Barbaric Assault on Bant Singh (AIALA Leader)

Mr. Manmohan Singh
Prime Minister of India
Room No. 152, South Block,
New Delhi - 110 001
India
Fax: +91 11 23016857



C.C. Capt.Amarinder Singh

Chief Minister of Punjab



Dear Prime Minister,



We the undersigned condemn the savage and barbaric assault by powerful Congress-backed Jat landlords which has left Bant Singh, Dalit leader of the Mazdoor Mukti Morcha (All-India Agrarian Labour Association) in Mansa, Punjab, with both hands and one leg amputated. Further we note that this criminal attack was planned in retaliation for Bant Singhвs sustained campaign against caste and gender based power and violence, and in particular, his struggle to bring his minor daughterвs rapists to justice. We stand by Bant Singh and his family in the face of this unspeakable tragedy and we believe passionately that such atrocities cannot be acceptable in 21st century India.



1. We urge you to accord the highest priority to the medical treatment and rehabilitation of Bant Singh, in particular the provision of artificial limbs to him at an appropriate stage. This has to be undertaken irrespective of the costs or effort involved. Further, the rehabilitation will have to consider also the living conditions, livelihood and insurance against future ailments arising from Bant Singhвs current disabilities.

2. We urge you to immediately organise the payment of due compensation for Bant Singh and his family in order to alleviate the great suffering caused by the assault, again keeping in mind all future needs.

3. While police authorities have, under under great public pressure, arrested seven youths who have allegedly been involved in the assault on Bant Singh, no efforts must be spared to bring those who masterminded the attack to justice. We demand an independent inquiry into the incident to ascertain whether the Punjab government is shielding prominent people involved in planning the attack due to their affiliation with the ruling Congress Party.

4. We are deeply concerned by the attempts by senior police officials to dismiss any link between the attacks on Bant Singh and his courageous struggle against those who raped his minor daughter in 2002. The successful sentencing of the rapists to life imprisonment by a Sessions Court in 2004 is a very strong motive for the repeated assaults by upper caste men on Bant Singh over the past year, and must not be swept aside as irrelevant to the case.

5. The Bant Singh incident is the tip of the iceberg as far as atrocities on Dalits in Punjab are concerned. Apart from the severe economic exploitation of Dalits, who form a very large percentage of all agricultural labour in the state, there is systematic sexual exploitation of Dalit women. This is a matter for immediate inquiry for the SC/ST Commission, the National Human Rights Commission as well as the National Womenвs Commission.