Defence Of A Jerk

Abi at nanopolitan writes:

It’s this effort to understand that’s missing when some people (jerks!) start finding moral parity between violence unleashed by Dalits and that unleashed routinely and often by a majoritarian and openly militant political party that shared power in the State and Central governments. Why do they forget — or, do they wish to hide — the fact that the right lens for viewing the current violence in Maharashtra is the long history of atrocities against Dalits? Is it so easy to forget — or hide — Keezhavenmani, Manjolai (and many others in Dravidian Land), Gohana, Kherlanji, Kadkol, Pipariy

Since this jerk has criticised the recent violence in Maharashtra in these very terms, let me address Abi’s argument.

First, the insinuation: We want to hide or forget something. Ah! Well, Abi just for the record, none of these offenders were related to me so by all means expose them. One of the ”lens” Abi offers Keezavenmani actually happened in 1967. Nice justification for burning trains in 2006! Oh, Abi is not justifying them, he deplored the violence. lest we forget-he is merely trying to understand it. Abi also forgets that while this blog has stoutly opposed reservations for OBCs and continues to do that, it has never opposed reservations for Dalits. Many of the worst atrocities were/are committed by the very castes whom the current reservation system will further empower. For example Gohana and Kherlanji. The worst atrocities on Dalits in both UP and Bihar is perpetrated by OBC castes and that is one of the reasons why someone like Mayawati, who can change electoral partners as easily as people change clothes refuses to sup with Mulayam Singh. Even in Bihar, where upper caste armies like Ranvir Sena continue to kill Dalits, they have a new ally in the post-Mandal Bihar politics-the middle castes.

As Reality Check points out, we are forgetting the real victims.

Now the justification:

Dalit anger in the post Kherlanji environment was somewhat understandable. The government of Maharashtra’s handling of the situation was inept at best and criminal at worst. Unfortunately, since the governments of these days, listen only to violent protests, Dalits showing their anger on the street was a natural corollary. But since then the Maharashtra government has made amends, arrested the Sarpanch and handed the case to C.B.I for further investigations. This violence was post-statue desecration in Kanpur and that is why it was ridiculous and similar to violent reaction by Shiv Sena.

And it was hardly spontaneous:

Though the Kanpur incident is being blamed for the violent protests, there is more to it: factions of the Republican Party of India (RPI) are out to exploit Dalit sentiments, aware that protests could help settle political scores within the state. It explains why Maharashtra’s Dalits are being told to hit the streets over an incident that did not even occur in the state. In fact, there have been no protests outside Maharashtra over Khairlanji.The protests were initially confined to Bhandara (Khairlanji is in this district) and Nagpur in Vidarbha and actually took place more than a month after the September 29 killings. With some Left organizations and NGOs attempting to hijack the Khairlanji incident — they circulated handbills and pamphlets in Nagpur’s Dalit strongholds, passing around gory pictures of the killings— Dalit groups felt threatened and began rolling out plans to keep their turf intact.(emphasis mine)

And who else offers the kind of justifications offered by Abi;

a. Terrorists in Kashmir who continue to kill and maim innocents and indulge in ethnic cleansing because they have grievances against the Indian state.

b. Serial bombers of Delhi and Mumbai who are being motivated by Gujarat riots.

c. LTTE in Sri Lanka which continues to harp on past injustices to Sri Lankan Tamils to carry on a vicious campaign of violence. ( And on CNN, Vaiko continues to defend them)

d. And perhaps, most significantly, the Muslims who were protesting against the Danish cartoons because of American close relationship with Israel and other imagined and real grievances against the Western world!

Er. Before everyone jumps on me, I am not equating the violence in Maharashtra to what these fine gentlemen do elsewhere, I am merely pointing out that every act of violence is justifiable or ( understandable if you must!)

Right?

Update- And hey, the  past wrongdoings was the  justification offered by Hinduvata folks who demolished Babri Masjid. Keep looking for justifications, everyone offers one!