Forgotten murders

The fact that the culprits responsible for the awful massacre of 59 Dalits in Bihar in 1997 have still not been brought to justice — as a news series just begun by the Express underlines — is a grim reminder of both the ineffectiveness of our criminal justice system, and the sordidness of the politics that surrounds such massacres. Horrendous violence and brutal exertions of power against Dalits are routine to politics in many states.

Violent incidents against Dalits have unconscionably little effect on the conscience of the country. They are routinely dismissed away as an embarrassing sign of India’s eternal backwardness. But though caste violence has its roots in the Indian social structure, Bihar ought to alert us to the fact that its recent manifestations are supremely political. The policies of the state are centrally responsible for producing this violence. The state decides whom to arm and whom to protect, politicians encourage violence to teach opponents political lessons and the violence continues even when upper caste domination of politics has ceased to be a reality. Indeed a close perusal of new forms violence against Dalits will highlight the fact that the perpetrators are as likely to be aligned to OBCs and other non-twice born castes as they are likely to be aligned to traditional upper castes.

The Prevention of Atrocities Act (POA) passed in 1989 remains largely an act on paper. Of the 1,50,000 cases registered under this act, less than one-third are brought to trial. The conviction rates under this act are about five per cent compared to conviction rates of about one third for cases decided under the Indian Penal Code. The POA had enjoined the governments to set up Special Courts to deal with cases of atrocity. But it also empowered governments to declare areas with high caste violence to be “atrocity prone” and appoint qualified officers to maintain law and order. Neither of these provisions has been used with any degree of effectiveness. The National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Tribes which is responsible for monitoring the implementation of anti-atrocities law has been very ineffective in discharging its functions. Violence against Dalits may have its roots in particular social conflicts and political tensions, but by creating a justice system that is unable to discharge its basic obligations we have all become complicit in the kinds of massacres that the Bihar government, ruled by Laloo Prasad Yadav’s RJD, has done nothing to prevent.