Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh: Welt marks are fresh on the thighs of Seema and Sunita Devi, as they recall the mayhem that ensued after Vibharapur villagers, mostly Dalits, clashed with police when the Sitapur administration removed the statues of B.R.Ambedkar and Buddha from government land on 5 April.
Tears welled up in Sunita Kumari’s eyes as she complained that the police did not spare her even after pleading that she was three-month pregnant.
”I had nothing to do with the clash between villagers and policemen. I was just standing in front of my house after hearing the ruckus in the neighbourhood. Suddenly, two policemen hit me with a stick and pushed me inside the house. I am still in pain, but more than that we are in fear that the police will attack again. Most of our neighbours have fled. I have children, where should I go?” the 30-year-old mother of two children told ThePrint.
On their part, the police denied any serious injuries to villagers, adding that at least nine personnel were injured in the clash that day. Five people, including two women, have been arrested so far.
Vibharapur village now wears a deserted look with shopkeepers downing shutters and large locks hanging at the doors of most of the houses. Police remain deployed in moderate numbers. Outside the panchayat bhawan, debris lay unattended after a bulldozer removed the two statues installed on a platform five days ago.
On 5 April, Vibharapur village resembled a battleground in mid-afternoon after villagers pelted stones at police and administration officials and damaged the circle officer’s vehicle. Additional Superintendent of Police Praveen Ranjan Singh said villagers started stone pelting when the illegal construction was being removed at the site. The police, he said, took action in defence.
”We received a complaint that two statues were installed in the second week of March on government land. The local administration served a notice for their removal within three days. But this was not complied even after three weeks,” the senior police officer said.
“Following orders from the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) and Circle Officer, police and revenue officials removed the statues. As the police personnel were about to leave from there, a group of villagers instigated women to pelt stones at them.”
Mild force was used to disperse a crowd that had stopped a policewoman on scooty and tried to molest her, he added.
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Claims & counter-claims
But villager after villager claimed that it was the police who started beating them just because they opposed the bulldozer action on Ambedkar statue.
Urmilla, 48, alleged that her 16-year-old daughter was in the bathroom when two policemen entered the house and tried to harass her. Another local resident Malini, 61, showed her broken gate. ”These people (policemen) damaged it in search of her son and daughter who they claimed were involved in opposing the police action.”
Refuting such charges, Veerendra Singh Tomar, station house officer (SHO) of Pisawan police station, who was present at the moment of violence, claimed that there were more than half a dozen police women present that day along with over a dozen policemen.
“’In a strategic way, men instigated women to pelt stones. They attacked the police in a planned way. We have video footage to prove it. A case has been registered against those involved and also attempts are on to apprehend the other accused,” the SHO said.
Dhaurahra MP Anand Bhadauria alleged that the administration unnecessarily took harsh action on villagers. This dispute, he said, could have been solved by mediation but the administration reached with a bulldozer which has now become “a symbol of injustice” in Uttar Pradesh.
The Samajwadi Party leader added that despite understanding the sentiment of villagers, police personnel made it a law and order issue.
Republican Party of India (Athawle) state spokesperson Khushiram Chaudhary, who met the villagers Tuesday, agreed with Bhadauria that the police used excessive force.
“Women and girls were beaten brutally. Just because they are from weaker sections (of the society), doesn’t mean that they can be handled in this way. We will raise this issue in front of (Uttar Pradesh chief minister) Yogi Adityanath. How in his government, police are lathi-charging Dalit women. We are demanding a counter-FIR on police personnel,” he told ThePrint.
ThePrint has learnt that the 5 April confrontation was the third such tense moment in the last two weeks wherein Dalits accused the local administration of high-handedness. On 6 April, the police and local administration removed Ambedkar’s statue from Ludhaura village of Ramkot Thana area in Sitapur. The charges were the same: no permission was taken by the villagers.
“We are getting complaints of vandalising or removing of Baba Sahab’s statue from so many districts. This is a bad sign … Their (Dalits) sentiments are not being respected by the local administration. This is unfair in the democratic setup when the government is talking about ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas, Sabka Prayaas’,” Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) state vice-president Saurabh Kishore told ThePrint.
How it all started
The plan to install Ambedkar’s and Buddha’s statue was unanimously decided by villagers three months ago during an event in Vibharapur, ThePrint has learnt.
“In January, a Budh Katha (story-telling event related to Buddha) was organised wherein it was unanimously decided to install Baba Sahab and Budha’s statue. Funds were also raised from almost every house of the village to contribute to the cause. There was one house who did not contribute, later we got to know that they only verbally complained about the installation of statues as their land is adjacent to the proposed construction site,” a villager told ThePrint.
Vibhrapur is a Dalit-dominated village where most people are from the Jatav community, Malkhan Kumar, a local resident, told ThePrint.
“There was an old Ambedkar statue, which is inside the primary school campus, so villagers wanted to install a new statue of Baba Sahab along with Lord Buddha’s. After collection of funds, it was decided that two statues would be installed in March second week,” he said.
The 52-year-old, however, conceded that the villagers did not take any permission from the administration to install the two statues, as “most of them are of the same community who consider Baba Sahib as a God”.
SDM, Maholi, Shashibindu Dwivedi told ThePrint that a local resident was ready to give land for installing the statues. “If his land is registered in our records, then we will allow them to go ahead after the due process is followed. We are not against the installation of any statue. We only want due process to be followed,” the SDM asserted.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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