Activist seeks special units to ensure Dalit can ride horses to weddings

After a Dalit groom riding a horse as part of his wedding celebrations was assaulted earlier this week at Mansa taluka in Gandhinagar, a social activist on Saturday submitted a memorandum to the Gandhinagar Police and Gujarat home minister seeking that special units be set up in every district to ensure Dalits are allowed to ride horses to their weddings unhindered.

Activist Kalpesh Parmar, affiliated to Janta Sena Gujarat, submitted the representation while riding a horse to the office of Gandhinagar’s district superintendent of police (DSP).

In his representation – addressed to Gujarat home minister Harsh Sanghavi and marked to the DSP – he said that everyday, “incidents of atrocities” are reported against Dalits, including serious atrocities like preventing Dalit grooms from riding a horse at their weddings.

On February 12, a wedding procession of a Dalit groom at Chanasama village in Mansa taluka of Gandhinagar was disrupted when Thakors of the village restrained the groom from riding his horse. An FIR was lodged and four were arrested in the incident.