annual report print final.qxd - Asian Centre for Human Rights
annual report print final.qxd - Asian Centre for Human Rights
annual report print final.qxd - Asian Centre for Human Rights
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INDIA HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2005 Tamil Nadu<br />
in the prestigious Coimbatore seat. The<br />
upper caste villagers blamed the Dalits <strong>for</strong><br />
the BJP’s debacle. Of the 1,100 Dalit<br />
voters only 300 of them had <strong>report</strong>edly<br />
voted in the elections. 15 Fearing further<br />
escalation of violence, many Dalit parents<br />
had pulled out their children from the local<br />
school, and moved out of the village.<br />
Although a small police picket was<br />
stationed at Kalapatti after the incident, a<br />
mob of upper caste allegedly attacked a<br />
Dalit villager, 60-year-old Muthan. He<br />
was severely beaten up fracturing his right<br />
arm when he alighted from the bus and<br />
started walking towards the village. 16<br />
Dalits have not been allowed to<br />
contest the election to the posts of<br />
panchayat president in Pappapatti,<br />
Keeripatti and Nattarmangalam villages of<br />
Madurai district, as it is deemed a<br />
“sacrilege”. Ever since the Panchayati Raj<br />
Act was implemented in Tamil Nadu in<br />
1996, no Dalit has been made president in<br />
these villages, though they are reserved<br />
exclusively <strong>for</strong> the Scheduled Castes.<br />
Even if any Dalit won an election, he was<br />
<strong>for</strong>ced to quit be<strong>for</strong>e taking charge. The<br />
Dalits live under economic servitude of the<br />
upper caste Thevars and thus have to<br />
follow their diktat. In April 2002, a Dalit<br />
named E. Subban decided to defy the<br />
Thevars and filed his papers <strong>for</strong> the<br />
president’s post of Pappapatti panchayat.<br />
However, the local bigwig Chellakannu<br />
Thevar then asked his Dalit servant<br />
Thanikodi to contest against Subban and<br />
won the election by a whopping majority<br />
of 900 votes out of 1,500. But his master<br />
made him to quit the post even be<strong>for</strong>e<br />
taking charge. Fearing <strong>for</strong> his life, Subban<br />
fled to his sister’s house in<br />
Chokkathevanpatti hamlet, 10 km away<br />
and never went back to his village. 17<br />
Following criticism from the NHRC<br />
and the SC/ST Commission, the AIADMK<br />
government <strong>report</strong>edly set up a legislative<br />
panel in 2003 headed by minister O<br />
Panneerselvam who is a Thevar. The panel<br />
promptly concluded that Thevars were not<br />
preventing Dalits from contesting<br />
elections. However, a study paper<br />
submitted by V Sudarshan and S Sumathi<br />
of Madras University to Adidravidar<br />
Welfare Department alleged “the<br />
committee did not even visit Dalit colonies<br />
in Pappapatti.” 18<br />
On 16 September 2004, a 19-year-old<br />
Dalit named Suresh was allegedly<br />
murdered in Nalagampalle village in<br />
Bangarupalyam of Chittoor district. The<br />
deceased was a labourer in the mango<br />
orchard of <strong>for</strong>mer Member of Parliament<br />
Jhansi Lakshmi. He <strong>report</strong>edly had an<br />
altercation with Malarapu Krishnama<br />
Naidu and Lakshmaiah Naidu, who came<br />
to supervise the work on 15 September<br />
2004. Suresh fled following the dispute.<br />
His body was found hanging from a<br />
mango tree on 16 September 2004.<br />
Viswanathan, father of the deceased, went<br />
to lodge a complaint with the<br />
Bangarupalyam police but the police<br />
allegedly did not bother to register a case<br />
against the landlords. Sub-Inspector I<br />
Raghunatha Reddy did not even visit the<br />
village to find out the truth, in spite of<br />
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