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Journalism of Courage
To woo the Dalit voters in Jalandhar Lok Sabha constituency, candidates are invoking incidents of atrocities against the community in other states like the Bhima Koregaon clashes in Pune and alleged objections to Dalit grooms riding a mare in Gujarat.
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The Bhima Koregaon clashes between Dalits and right-wing outfits took place in Pune, in a BJP-ruled Maharastra, on the 200th anniversary of Bhima Koregaon battle on January 1, 2018 when Dalits were celebrating this day.
Balwinder Kumar further added: “Rajasthan vich ik Dalit nuajwan jadon ghorhe di swari ghar riha see tan usnu iss karke utar dita giya ki oh Dalit hai te phir usnu kuteya te zaleel bhi kita (Last year in Rajasthan, a Dalit youth who was riding a horse was forced to get down and then he was beaten and humiliated that how could he ride a horse being a Dalit).”
He quickly points out that a similar case was reported from Gurdaspur district of Punjab too in 2017.
Congress candidate and sitting Jalandhar MP Santokh Chaudhary too has been wooing the Dalit voters by mentioning the incidents of Dalit atrocities in BJP-ruled states.
He brings up an incident similar to Rajasthan and claims that in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar last year a groom was threatened by upper caste men while riding a horse on the day of his wedding and then four Dalit men were stripped and caned badly in Gujarat’s Una for skinning dead animals.
