An update on the dialogue on the Dalit Agitation

Exchange with a friend. She wrote : Permission at DSP level (in the supreme court amendment) is astounding and the poor dalit will rarely get it.

Me : if you read the article i sent which is for the supreme court order, it says : the apex court ruled: “To avoid false implication of an innocent, a preliminary inquiry may be conducted by the DSP concerned to find out whether the allegations make out a case under the Atrocities Act and that the allegations are not frivolous or motivated”. no dalit is required to get permission of the DSP. the DSP is required to conduct an enquiry within 7 days when a complaint is made under that act. seems fine to me.

Friend : In my ordinary language I used permission. In villages, of course the dsp will follow the new law while the dominant caste people will threaten the complainant, beat them up.. But that is an everyday reality so who cares?

Me : ofcourse the upper castes routinely humiliate dalits. i agree in rural areas the dalits are defenseless and exploited as well as harrassed. we need to do far more to support them. perhaps the solution may be to keep the amendment for urban areas and keep the old act as it is for rural areas.. but as yet the constitution will not have envisaged such ground situations differing in urban and rural areas. i dont know what is the solution then. but i have no sympathy for parties such as congress or BJP putting out crocodile tears when their own politics is heavily dominated by dominant castes.

The friend asked me to see a Ravish (a well known news anchor) TV programme on NDTV (a tv channel in india known for its balanced reporting).

I wrote her back : in the ravish nd tv programme you mentioned, it was touching to see young dalit's pain at how FIRs are often not registered even on heinous crimes.. and the shocking thing, that i had not noticed before, is that the supreme court order says an FIR cannot be registered in an SC / ST act case without an enquiry (when it can be registered for crimes against the general population) ! that is patently illegal and must be struck down. The programme said that the conviction rate in cases filed under the SC / ST act fell after 2014 (and that it must be investigated why that has happened) !