The Dalits of Shabbirpur wait for Ambedkar statue
The Hindu
Voters here are devoted to the BSP supremo Mayawati
More than four-and-a-half years after violent clashes broke out between Thakurs and Dalits in Shabbirpur, a sprawling village 15 km from Deoband town in Saharanpur district, both the communities are still grappling with the distrust caused by the May 2017 incident that left one dead and several others injured.
It was one of the first incidents that tested the Yogi Adityanath government on maintaining law and order. The clash was rooted in the Dalits’ demand for installing a statue of B. R. Ambedkar, which the Thakurs objected to. Despite the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) consistent effort to appropriate Ambedkar, the statue has not been installed in Shabbirpur.
“It is peaceful as long as we are not responding to the call of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ with ‘Jai Bheem’,” Kapil, a rickshaw puller, said, pointing to the procession of tractors moving through the Dalit locality to participate in the Chief Minister’s roadshow in neighbouring Badgam town on Saturday.
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