Dalit activist brutally attacked for protesting against rape of his daughter in Punjab
From our correspondent
A savage assault by powerful Congress-backed Jat landlords has left Bant Singh, a Dalit leader of the Mazdoor Mukti Morcha (All India Agrarian Labour Association) in Mansa, Punjab, with both hands and one leg amputated. The crime was his sustained resistance to Upper Caste feudal and patriarchal power and violence and in particular his struggle to bring his daughter’s rapists to justice. This case has generated massive protests in Punjab.
Liberation, Central Organ of CPI(ML), in its February 2006 issue quotes Bant Singh saying: “They’ve only got my limbs, I have still got my voice - I can still sing!” Two hands and a leg have been amputated. The remaining limb has turned gangrenous, waiting to be removed. His kidneys have been damaged due to excessive bleeding and he can hardly eat and digest any food.
And yet defiance still sparkles in the eyes of Bant Singh, a Dalit agricultural labour activist, as he lies in the trauma ward of a state-run hospital in Chandigarh where doctors are battling to save his only remaining leg and even his life. It is precisely for this defiance, coming from a ‘lower caste’ Dalit, that Bant Singh from Jhabhar village of Mansa district in Punjab was beaten to pulp and left for dead by armed Upper Caste men around a fortnight ago.
Apart from his activities of organising poor, agricultural workers, Bant Singh’s greatest ‘sin’, in the eyes of his tormentors, was the long running battle for justice against the Upper Caste men who raped his minor daughter Baljit Kaur in 2002. Bant Singh waited for over a month for the local Panchayat to deliver justice for his daughter. The panchayat passed their judgement: Baljit must marry one of her rapists who was a Dalit, and all the rapists including one Jat man were to go scotfree. Bant Singh refused to agree to condemn his daughter to life-long rape and filed a court case in defiance of the panchayat decree.
Braving both threats of violence and threats of bribes, he and his daughter stood firm in their struggle for justice. In the process they drew closer to the CPI-ML and the Mazdoor Mukti Morcha, which supported their struggle, and eventually, in 2004, Justice GK Rai, the Additional Sessions Judge of Mansa, passed a strongly worded judgement sentencing three of the rapists for life.
On the evening of 5 January 2006 as Bant Singh returned home after campaigning for a national agricultural labour assembly to be held in Andhra Pradesh later during the month, the Upper Castes wrought their revenge. Walking through the wheat fields Bant Singh was waylaid by a gang of seven men, suspected to be sent by Jaswant and Niranjan Singh, the current and former panchayat headmen of his village. One of them brandished a revolver to prevent any resistance while the other six set upon him with iron rods and axes beating him to pulp.
Just after leaving him for dead, the attackers called up Beant Singh, another former headman from Bant Singh’s village to come and pick up the body. Even this was not the end of the torment heaped on this 40-year-old father of eight children and the only earning member in the family.
At Mansa Civil Hospital where Bant Singh was taken soon after the attack, Purushottam Goel, the doctor who admitted the patient, demanded a bribe and did not even care to provide treatment for 36 full hours. Bant Singh was bandaged only on 7 January 2006 and the following day his attendants were told that the hospital lacked facilities to treat him and so he should be removed to some other hospital. By the time Bant Singh was shifted to PGI, Chandigarh, it was too late to save two of his hands and leg.
Democratic rights groups along with Bant Singh’s comrades from AIALA and CPI -ML have therefore made the following demands: That highest priority be accorded by the Punjab government to medical treatment and rehabilitation of Bant Singh, including provision of artificial limbs at an appropriate stage. Further, rehabilitation be considered, covering his living conditions, livelihood and insurance against all future ailments arising from his current disabilities.
That due compensation for Bant Singh and his family be paid by the government in order to alleviate the suffering caused by the assault, again keeping in mind all future needs.
That efforts be made to bring to book the mastermind behind the attack. An independent inquiry into the incident be orderd to ascertain if the Punjab government is shielding prominent people involved in the attack due to their affiliation to the ruling Congress Party.
That immediate inquiry by the SC/ST Commission, the National Human Rights Commission and the National Women’s Commission be ordered to enquire into all atrocities committed against Dalits in the state.
(Source: South Asia Solidarity Group)