Police during a flag march in Jalandhar. Gurmeet Singh
Ahead of Monday’s bandh call, Deputy Commissioner Jalandhar Varinder Sharma and Police Commissioner P K Sinha led a flag march in the city on Sunday. Also, BSF and Rapid Action Force have been deployed in Doaba which has the largest Dalit population in state. The Bandh call was initially given a Dalit organisation Savindhan Bachao Manch. It was later supported by All India Adi Dharam Mission and All India Adi Dharam Sabha. On Sunday, National Scheduled Castes Alliance, a socio-political organisation, which is quite active in Punjab and also has its units in Haryana state decided on Sunday to participate and support the ‘Bharat Bandh’.
Paramjit Singh Kainth, president of the Alliance, said: “The Supreme Court of India had recently decided to weaken the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 by ‘weakening’ the provisions of the Act relating to bail and registration of FIR.” Pointing out that Congress has 1 MP, 21 MLAs from the community, and AAP has 2 MPs and 9 MLAs and SAD-BJP has 2 MP and 4 MLAs from the SC community, Kainth appealed to all these leaders to rise above the party policies and fight for rights of the Dalits. He appealed for a peaceful protest.
According to 2011census, Punjab has the largest share of Dalits in its total population across the country and its Doaba region- Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala and Nawanshahr- has the highest number of Dalits in the state. Situation in Doaba seemed sensitive ahead of the Bandh. Punjab has around 90 lakh Dalits out of total 2.77 crore population of the state. In Doaba, there is 37 per cent Dalit voters and both the Lok Sabha constituencies of Doaba are reserved.
Jalandhar-based Shri Guru Tavidas Dharam Morcha president Satish Bharti said that Dalits joined the protest at the mere mention of this word of Bharat Bandh as an expression of their angst.