Udupi: Following the murder of Praveen Poojary by Gau Rakshaks, progressive thinkers and writers had organized a 'Chalo Udupi' march from Bengaluru to Udupi. The march started from Bengaluru on October 4 and reached Udupi on October 10.
Thousands of Dalit and left-wing activists had arrived at Udupi from across Karnataka to participate in the grand finale. Before the convention, the 'Chalo Udupi' activists took out a march on the main roads of Udupi town. The organisers of 'Chalo Udupi' gave a visit to Praveen Poojari’s house also.
The valedictory function of ‘Udupi Chalo’ which was held at Mahatma Gandhi Ground in Udupi was attended by a Dalit leader and Advocate Jignesh Mewani, who is also an organizer of the 'Chalo Una' campaign. He elated the audience with his strong speech, extracts of which is given here for the reader’s interest.
‘This is a new voice of revolution for a new struggle. The government was taken aback by the efforts of Dalits from Gujarat, we plan to conduct a similar program here at Udupi for the benefit of all the neglected classes. This should be a voice of all the downtrodden societies alike, the efforts of Dalits, Adivasis and the farmers. Your efforts should be put forth in a united manner similar to those which were being done by Dalits, Adivasis and farmers in Gujarat. The huge gathering here is a sign of success of our mission. Just as the people of Gujarat exposed the Gujarat model by showing the world the real face of the state, people of Karnataka - dalits, OBCs, minorities, tribals, farmers and women - should stand united with the Chalo Udupi leaders and bring change in society, he said. Udupi is termed as the ‘laboratory of Hindutva’ in Karnataka, we should strongly condemn and struggle to falsify this.
Exposing the truth about Gujarat Model, he said that during the 2002 roits, Muslim brothers were targeted. 746 cases were filed against Dalits, whereas, only 56 cases were filed against the upper class people. He urged the people to understand this agenda. He said that Dalits in 119 villages in Gujarat are living under police protection, whereas in 55 villages, Dalits are facing complete boycott. In 2014 alone, as many as 74 Dalit women were shamelessly raped. PM Modi neither visited then nor tried to solve their problem, he added. PM Modi’s slogan of ‘sab ka sath, sab ka vikaas’ will be the downfall slogan for Dalits, he claimed.
When we refused to pick the dead animals at Una, we were targeted. But we should make it a point that our struggle doesn’t end with animals. We should also struggle against the killing of three youths in an encounter. The struggle of Una is the struggle of existence and identity for the Dalits. Thousands of Dalits are joining the campaign. More than a lakh of Dalits have sworn that they would not pick up the dead animals and would not indulge in drainage cleaning work, he said while addressing the huge gathering.
“There is need now to fight against caste based discrimination. Modi supports capitalists and allots land for Adani and Ambani. Why he does not give land to Dalits?” Mewani questioned. He urged that if the Karnataka government doesn’t allot land for Dalits, they would fight against it.
He said that Rohit Vemula is alive among all the youth present in the gathering. The recent report which has spoken against Rohit being a non-dalit should be strongly opposed. He said that from the time Narendra Modi has become the Prime Minister his boasting has never subsided, the Dalits are being targeted. He urged the PM to ward off Gawrakshaks.
He also urged that the discrimination in food at the Udupi Matt should be stopped within two months, if failed they would protest and encircle the mutt. He claimed that he was ready to go to jail for the same.