The families of four of the five Dalits who were lynched in Jhajjar district on October 15 were among around 100 Dalits who converted to other religions today. The families of Virender, Raju, Totaram and Dayachand today embraced Buddhism at a ceremony organised by the All India Confederation of SC/ST Organisations and the Lord Buddha Club at Gurgaon in Haryana.While most of the Dalits converted to Buddhism, one person embraced Islam and two others Christianity. Dayachand’s father, Buddhram, said after the ceremony, ‘‘We want to live with dignity, whatever our work may be. We have faced enough social discrimination.’’‘‘The Dulina lynching is extremely unfortunate. What’s worse is the inhuman attitude of the leaders of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal and Shiv Sena after the incident,’’ said Udit Raj, chairperson of the SC/ST confederation. The leaders and organisations present at the ceremony, held at the Sant Ravidas temple in Sohna Chowk in Gurgaon, included the Jamait Ulema-i-Hind, director Mahesh Bhatt, president of the All India Christian council, Joseph D’souza, and All India United Muslim Morcha’s Ejaz Ali.‘‘Conversion is the only solution for Dalits if they have to live respectable, dignified and free lives devoid of oppression and humiliation,’’ said Udit Raj. ‘‘Conversion,’’ according to him, is ‘‘a change of ideas and of mindset which enables one to shake off age-old superstitions and beliefs inimical to human progress and development.’’For Mahesh Bhatt, the occasion meant ‘‘supporting the fight against oppression’’. Bhatt used the event to take a dig at the media over its coverage of the Salman Khan hit-and-run case: ‘‘The concerns of the media are misplaced. For them, Salman Khan made bigger news that the Dulina lynching,’’ he said. But he refused to comment on the issue of conversion. As the probe into the lynching continues—the post-mortem report of the cow which led to the lynching revealed that it had died the night before—Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala said today that the guiltywould ‘‘not be spared at any cost’’.
