Mevani seeks withdrawal of cases against Dalits, OBCs

“I am presenting my thoughts on the budget of that Social Justice and Empowerment Department in which there is no mention of ensuring social justice… there is no significant new scheme… no mention of establishing equality by abolishing untouchability, manual scavenging, and caste-based discrimination,” the MLA said. Mevani raised the issue of withdrawal of criminal cases registered against Patidar community members during the Patidar quota agitation and non-withdrawal of criminal cases registered against Dalits and other marginalized groups in the state during other agitations.

He said, “I appreciate it that the cases against Patidar community registered were withdrawn… But why do you not want to withdraw cases registered against Dalits during the Una incident (involving public flogging of some Dalits)?”

Out of the close to 300 criminal cases registered against Patidar community during the 2015 quota agitation, Gujarat government has withdrawn most cases, including some having sedition charges against the agitation leader and now BJP MLA Hardik Patel.

In 2016, the Dalit community held a statewide protest against the public flogging of a few members from the community in Una by a group of self-proclaimed cow vigilantes. During the agitation to protest the incident, around 75 cases were registered across the state.Mevani cited the Dalit agitation that followed self immolation of Dalit activist Bhanubhai Vankar outside the Patan Collectorate over the issue of non-allotment of land to Dalits in the district in 2018. He said after Vankar’s self immolation, the government had given assurance that the cases would be withdrawn. “Even those cases are not being withdrawn,” he said.

In this context, Mevani also cited the cases registered during Maldhari community members’ agitation against the proposed Mandal-Bechraji Special Investment Region, government job aspiring youths’ agitation related to LRD recruitment, tribals’ agitations related to implementation of Forest Rights Act and the Provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 (known as PESA Act), contractual workers’ agitation and Muslim community members’ protest against National Register of Citizens.

Mevani said, “You withdraw cases of one community and do not do so for SC/ST/OBC and minority communities. How can this be the role of the state government?” Talking about the land allotment issue, Mevani said that he has been speaking about the alleged encroachment by non-Dalits and non-Tribals on the lands allotted to Dalits and tribals in the state for past eight years.

“Possession of land meant for Dalits and tribals by non-Dalits and non-tribals is an offence under  the Atrocity Act – Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Now, we have the Land Grabbing Act, but it does not help Dalits and tribals…As per my best knowledge, there are minimum 25000 bigha land in Banaskantha, Patan, Kutch and Surendranagar districts where Dalit lands are encroached upon. Is the state government not concerned?” he added.

The MLA also raised a demand to register an offence against Mahisagar Collector Neha Kumari for her alleged comments during an official event that” 90% of the cases registered under the Atrocity Act by Dalits and tribals are for blackmailing”. The Collector had termed the allegations against her as “baseless” and an “attempt to get political mileage”.

During the session, BJP MLA  Ramanlal Vora highlighted various initiatives of the BJP governments for the welfare of Dalits, OBCs and tribals.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Bhikhusinh Parmar took a veiled dig at the issues raised by Mevani stating, “I want to ask Jigneshbhai if when Congress was in power, how many people became doctors, lawyers and pilots. Today, in this BJP government, even tribal girls have become pilots.”