Bid to hoist flag at Dalit burial ground thwarted

Kazhagam’s organiser M Kargi said the constitution clearly prohibits discrimination of Dalits. “But even 70 years after independence the State and Union Governments are party to this social evil. Tamil Nadu Government has set aside 12,500 burial grounds exclusively for Dalits. Of these, 445 are in Coimbatore district.

On the reason behind organising the protest on Independence Day, he said that even the British who enslaved India for more than two centuries abolished many social evil practices. 

“But to this day Dalits are discriminated across the country. Even in Coimbatore, we have two tumbler system. Dalits are prohibited from wearing slippers in streets where the upper class people reside,” he alleged.

Kargi said that their organisation has filed a writ petition before the Madras High Court to abolish discrimination of Dalits by setting aside a separate burial ground. “It got numbered last Friday,” he said and wished that the Governments at the State as well as the Centre come out with a law and strictly implement it to put an end to discrimination of Dalits. 

The protesters marched towards the burial ground with the National Flag when they were stopped by the police as hoisting the tricolour flag there would be an act of disrespect.