Una dalit protest resounds in Kannur

KANNUR: Two youths, Vasram Sarvaiya, and Jeetu Sarvaiya, who were beaten up allegedly by a Saffron group in Una in Gujarat on the charge of skinning a dead cow in July this year were among those who attended the Swabhimana Sangamam, organized by the Pattikajathi Kshema Samithi (PKS) here on Wednesday.
The PKS organized the programme to retain the dalit community under the CPM umbrella and initiate a movement against the BJP citing the atrocities meted out to the dalits in Gujarat and elsewhere.
The earlier plan was to bring in Jignesh Mevani, the dalit activist from Gujarat, along with Ashok Mochi, a former activist of the Bajrang Dal, the 'hunter' of the 2002 Gujarat riots, who later parted ways with the Sangh Parivar. Mevani refused to attend the function on ideological grounds, though Mochi came for the meeting.
Inaugurating the Sangamam, CPM district secretary P Jayarajan lambasted the Sangh Parivar and said the atrocities against the dalit community should come to an end and this programme was organized to raise the dalit voice. Addressing the crowd, dalit activist from Gujarat, Keval Singh Rathod said the development in Gujarat was for the entrepreneurs and the upper caste, while the dalits were overlooked.
He added that this was the Gujarat model being propagated by Narendra Modi and his followers. Even now the dalits could not go to temples in Gujarat and the Kerala model was much ahead of the Gujarat model, he said. PKS district secretary E Gangadharan presided over the meeting.