Unity walk calls for casteless society envisioned by Ambedkar

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Several democratic, progressive individuals and organisations came together on Sunday to mourn the unfortunate death of Udaya Kiran who died by suicide allegedly upon being harassed by four men belonging to the upper caste. Titled Unity Walk, the attenders demanded a caste-free India, with a society based on constitutional values.

“The incident shows how far we are from achieving a casteless society as envisioned by our Constitution and its chief architect Dr BR Ambedkar. As Left student activists, it is our aim to build a movement that unites slogans of annihilation of caste and class. In India, there is a huge gap between these two streams of movement, but if the end goals of true democracy are to be achieved, these two streams need to unite not alienate,” said Aratrika, a member of AISA (All India Students Association), who attended the walk.

The news of Uday Kiran, who belonged to the Dalit community, having committed suicide after being assaulted by four men for a trivial reason, made headlines recently. On November 30, Uday and his friend who were on a twowheeler overtook Raju and Gopalakrishnappa.

Upset by this, they stopped and verbally abused Uday on the spot and later Uday and his friend were stopped by four men near Petlandahalli and thrashed, before the accused men took away Uday’s bike and mobile phone.

The duo was returning from Kadenahalli. When Uday tried to retrieve his phone and two-wheeler from the accused, the four men allegedly tied him to a tree at Racchekatte of Petlandahalli, where they verbally abused him over his caste and thrashed him. Police have arrested four men who had gone absconding, and have intensified their investigation into the matter.