On Saturday night in Mosimpur village of Bihar’s Patna district, a 30-year-old Mahadalit woman was subjected to a horrific assault, including stripping and force-feeding of urine into her mouth, a Times of India report said.
The brutal attack stemmed from her alleged inability to repay a Rs 1,500 loan from a local strongman, according to police reports on Sunday.
A 45-year-old Mahadalit woman was brutally assaulted, stripped and urinated on her mouth for purportedly failing to repay additional interest on a loan amounting to Rs 1,500, which she had borrowed from a local strongman in Mosimpur village of Patna district.
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) September 25, 2023
It is tragic that… pic.twitter.com/qW6qKN2nL4
The victim has named Pramod Singh and his son Anshu Kumar, along with four others, her assailants. Despite the loan and interest being reportedly repaid according to her family, the accused allegedly pressured her to pay an extra amount as interest. Upon her refusal, the father-son duo subjected her to physical assault and humiliation.
Patna SSP Rajiv Kumar Mishra confirmed the filing of an FIR and stated that the accused, along with their family members, were currently evading arrest. “Their residence is sealed, and we are actively pursuing raids to apprehend them,” Mishra stated. Ashok Das, the older brother of the victim’s husband, Subodh Das, mentioned that Pramod and his group had approached her about four days ago, insisting that an outstanding interest amount was due.
Upon reporting to the police, Pramod seemed further infuriated. On that fateful Saturday night, Pramod, accompanied by his son and four others, forcibly abducted the woman, as relayed by Das. “We embarked on a search and discovered her rushing home without any clothing. We quickly covered her and brought her home,” Das recounted. “She disclosed that she had been stripped, and Pramod’s son had subjected her to a degrading act of urination. Additionally, she bore a head injury and visible beating marks on her thighs,” he continued. Das highlighted that the accused belonged to a dominant caste in the village, while Mahadalit households were scarce. “We live in fear and contemplate relocating temporarily,” he expressed.
INDI Alliance’s lip service to uplifting the downtrodden and reserved sections of society
The incident, which took place in Bihar, governed by INDI alliance partners RJD and JDU, raises questions about the alliance’s commitment to the welfare of the marginalised and vulnerable section of the population. Rahul Gandhi, a senior leader of Congress and another member of the opposition INDI Alliance, has been trotting out the lack of representation of reserved classes within the Civil Services—a part of an attempt to chip away at the BJP’s consolidation of OBC votaries.
However, he remains dishonest in his allegations, as highlighted by JP Nadda, who pointed out that the current batch of Secretaries has a cutoff date of 1992, while the inclusion of reserved classes within the Civil Services took place in 1995-1996. Despite being informed about the facts, the Gandhi scion has continued to repeat his tropes to attack the Centre.
The INDI Alliance members have been vociferous in their demands from the central government to release the caste census data. But incidents like the Patna shocker betrays that their lofty claims of fighting for the marginalised are all but sham aimed at extracting political mileage and not rooted in genuine concern for the reserved classes.
Recently, BSP MP Danish Ali was in the eye of a raging storm after BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri made unsavoury remarks against him in the parliament. It was later reported that Ali had provoked the BJP lawmaker by allegedly making a deplorably casteist remark against the Prime Minister. “Neech ko Neech nahin toh kya bolege,” Ali had reportedly said that led to the angry outburst of the BJP MP. The casteist remark, ironically by a BSP leader, demonstrates the opposition’s disregard for the cause of the reserved classes and their insincerity in stamping out discrimination meted out on them.
In August this year, a Dalit man in Rajasthan’s Jaipur district alleged that Congress MLA Gopal Meena and Jamwa Ramgarh Deputy Superintendent of Police Shivkumar Bharadwaj urinated on him, forced him to lick their shoes, assaulted and hurled casteist abuses on him, once again bringing to the fore Congress party’s hollow promises of working for the welfare of the Dalits and other reserved classes.
Even as Rahul Gandhi and other INDI Alliance members wax eloquent about their commitment to helping the marginalised sections of society, the Patna incident underscores how Dalits and other reserved classes continue to face discrimination, abuse, and indignity in the opposition-ruled states.
