A high alert has been sounded in the districts of Madhya Pradesh bordering Maharashtra after dalit protesters went on a rampage in western district of Burhanpur on Thursday, torching over a dozen buses and resorting to stone pelting on moving vehicles on the national highway.
Fearing the aftermath of the ongoing Bhima-Koregaon caste violence in the state, which has a sizeable number of dalit population, the MP state government has put bordering districts of Chhindwara, Betul, Balaghat, Seoni and Khandwa on high alert.The state has over 16 per cent of dalits and 21 per cent of tribal population.
On Thursday, dalit groups—Buddhist Society and Bhim Sena—gave a bandh call against the violence at Bhima-Koregaon following which hundreds of protesters blocked the highway at Burhanpur. The protest affected the normal life and lead to destruction of property.
Later, Additional Superintendent of Police Rakesh Kumar Sagar said the situation was brought under control.
During Congress rule in the year 2000, Madhya Pradesh was the first state in the country to start a special affirmative action programme for dalits. Digvijaya Singh, who was the chief minister then, had started slew of measures, including special purchase policy in the state. Dalit entrepreneurs were encouraged to sell their products to state government that had reserved a certain percentage of official purchase for scheduled caste.
Besides, huge tracts of land was distributed to landless dalit families in order to make them self-reliant. However, the action proved conter-productive for the Congress government as majority of non-dalits turned away from the ruling party. Congress lost the next assembly elections and could not come to power for last 14 years.
Madhya Pradesh has a big population of dalits who come from Jatav, Ahirwar and Balai caste—a strong support base for Bahujan Samaj Party. The ruling BJP has carefully divided the dalit vote bank by bringing forward dalits like Kori and Kahtik to their side, but the tension in the community is palpable.
With the Pune incident, the dalit community has got a reason to organise themselves against the ruling BJP. The government understands this fact very well and has taken measures to prevent further violence.
