Rahul condemns ‘Manuvad practised by RSS-BJP’

Upping the ante over the Jalgaon incident in which three minor Dalit boys were stripped, paraded naked and whipped for swimming in a well belonging to an upper-caste family, Congress president Rahul Gandhi said on Friday that “history will not forgive us if we do not raise voice against the “Manuvad” practised by the RSS and BJP to spread politics of hate and poison in the country”.

In a tweet put out in Hindi, Gandhi used the Jalgaon incident to  target the RSS and BJP for “spreading the politics of hatred and poison" in the country. 

“The only crime that the Dalit boys from Maharashtra committed was that they took a dip in a well belonging to an upper caste family. Today, even the humanity is using the last of straws to save it dignity. History will not forgive us if we do not rise our voice against the Manuvad practised by RSS-BJP to spread politics of hatred and poison,” the Congress president tweeted.

Three young Dalit boys were stripped naked, paraded and brutally beaten up on Sunday after they were found swimming in a well owned by an upper caste family at Wakadi village in Jamner taluka of Jalgaon district in north Maharashtra.

Of the three boys, a 11-year-old victim boy belongs to Adviasi Scheduled Tribe community, while two boys – aged between 15 and 16 years –are from a SC community.

The incident took place during the weekend, but it came to light after a video clip showing of two of the three stripped boys being whipped by an employee of the upper-caste owner of the well went viral on Thursday.

After finding the three Dalit boys swimming in the well owned by Ishwar Balwant Joshi, his employee Prahlad alias Sonya Lohar had reportedly caught hold of the boys, stripped them naked in the village and whipped them using a belt. 

Joshi and Lohar have been charged under section 324 (voluntarily causing by weapons or other means), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 506 (Punishment for criminal intimidation), section 67 (Punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form)   of Information Technology Act, 2000, section 34 of  Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

The two arrested accused, who were remanded by a local court in Magisterial custody, are currently lodged in Jalgaon district central jail.