By Venkatesan TS
Still more than two months police are clueless !
Even after a month of the highly shocking incident of human faeces being found in the overhead tank in a dalit colony and affecting the health of some, the Tamil Nadu police, who were compared at par with the Scotland Yard for crime detection, are clueless. It raises suspicion of public thatthey are trying to protect someone. Ruling party allies did a mere lip service and started their gun pointing to Governor on frivolous issues.
This incident happened in Iraiyur Vengaivayalis . This is a typical non-descript small village, in Annavasal Panchayat Union in Pudukottai district. Its residents predominantly three Castes viz around 200 familes belonging to OBC- Mutharayar, over 150 families of OBC- Agamudaiyar and 30 odd families belonging Schedule caste Paraiyar community. There has been an issue between Dalit and upper caste people over claiming the 20 Acre of unclaimed abandoned land in that village and the upper caste communities have proved their claim on land in the court 30 years back. After the court verdict, caste discrimination existed in the village for a longer period, said to have become precipitated. TN Dravidian governments tall claim of social justice, equality, non discrimination on the basis of caste and EV Ramaswamy Naicker’s ( Periyar) much touted social reforms are yet to reach this tiny village. In Tamil Nadu still , the use separate vessels for SC/ST in eateries , denial of entry in Temples is prevalent widely , if we go through the reports that appear in media. Dalit presidents are not allowed to hoist the National flags on Republic Day.
In the Vengaivayal village a 10,000 litre capacity water tank was constructed during 2016-17. It started supplying 30,000 liters water to the Adi Dravidar families only last year. There is a separate tank for other communities. New pipelines and taps were provided to the dalit colony. Dalits who consumed water from the Tank for a few days before December 24 , started complaining illness of vomiting and dysentery. Doctors at the hospital suspected water contamination is the cause for their illness. The water samples of the smelt differently and few Dalit youths on checking inside the tank found faeces floating in the water.
After the media reports, politicians promptly issued statement condemning the incident and wanted stern action. National human rights and SC/ST commission to started probing the same. . A case has been filed in Vellanur PS against unknown miscreants under Cr.no. 239/22 u/s 277,328 IPC and 3(1) (b), 3(1) (x) and 3(2)(va) of SC/ST POA Act. Two persons belonging to Agamudaiyar and Mutharayar were arrestedfrom the village and are still in jail and have been denied bail twice by the Court.
TN government on its part sent a team of senior ministers besides ordering probe by the CB-CID which formed ten special teams to crack the case. Even after a month the police are clueless. The people of Vengaivayal village had besieged DMK ministers Raghupathi, Meyyanathan, and Kayalvizhi Selvaraj, who had gone there after nearly 20 days after the incident, and demanded that the DMK apprehend the criminals before celebrating ‘Samathuva Pongal’. They refused to eat the pongal.
There have been demands to pull down the water to give way for new one. Your correspondent has access to some highly reliable inputs from intelligence sources, gives an impression that both the government and police wants to close the case by making some Dalits as scope goats.
According to reliable intelligence sources, “police have summoned some Dalit youths to Vellanur Police Station, Pudukottai to enquire the said incident, Dalits are being allegedly harassed by Police in the name of enquiry. Pressure is being exertedon Dalit community people to own up the inhuman act of mixing human faeces in water tank. Dalits have decided to file petition in Madurai Bench of Madras High Court over this issue”. Cine director Pa Ranjith ( a dalit) tweeted condemning the Police for threatening the Dalit people to accept the crime instead of nabbing the real culprits .
People of Vegaivayal say “ only a perverted mind could have done such an unhuman act of mixing human waste into the drinking water. It should be the first and last. We are traumatised and yet to recover from the same. We want anything else and want the government to find out people involved in the most un-human act ”.
S. Shanmugam, a member of Periyar Ambedkar Makkal Kazhagam member s Shanmugam has filed a PIL seeking action to be taken against the caste based discrimination against Scheduled Caste members in the village.
Makkal Jananayaka Elaingar Kazhagam – People Democratic youth Kazhagam- (Erstwhile group of People’s War Group) has distributed leaflets among the members of LWE organizations and Dalit Communities in Salem district. It states that atrocities on the grounds of caste and untouchability are rampant in DMK regime. These atrocities are proof that the DMK Government is only pretending to be a regime of social justice but in reality castiest regime. The leaflet further mentioned that as such there is no difference between both DMK and AIADMK and both are two sides of the same coin.
Condemning the heinous incident of mixing faeces in the drinking water tank meant for supply of water to lower caster people in Eraiyur village , the PDYK said “such an extreme brutality happened in Eraiyur is just like what happened in Tinniyam village a few years ago. it alleged that whenever DMK comes to power, atrocities against lower caste community become rampant as DMK and its government machineries sit and watch as a mute spectator in order to appease the upper caste community for their vote banks in electoral politics”.
It is pertinent to point out that “ IIT Madras is being dragged into unnecessary controversy for an imaginary discrimination/harassment against Dalits/ minorities by Zombie like personalities and D-Stock online monikers who stoop to the despicable level to abuse upper caste pedagogue in the institute and charging them with adopting caste-based discrimination against Dalits/oppressed, particularly when incidents of suicide of students take place in IIT Madras or when they are questioned by IIT-M academicians on their qualifications etc”.
Confidential report accessed by your report says “ The statistics on suicide by students in premier educational institutions like IITs, IIMs in the last 8 years show a total of 122 incidents in IITs/IIMs in the country, but none of such incidents point to the reason of caste-discrimination and repression against oppressed people by upper caste/Brahmin faculty. One who speaks of oppression of Dalits/minority community in IITs could view the statistics of MANODARPAN (a Government initiative to provide psychological support to students for their mental and emotional well being and de-stressing them) to know themselves the truth for the cause of suicides”.
It further says “Tamil Nadu, whatever be the issue being faced by the Dalit/reserved category students in IIT Madras or other institutions or whenever they are questioned by educators on some issues, a vilification propaganda is being hurled by the filthy rich and D-Stock persons who, with vested interests, play the trump card of oppression against under-privileged to exploit Dalits/minorities in lower strata and also resort to malicious campaign that such issues are taking place because of Brahmin domination”. Any suicide incident is reported in the campus of IIT-Madras or any wrongdoings of such students/persons are questioned, such D-Stock political and Dalit outfits straightaway hurl the abuse on Brahmin pedagogues branding them as right wing oriented and indulging in slurring their image propagating that such occurrences were due to caste based discrimination& oppression against Dalits.
SC/ST Commission has mooted a common water tank to avoid such recurrences and we hope the government should follow.
In the current Vengaivayal issue , these outfits are not visible. Thirumavalavan lead VCK and Left Parties who are in alliance with DMK due to political opportunism have extended only lip sympathies and are not showing interest. BJP leaders say the VCK, which has been raising defeating of sana tana dharma, RSS ideologies, manu smirthi, condemning Governor on many trivial matters, has no time fight for their own community people’s problems.