Nearly a year after five men from the Nath Panthi Davari Gosavi community were lynched in Rainpada area of Dhule by a mob which suspected them of being child kidnappers, a member of the nomadic tribe will contest the Lok Sabha election on Tuesday from Ahmednagar constituency. The first in his community to contest the Lok Sabha polls, 25-year-old Sanjay Sawant said the incident made him realise that a lack of representation had left the tribe without a voice in Parliament. “After the lynching incident, I realised for the first time that though five members from our community were lynched to death in Rainpada, there is no Member of Parliament who can speak on our behalf. How can those, who have marginalised us and are responsible for our condition, represent us? Hence, I decided to fight the elections,” Sawant, contesting on a ticket from the Bahujan Mukti Party, said. On July 1, five men from the community were lynched in Rainpada by a mob that thought they were child kidnappers, based on social media rumours. Many members of the community, which has an estimated population of six to seven lakh in the state, continue to live a nomadic lifestyle, earning their livelihood by seeking alms while singing traditional ballads or by entertaining crowds as bahurupi kalakars (actors in costume). Many have set up temporary homes (palas) made up of old sarees and tarpaulin sheets on the outskirts of villages or towns. “The lynching was not the first instance of (a member of) our community facing violence. There have been many incidents of police or village administrations evicting or arresting us on the basis of unfounded suspicions. After the lynching incident, I was at the forefront of many protest marches. The issues of the community are not limited to justice for lynching victims. Decades of marginalisation need to be addressed too,” Sawant said. He said the community’s demands include a separate budget or invocation of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act for nomadic tribes. “Until we get representation, who will speak on this?” he asked. Sawant, who sells school books for a living, resides in a pala in Ahmednagar with his family. With a declaration of Rs 30,000 as total assets, as per his affidavit, Sawant campaigned by travelling across his constituency on state transport buses. Lunch, he said, was a vada pav on most days. “When I go to a village, I tell voters how our party’s manifesto is on a stamp paper. The voters can hold me responsible if I do not fulfil the promises. I tell them that in the country we envision, the President’s son and a boy growing up in a pala will study in the same school. The Constitution will be implemented efficiently,” said Sawant, adding he had to drop out of school in Class III due to a lack of access to education. Having never contested an election before, Sawant said he chose to fight for a Lok Sabha seat to raise the issue of non-representation of his community in Parliament. “My fight is not for a seat, it is against the system that has marginalised us. The money for my campaign has come from voters themselves, including sums as little as Rs 10,” he said.
