Remembering unkept promises

‘A promise is a promise,’ Ratan Tata said while unveiling the ‘people’s car’-- the Tata Nano on January 10, 2008.

On the same day, a lawsuit was filed in the Supreme Court against the Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL), a part of the Tata group alleging that Dalits and tribals were being weeded out of the company. Bringing into forefront once again, another promise, albeit an unfulfilled one: the promise of the Constitution of India.

The Constitution’s Promise

Not only does the Constitution promise equality for all citizens of India, it has made any practice of untouchability a punishable offence. And the constitution also empowers the President of India to specify the castes and groups that can become beneficiaries of affirmative action, we still grapple with reservation.

To top this, time and again, we have had few other important laws. The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 1989, provides for harsh punishment for crimes under the Act.

On January 9, a case came to light where a Dalit youth had his eyes pierced for eloping with his upper-caste girlfriend whose relatives also beat up the boy and his friend in Sategaon village in Maharasthra. All the laws of the land seem impotent when cases such as these continue unabated.

And apart from the crimes against Dalits that are reported in the national media, there are many that go unreported.

Courtesy:aol.in
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