Two Muslim men were booked by police for attacking a Dalit man, Jayanti Bhati (27), for wearing a ‘Pathani’ suit in Gandhidham town of Kutch district, Gujarat, reports Times of India.
Amjad Pathan and Azgar Pathan beat up Bhati, a truck driver, on the afternoon of November 26 near Green Palace hotel in Gandhidham. Bhati was having tea near the hotel when the accused duo came on a motorbike and started arguing with him over why was he wearing a ‘pathani’ suit.
Following a heated argument, one of the accused lifted the ‘pathani’ suit from behind and covered Bhati’s face and both of them thrashed him black and blue. The accused duo threatened him saying, “You belong to lower caste and should not wear a pathani.” They further threatened to kill Bhati if he dared to wear a ‘pathani’ again.
After this incident, Bhati lodged a complaint with Gandhidham police. An FIR was lodged against the accused under SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocity) Act, assault and criminal intimidation. Both the accused were yet to be arrested, as per the TOI report.
This incident, and several like it, expose the hollowness of those who claim that Dalits and Muslims share some sort of affinity as they are ‘equally oppressed’ in Bharat. The secular-left-liberal-Islamist brigade consisting of characters like Jignesh Mevani, Prakash Ambedkar, Asaduddin Owaisi, Siddaramaiah etc have repeatedly tried to weave a Dalit-Muslim socio-political alliance, with little success because the ground reality is that Dalits are at the receiving end of atrocities by Islamists in many parts of Bharat.
Dalit youth would be well advised to read up on the case of Jogendra Nath Mandal, a Scheduled Caste Hindu who was appointed the first Law and Labour Minister of Pakistan by Jinnah, but within a mere 3 years was forced to resign and migrate back to Bharat due to the severe discrimination he faced. Or the injustice meted out to Valmiki community sanitation workers who were coaxed to come to Jammu & Kashmir by Sheikh Abdullah, but then denied basic citizenship rights for decades until Article 370 and 35A were finally abrogated by the Modi Government.
Such hate crimes also bust the narrative about Islamic being a role-model, ‘egalitarian’ faith – whatever egalitarianism exists in Islam (assuming we put the Shia-Sunni, or Ashraf-Ajlaf divide aside for a minute) is only for fellow Muslims – non-Muslims are always considered inferior, and the most vulnerable among them like Dalit Hindus are treated with barely disguised contempt even in Hindu-majority Bharat, leave alone talking about their plight in Muslim-majority countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Did you find this article useful? We’re a non-profit. Make a donation and help pay for our journalism.