IndiaTomorrow.net
Ahmedabad, Oct 04: Angry over attacks on some Dalit youths for sporting moustaches in the state, some members of the community in the Gandhinagar district have changed their WhatsApp display photo with picture of a big black moustache with ‘Mr. Dalit’ written below it. They decided to protest in an innovative and ‘muscular’ way after the brutal attack on a Dalit student in Limbodara village of the district on Tuesday.
According to media reports, Digant Maheria, 17-year-old Dalit student of Class 11th was stabbed with blade on Tuesday evening allegedly by two upper caste boys for signing a police complaint as a witness to the thrashing of his cousin Piyush Parmar last week for sporting a moustache.
Digant was admitted to the Gandhinagar Civil Hospital for treatment with multiple stab wounds and has got 15 stitches on his back. He was attacked while returning from school. The attackers allegedly from the Rajput community told him that Dalits cannot sport moustaches.
“They asked him if he had filed a police case (in the attack on his cousin Piyush Parmar, 24, for keeping a moustache), and when he said yes, they pushed him and asked him why,” Digant’s uncle Kirit Maheria told IANS.
Parmar was abused and assaulted by three men of the upper caste Darbar community in his own village, 15 kms from the state capital, on 25 September. The attackers came up to him and said Dalits had no right to sport a moustache like Rajputs. After an argument, they beat up Piyush. A police complaint was lodged in the matter wherein Digant had signed as witness.
Dalit activist and Advocate Jignesh Mewani, who led protests after four Dalit men were brutally beaten last year in the state’s Una town, has demanded the resignation of the state’s home minister over the recent attacks on Dalits.
This past Sunday, a 21-year-old Dalit named Jayesh Solanki was lynched in Bhadrania village in Anand district allegedly by upper caste Patel men who objected to him watching a Garba outside a temple.
(With Inputs from IANS)
