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Harassed activist seeks protection from caste abuse

MUMBAI: Gangadhar Gaikwad's neighbourhood hates him. His Scheduled Caste background is a constant source of irritation. And a house that the government decided to build him is a thorn in the flesh. One fine day, construction of the house stopped.

“These Mangs [an SC community in Maharashtra] have come and now they want to build a house in front of ours. We'll see how they last here.” Thus goes the refrain in Bajrang Colony in Nanded district, where Mr. Gaikwad resides.

Mr. Gaikwad, a member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and vice-president of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions, Nanded, told The Hindu over telephone: “The city municipal corporation started building a house on my plot under the BSUP [Basic Services for Urban Poor] scheme as part of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission [JNNURM]. The corporation has all my documents. They even laid the foundation, but now they have just stopped work. I was not even served any notice.”

In a letter addressed to Maharashtra Governor K. Sankaranarayan dated September 16, a copy of which is with The Hindu, Mr. Gaikwad has appealed for an end to the caste abuse, threats and intimidation he and his family have been suffering. He has demanded that the officials responsible for stalling the construction be booked under the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

“We have written to the authorities, but no action was taken against the perpetrators. As a result, the caste harassment has increased. I seek justice and security for my family. If the [abuse] continues, I would have to resort to a fast-unto-death,” he said.

Besides his caste, what makes Mr. Gaikwad vulnerable is his activism. Over several years, he has staged andolans, led morchas, busted rackets and courted arrest. He demanded a CBI inquiry into the Nanded blast of 2006, which upset the right-wingers in his locality. Incidentally, the house of one of the blast accused is close to Mr. Gaikwad's.

Notably, Mr. Gaikwad was instrumental in providing this paper with vital data in connection with the article on the ‘paid news' phenomenon. He earned good press, but also became conspicuous for having taken on the powerful.

In the months following the exposé, Mr. Gaikwad had been threatened by a bunch of local goons. Recently, some threatened him saying the plot on which the house was coming up did not belong to him, Mr. Gaikwad said.

Compounding the family's woes is the discovery that a piece of land in Mahur taluka — donated to Mr. Gaikwad's father by an acquaintance, Paiku Pimpalkar, in 2003 — is now in the government's possession.

“The government acquired it and began building a three-storey structure on it,” Mr. Gaikwad said. A copy of the declaration pledging the land to the father, Yadav Govind Gaikwad, is with The Hindu.

When contacted, Nanded Collector Shrikar Pardeshi said, after a meeting with Mr. Gaikwad: “I have asked the officers to verify.”

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