In her sparse hut in Khairlanji village,located in the rice bowl of Bhandara in Vidarbha around 80 kilometres from Nagpur,Panchasheela Shende remains bitter about Indian polity over two years after the Khairlanji massacre,which saw a Dalit family being wiped out. She does not attempt to hide her anger at the politicians who are flocking to households across the state to seek votes,as the campaigning for the first phase of the elections gathers momentum. Dalits will stay Dalits in the end, she says. Even as Union Civil Aviation Minister and NCP leader Praful Patel and incumbent Bhandara-Gondiya MP Shishupal Patle of the BJP take on each other,with rebel Congressman and former Lakhandur MLA Nana Patole and Virendra Jaiswal of the BSP also trying their luck,the mood in this Dalit household one of the remaining two in this village is one of resignation. It has been this way ever since the village was thrust into the limelight after the murders of a Dalit Buddhist family by OBC villagers on September 29,2006. Surekha Bhotmange (50) and her children Priyanka (19),Roshan (17) and Sudhir (18) were brutally murdered,with only the head of the family,Bhaiyyalal,being the sole survivor. While a Bhandara court has pronounced the death sentence for six of the killers and life imprisonment for two accomplices,the issue has caused intense caste polarisation in the constituency. If there were even five or 25 Dalit families in the village,it would have made a difference, says an agitated Panchasheela,an anganwadi worker. We are only two families here. The rest of the village consists of them, she says about the caste equations in the village,which has significant number of OBC Kunbis. In her hut,which has portraits of Dalit icon Babasaheb Ambedkar and Lord Buddha on the walls,Panchasheelas brother Durvas Maruti Khobragade says the four voters in his six-member family will exercise their franchise. However,Panchasheela feels that political parties have done little for the poor and downtrodden. When it comes to reservations,they (Hindu Dalits who did not convert to Buddhism) benefit,but when it comes to countering injustice on us,they are not Dalits, she says,adding that it was because of this that the community had to face mistreatment from the upper castes. In Khairlanji,where fault lines between us and them are deepening,strangers are seen with suspicion and hostility and replies to any enquiries are reluctantly given. As the BJPs Patle targets his Powar community,and the NCP roots for Dalit and Teli votes,the BSP is trying to channelise Dalit anger through the ballot box and top its 2004 performance,when Ajablal Shastri of the Lodhi community cornered 90,672 votes in a contest that saw Patel losing to Patle by over 3,000 votes. But sceptics point out that the BSPs attempt at social engineering by fielding an OBC Kalar candidate,in a situation where the Dalits are ranged against a section of the OBCs,may not work out. Independent candidate Patole,who leads the OBC Chhava Sangram Sanghatana and quit his Lakhandur seat recently,took an aggressive pro-Kunbi stand after the murders,and is seen as having managed to polarise a section of the community by claiming that the murders were not driven by caste. He also upped the ante over the rape and murder of an upper caste girl by a Dalit youth. Meanwhile,upper caste villagers rue that except for a few BJP men no politicians have bothered to visit them to solicit support of the 445 odd voters so far. Around 50 km from Khairlanji,where only the dilapidated remains of his hut stand as a testimony to his once thriving family,massacre survivor Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange,now works as a watchman at the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Backward Class Boys Hostel. The poor have no saviour. I remember that day even today. who can forget it? said an emotional Bhotmange,who now stays at in the MHADA colony,and has not gone to his village for over a year. Ruing that those sentiments exist in the minds of the villagers even today,Bhotmange,who is protected by bodyguards,has steered clear of politics so far,but expresses resentment at the players in the ring. Once they are elected,no one does anything for us, he says. Bhotmange aspires to see a memorial to his wife and three children,as well as a school and college in their names and that of Babasaheb Ambedkar being built by the government. He says he has approached the government in this regard. It is necessary to gain education. So they will learn not to bear injustice, he says,adding that he always wanted his children to be educated. While Priyanka was in the 12th standard at the time of her death,one of her brothers was pursuing a computer course. Not doing any injustice is what is called humane behaviour.this is what needs to be taught in schools, he says.
