This morning, independent MLA and Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani shared a post on Twitter, saying that he had attended a mass wedding, samuh lagan, of the community in Patan district of Gujarat. Addressing the people at the event, Mevani encouraged the youth of the community to go for intercaste marriages without any fear. He said that the Dalit community should celebrate February 14 and April 14 with equal vigour.
Jignesh Mevani was asking the youth to be fearless as lately India has seen many violent incidents against the Dalit youths who had only wanted to have enjoyable marriage ceremonies.
Early this month, in a shocking incident in Hyderabad,a 26-year-old Dalit man was beaten to death allegedly for marrying Muslim woman. He was brutally beaten and stabbed to death on a busy main road.
In Gujarat itself, an incident in Mota village, Palanpur taluka, was a brutal wake-up call to ground-level reality. A Dalit groom was restrained from riding a horse and his wedding procession was showered with stones. Twenty-eight people have been booked in it, but the FIR was lodged only after media pressure and intervention of Mevani, under whose constituency the village falls.
Meanwhile, while referencing dates, Mevani was talking about Baba Ambedkar’s birth anniversary on April 14.
