Ballots are Dalits answer to bullets

MUMBAI, March 3: History has repeated itself in the north-east parliamentary constituency. The Dalits here, comprising 12 per cent of over 19 lakh voters, have again answered bullets through the ballot box.

On the evening of July 11 last year, an angry mob of around 5,000 people had refused to let Chief Minister Manohar Joshi and his deputy Gopinath Munde enter the Ramabai Nagar in Ghatkopar (E). In the morning, ten Dalits from the colony along the Eastern Express highway were shot dead by the State Reserve Police Force jawans. The Dalit resentment was so high that a woman had laid herself in front of Joshi’s car, banning him entry into the Rajawadi Municipal hospital where the injured in the police firing were kept. The BJP general secretary Pramod Mahajan lost by a margin of over 47,000 votes.

On Dassera day in 1989, while on their way to attend the annual Vijaya Dashami rally addressed by Bal Thackeray at Shivaji Park, some Shiv Sainiks provoked Dalits in Siddharth Nagar colony in Chembur by peltingstones. The repercussion was violent. Eleven Dalits died in the ensuing police firing. This had sealed the fate of sitting MP from Congress Gurudas Kamat who later lost by over 78,000 votes. Perhaps the seeds of Sena-BJP’s defeat were sown at this moment.

The determination of residents of Ramabai Nagar to defeat Mahajan was evident. The BJP candidate ignored police warning against going there for campaigning. Dalits from Lal Dongar area in Chembur pelted stones, potatos and onions at Munde when he went there seeking votes.