Uneasy calm prevails in Bhusthala village of Kurukshetra district on the third day after youths of Rajput and other upper castes prevented a groom hailing from Dalit community from riding a a horse-drawn carriage during his marriage procession and paying obedience in their temple on Saturday night.
A contingent of police has been deployed in the village as a precautionary measure after more than 20 people from the upper caste were booked by the police under Section 3 of SC and ST Act, as well as other sections of IPC.
Talking to The Pioneer, SP Simardeep Singh said that four youths have been arrested on Tuesday. Though the family of the groom Sandeep had returned back from Yamunanagar on Monday night after solemnizing the marriage but they are restricting their activities to the boundaries of their house fearing retaliation from the people of upper caste.
Terrified members of the Dalit community narrated their tales of vows on Tuesday when member of National Commission of Schedule Castes, Dr Ishwar Singh visited the village along with Superintendent of Police, Kurukshetra, Simardeep Singh, Sub-divisional Magistrate Pehowa and other district officers.
Narrating the sequence of the event, Subhash Balmik, a cousin of the groom Sandeep, said that tension griped the village immediately after a horse pulled chariot reached the village on the evening of May 21, to carry Sandeep to village temple to pay his obeisance as part of ‘Mandha’ ritual.
First, few youths from the upper caste came to their house to warn and then, later issued warning from their temple loudspeakers that who so ever tried to ride horse chariot or visited their temple would be taken to task and ‘murdered’. They warned that according to village traditions, only groom from upper caste can ride horse during marriage ceremony and none other, he said.
He said that it was only after arrival of police that Sandeep could go to the Ravi Dass temple, which was under construction. Even during that, some youth pelted stones on them causing injuries to many including one cop.
Suresh Kumar, father of the groom narrated that it was not for the first time that such incident had happened in the village but such incident had occurred earlier also.
He said that upper caste people had prevented Ved Pal, son of Narata Ram Balmik to ride a horse during his marriage in the year 2003, and since then, nobody had dared to ride a horse.
He also narrated that his father Aanat Ram was beaten by upper caste persons in the year 1998 as he dared to put decorative lights at his house on the occasion of Diwali. Aanant Ram succumbed to his injuries and mental torture after one month, said he.
The family members of the groom also said that as most of the 25 SC families in the village work as farm labourers under upper castes, they live under constant pressure and tension that action may annoy the upper caste.
Describing the incident as violation of fundamental rights of dalits, member of National Commission of Schedule Castes, Ishwar Singh directed the Superintendent of Police to ensure safety to the community members.
He directed that a PCR should be deployed in the village and if needed, a temporary police post be created in the village till normalisation of the situation.
Ishwar Singh also directed the SP to ensure the arrest of the accused persons within next 24 hours to assuage the feeling of terrorised Dalits. He also asked that district authorities to arrange compensation to the victims as per rules.
Talking to mediapersons, Ishwar Singh regretted that though the government is increasing annul budget for the welfare of Schedule castes, violent acts on dalits are increasing.
Giving figures, he claimed that Haryana state has the maximum number of dalit atrocity cases as compared to other states of northern India. He added that there is a dire need to awaken the youths of upper caste for changing their old mindset towards the poor and dalits.