UP Police detains Dalits, disrupts seminar; arrests activists

A day after intercepting 43 Dalits from Gujarat in Jhansi and forcing them to get down from the train, Uttar Pradesh (UP) Police on Monday prevented activists from holding a discussion at the Lucknow Press Club.

Retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officer SR Darapuri told National Herald from Lucknow that they had obtained permission from the Lucknow Press Club to hold a ‘seminar’ on Monday afternoon at 12:30 PM on increasing atrocities against Dalits.

“But when we reached the Press Club at noon, we found the place swarming with policemen. We were informed that we could not hold the discussion. Officials of the club informed that they had been forced to cancel the booking,” Darapuri said.

“When eight of us were discussing what to do next and where we could meet and hold the seminar, police picked us up and took us to Police Lines. They released us only around 5 PM after each of us signed a bond for ₹50,000 each,” he added.

Those arrested include Ramesh Dixit, Ramkumar , Ashish Awasthi, PK Kureel, Ramesh Kumar, Kuldeep and BK Ananth, Darapuri informed.

Police, he said, had charged them with violating prohibitory orders under Section 144, which was absurd because the section could not be applied to any gathering inside the premises of the club. They were also accused of not having sought permission to hold the seminar.

“But we do not have to take anyone’s permission to hold the seminar and in any case we had booked the premises and the subject of discussion was communicated to the club authorities,” he added.

While the 43 Dalit activists from Gujarat, including 13 women, were travelling to Lucknow to present UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath with a huge bar of soap weighing 125 Kg, Lucknow Press Club informed activists on Monday afternoon that they had been forced to cancel the booking under pressure from the state government.

Dalit activists from Gujarat were put on a Ahmedabad-bound train and sent back under police escort. The group were trying to lodge a symbolic protest following reports that Uttar Pradesh administration in Kushinagar had distributed cakes of soap to Dalits in a village before a visit by the CM on May 30. They had also been advised to bathe before the visit.

“This was an insult to Dalits. We wanted to give a 125 kg bar of soap to Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh just to show that we also know the value of hygiene,” Dinesh Solanki, a Dalit leader accompanying the group declared.

Another leader, Nattu Parmar, said that they had collected ₹3,025 from Dalits. “It was a voluntary `chanda’. Some gave ₹10 while others gave ₹50. With this collection, they made the bar of soap with the face of Gautam Buddha embossed on it,” he informed.

“We wanted to convey to the CM that Gautam Buddha had taught about equality and as the Chief Minister, he (Yogi) should not differentiate between people on the basis of caste and religion,” he added.

On May 30, Yogi had gone to a settlement of Musahars in Kushinagar. The region is inhabited by Musahars -- ‘Dalits’. The day before, the district administration distributed soap and shampoo in the Dalit locality, also asking people to take bath before their meeting with the CM.

“This is unfortunate that this incident happened in Kushinagar where Lord Buddha had breathed his last,” said Parmar. “This is a fact that atrocities against Dalits have gone up since the BJP came to power. It happened in Haryana, in Una (Gujarat), and now in Uttar Pradesh,” he said.