With Dalit leader and Vadgam MLA Jignesh Mevani on Tuesday sent to police custody for five days by a court in Assam for allegedly assaulting a policewoman, an appeal has been made to the Dalit community for a 15-minute blackout in 1,000 villages across the state to oppose the treatment meted out to him on May 1, the foundation day of Gujarat.
"We are sending out messages and appeals to Dalit households in 1,000 villages across the state to put off their lights and TVs, among others, for 15 minutes in protest against the arrest of Jignesh Mevani," said Martin Macwan, a noted Dalit rights activist.
"We have appealed to light a lamp in front of the preamble of the constitution and take the oath to be loyal to it instead of any other power, as for Dalits, the Constitution is the only safeguard remaining in this country," Macwan added.
Mevani was arrested on April 21 in Palanpur by a team of Assam police and taken to Kokrajhar for a couple of tweets targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi. On Monday, moments after he was granted bail, he was rearrested by Barpeta police officials for allegedly assaulting a policewoman. He was produced before a court on Tuesday and was remanded in police custody for five days.
Macwan said the way Mevani was arrested and was being granted police remand shows that "he is being harassed just because he is a Dalit." "His choice of words or language could be criticised but not his appeal to the PM for peace and harmony. We have examples of leaders asking for armed rebellion against the minority community in police presence but it takes an order from the Supreme Court to arrest them. In the case of Mevani, the police wait for his bail and then arrest him. Here, the Dalit identity is being challenged."
An appeal has been made to the Dalit community across the state to sign a petition to the chief minister asking him to release Mevani and withdraw cases against Dalits and minorities the way the government did in the cases of the Patidar agitation and Bhima Koregaon, among others.
The petition claims that the "treatment meted out to Jignesh Mevani is an insult to Dalit pride."
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