Editorial: Dalit & tribal lives matter

The gruesome torture and murder of two men - a Dalit and a tribal - on Thursday in Karnataka’s Tumakuru district were abhominable, to say the least. Girish Mudalagiriappa, 30, who belonged to the Madiga sect of the Scheduled Castes and his friend Girish, 32, who hailed from the Scheduled Tribe community, Nayaka, were murdered by a mob, who alleged that the duo had stolen water pumps and accessories from farmers’ properties. The mob reportedly took the victims to a field in Peddanahalli Village in Gubbi Taluk, burnt their legs to ensure that they would not run away before beating them to death. Their bodies were found in a pond and on the road nearby Friday morning.

The twin murders have once again brought to the limelight the continuing atrocities against Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribe communities in Karnataka. According to data from the National Crime Records Bureau, crimes against these communities had increased by 50 per cent between April 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021. During this period, 2,327 cases pertaining to murders and cheating were registered based on complaints from SC/ ST communities. The number was 1,504 during the corresponding period between 2019 and 2020. Dalit organisations claim the actual number would be much higher as many attacks against lower caste people go unreported because the hapless people often fail to get the much-needed societal support for a legal fight.

Caste-based discrimination is not confined to slums and colonies alone. Even those who wield power are reminded of their lower-caste origins many a time. In 2019, Bharatiya Janata Party’s Member of Parliament from Chitradurga, A Narayanaswamy, was stopped from entering a village in Tumakuru for being a Dalit.

Former Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister and senior Congress leader G Parameshwara recently stated that he was not allowed inside temples when he was in power because he is a Dalit. His statement that ‘dogs can drink water from the pond but Dalits are barred from even venturing close to it’ had drawn attention to the untouchability still prevalent in many parts of the state.

Three days have passed since the twin murders in Tumakuru and what disheartens peace-loving citizens most is the silence of major political parties in demanding a fair probe.

Member of Legislative Assembly, AS Jayaram of BJP, has not even visited the village though he reassured the families of the deceased but stopped short of condemning the murders. He may be calculating the electoral risks, but people’s representatives like him must understand that Dalit and tribal lives do matter and a civilised society cannot afford to discriminate against them.

At this moment, we should not forget a pertinent question raised by Mudalagiriappa’s mother. “Who gave these people the power to kill my son?”

People should not be allowed to take the law into their own hands. The law enforcing agencies should conduct a fair probe and ensure punishment to the criminals.