Dalit youths post pictures flaunting moustaches after some were beaten up for sporting the same

After a 21-year-old Dalit man was allegedly beaten to death for watching a Garba event on Saturday and some Dalit youths were attacked by the members of upper castes in two different recent incidents for wearing moustaches in Gujarat, Dalit youths have discovered a novel way to protest against atrocities against the community. To assert their identity, Dalit youths in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar have been posting selfies and pictures on social media which show them sporting moustaches.

“Dalits in Gandhinagar Gujarat are being killed for sporting a moustache, really! To protest the attacks over a moustache, Dalits near Sanand have adopted a twirled moustache logo as their WhatsApp display picture. Let us support them,” Pratik Damodaran posted on Facebook along with the logo to lodge his protest against beating up of the Dalit men.

Many others posted their pictures sporting twirled moustaches with hashtags like #jaatiwaadmurdawaad and RightToMoustache on Facebook and Twitter and evoked strong support and solidarity.

“We have had over 1000 people from the Dalit community posting pictures of themselves with moustaches on Facebook alone in the past three days. The number will keep increasing,” Gautam Makwana, who posted his selfie showing off his moustache, was quoted by News18.

Gautam added that his campaign will gain momentum, and it was high time the plight of Dalits was brought to everybody's notice.

Several people have been posting pictures flaunting their moustaches on twitter as well. Some of them have expressed their support for the victim, Piyush Parmar.

“Hundreds of Dalit men from Gandhinagar villages have protested by changing their WhatsApp display photo to the picture of a big moustache with 'Mr Dalit' written below it. In a social media campaign, young Dalit men are posting pictures on Twitter that show them twirling their moustaches,” an NDTV report read.

“Gujarat witnessed its most serious protests by Dalits last July, after four Dalit men were tied to a car and flogged for allegedly killing a cow, when, in fact, they were removing the carcass of a cow that had died of natural causes,” the report said, adding that the opposition has accused Gujarat's BJP government of failing to protect Dalits in the state, where Assembly elections will be held later this year.