) here is how Modi speaks to the question of untouchability and manual scavenging by the lowest order of Dalits, called Valmikis: “I do not believe that they have been doing this job just to sustain their livelihood. Had this been so, they would not have continued with this type of job generation after generation…At some point of time, somebody must have got the enlightenment that it is their duty to work for the happiness of the entire society and the Gods; that they have to do this job bestowed upon them by Gods; and that this job of cleaning up should continue as an internal spiritual activity for centuries. This should have continued generation after generation. It is impossible to believe that their ancestors did not have the choice of adopting any other work or business.” Those sentiments from a man whom the market-friendly rightwing is busy projecting as a new-age guru who has slick, modern answers to all of India’s problems. Clearly, social equality within the Hindu religious order is no part of that modernity. Not that any of those answers have been forthcoming either. Modi’s pronouncement on the issue (above) came to be widely reported in the print media in 2007, causing uproar, especially in Tamil Nadu where Modi’s effigies were burnt, causing Modi to order the withdrawal of some 5000 copies of the book. Not that the popular revulsion caused any rethink in this Hindu samrat (king). Just two years later, he was to compare the job of manual scavenging to the cleaning of temple precincts by Hindu priests. No wonder that in this model state of “development” to which India’s industrial and business enterprises are so drawn, indeed some from the anglo-saxon world as well, still practices untouchability on the widest scale; of some 1589 villages, 98% do so (study by the NGO, Navsarian) without the least administrative or legal hindrance from the state which is obliged by law to apply the stringent provisions of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act to the practitioners of untouchability and caste-based discrimination of all kinds. As recently as May, 2013, a Gujarat state sponsored report , ‘Impact of Caste Discrimination and Distinctions on Equal Opportunities; A Studyof Gujarat’ characterizes acts of caste discrimination as matters of “perception.”
Posted on: Sun, 20 Oct 2013 11:35:47 +0000
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