Dalit rights body sends stinker to Big B over rotting carcasses

AHMEDABAD: Claiming that carcasses of cattle which are not being cleared by authorities in Gujarat are stinking because of rotting, the Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch

AHMEDABAD: Claiming that carcasses of cattle which are not being cleared by authorities in Gujarat are stinking because of rotting, the Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch intensified its ongoing protest against the Una flogging incident, by mailing thousands of postcards to actor Amitabh Bachchan under their new campaign called “Badbu Gujarat Ki (Stench of Gujarat)” on Tuesday.

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It is a counter-campaign to the tourism department’s “Khushboo Gujarat Ki (Scent of Gujarat)” initiative, promoted as brand ambassador by actor Amitabh Bachchan. Under the Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch led by Jignesh Mevani, Dalits kick started the campaign from Kalol near Ahmedabad. The postcard addressed to Bachchan’s Mumbai residence in Juhu read in Hindi “on Modi’s insistence you experienced ‘Khushboo Gujarat Ki’. Now we have stopped disposing dead cattle, so now spend a few days in Gujarat and feel Badbu Gujarat Ki.”

They also plan to send invites to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the same. “The campaign will be continued from various parts of Gujarat,’’ said Mevani.

In a reaction to the thrashing of four men from Una by self-styled cow protectors, the Dalits in Saurashtra region in July had thrown dead cows at the doorsteps of public offices announcing that “its your mother, you take care’’. Thousands of Dalits pledged to not to pick up dead cows.

The protest first gathered momentum after BSP chief Mayawati first raised the flogging and other atrocities against Dalits in Gujarat in the parliament on July 18. Subsequent visits by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to Una further intensified the debate.

“Through the post-card campaign we have been trying to underline the fact that Narendra Modi had marketed a false image of Gujarat to the world. Here the Dalit’s voice has been suppressed and subjected to the atrocities’’, said Mevani.