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Govt. pursuing `anti-Dalit path': DPI

By Our Special Correspondent

MADURAI NOV. 29. The Dalit Panthers of India leader, T. Tirumavalavan, has accused the State Government of pursuing an ``anti-Dalit path'' by denying rights of the oppressed people.

Addressing newspersons here yesterday, Mr. Tirumavalavan alleged that the police did not act on complaints of atrocities against the Dalits and a case in point was the ``open attack'' on Dalit youth in the presence of Ministers at Tuticorin recently. When police action had stopped with registering a case in the Tuticorin incident, Mr. Tirumavalavan wondered how they would act on complaints of atrocities against the Dalits in remote places.

He also alleged that there was ``an unwritten order'' that no case should be filed under the Protection of Civil Rights and the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Acts. Whenever human rights activists took up the cause of the Dalits, they were ``harassed'' by the police in the form of raids. In several places, DPI volunteers were prevented from even hoisting flags, he claimed.

Criticising the Government for the move to sell liquor through the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation retail outlets, Mr. Tirumavalavan said there were honourable ways of mobilising funds to improve a sagging economy, instead of selling liquor. Forcing graduates to sell liquor was a ``great betrayal'' of the people who had voted the AIADMK to power.

Extending moral support for the proposed agitation of the DMK against the Prevention of Terrorism Act and other ``anti-people policies'' of the State Government, Mr. Tirumavalavan said the DPI would organise a conference in Salem on January 3 to protest the ``thrusting of Hindutva culture'' on the people.

He also warned that the party would organise a mass movement if Tamil film producers and directors did not desist from naming their films in English.

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