Students and teachers from two leading institutions, as well as Ambedkarite scholars from abroad, have demanded safety and justice for the family of the Hathras gang-rape-and-murder victim.
Nearly 200 faculty members and students of IIM Bangalore have written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking punishment of the accused persons, said to be upper caste men.
“We demand justice for the family who was even denied access to participate in her last rites. We seek assurance that the family will not be intimidated, but rather supported to get justice. We demand that in addition to the perpetrators of the rape, those who seek to bury this matter with such impunity are also punished,” the letter said.
The signatories demanded that the law-and-order system follow due process and mete out justice.
“Not encounters. Not cover-ups. Not extra-judicial killings. Not use of tools of governance against us every time we peacefully protest actions of our government. We demand that the government and the police do their jobs and ensure safety and security for every Indian citizen,” the letter said.
Faculty members of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) held a candlelight march on the campus to express outrage at the Hathras tragedy. In a statement, the JNU Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) said the incident had exposed the complete failure of the administration and the law-and-order machinery.
“Indeed, the handling of the matter by the UP police and the administration — its desperate efforts to somehow exonerate the accused without a full investigation, the display of an utterly callous attitude towards the girl’s family through her forcible ‘cremation’ and then the attempts to threaten and silence them, the blocking of media coverage and curbing of protests — reflects not only entrenched caste bias but also the consequences of increased politicisation of the law enforcement machinery, and erosion of its accountability to the law and to the Constitution,” the statement said.
In a statement, Ambedkarites from the US, Canada, the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Ireland, Spain, Sweden, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, New Zealand, Belgium, Hungary, Australia, the UAE, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Malaysia said Dalits were more vulnerable to crimes due to the “casteist mindset of caste Hindus”, who have a predominant presence in the police force and the administration. They demanded that the central and the Uttar Pradesh governments stop protecting the perpetrators of such crimes.
“The NRI Ambedkarite community demands strong punitive actions against the perpetrators of the crime and strong protection measures to safeguard the Dalits, especially the women, and take steps to prevent such caste-related hate crimes from happening in the future,” the signatories said.
