Two separate and horrible incidences of alleged atrocities against Dalits in Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Madhya Pradesh (MP) have caused widespread anger across the country. Opposition parties are strongly condemning these events and are aggressively criticizing the ruling BJP governments in both states for what they call a “failure to protect the dignity of marginalized communities.” The police are looking into both cases.
Dalit Man Says He Was Forced to Lick the Ground Near a Temple in Lucknow
A 60-year-old Dalit man was allegedly humiliated and forced to lick the ground at a temple on Diwali evening on the outskirts of Lucknow, UP.
The perpetrator, Swami Kant, also known as “Pammu,” confronted the victim, Rampal Rawat, when he was sipping water at the Sheetla Maataa temple in Kakori. The accused are said to have yelled casteist insults at Rawat, saying he peed near the property.
The lawsuit says that Rawat rejected the charge and said that the wet patch was from water he had spilled. But the accused is said to have made the old guy kiss the ground and then made him clean it up. Mukesh Kumar, Rawat’s grandson, said that his grandfather had trouble breathing and might have peed himself while coughing.
Police have confirmed that the suspect, Swami Kant, has been arrested and charged under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and other parts of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Police sources said that the inquiry is still continuing on to find out if the victim was really made to lick the ground or only touch it, since the accused and victim gave different accounts of what happened in this case.
A man in Madhya Pradesh was kidnapped, beaten, and made to drink urine.
In Madhya Pradesh’s Bhind district, there was a second case of violence that was just as terrible. A 25-year-old Dalit guy was reportedly kidnapped, beaten up badly, and made to drink urine by his former boss and two other people.
Reports say that the victim was taken from his in-laws’ house in Gwalior and then driven to Bhind in an SUV, where the attack happened. The victim told reporters that he was hit with a plastic pipe, made to drink urine from a bottle, and then tied up with an iron chain and humiliated even more. It is said that the attack happened after the victim stopped working as the accused’s driver.
The three people who are being accused, Sonu Barua, Alok Sharma, and Chhotu Ojha, have been apprehended by the police. They have been charged with breaking the SC/ST Act and certain parts of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. The person is getting medical care at a nearby hospital right now.
Political Fallout and the History of Caste Violence
These events have swiftly turned into a political hotspot. Akhilesh Yadav, the head of the Samajwadi Party, called the Lucknow act “inhumane and humiliating” and said that real change on the grassroots needs a new leader.
The Congress party said that the person charged in the Lucknow case was an RSS worker and called the event a “blot on humanity.” The police, on the other hand, have refuted this assertion, saying that the person who was arrested had “no links with any organization.”
The Bhind episode is part of a troubling pattern of caste violence in Madhya Pradesh. Two other events happened earlier this year in which a Dalit kid was thrashed for speaking out against illegal mining in Katni and another was made to drink urine in Ujjain. This comes after an instance in Sidhi district in 2023, when a viral video showed a guy peeing on a tribal youth. This caused national outcry and calls for institutional change.