Song writer paraded naked-India

UP Dalit song writer paraded naked

Lucknow, June 20: Dalits in Uttar Pradesh continue to be at the receiving end in Uttar Pradesh.
After the Aligarh and Fatehpur massacres in which 10 Dalits were done to death within a week, a fresh incident of Dalit atrocity has taken place in Ghazipur district.
According to a report published in a local Hindi daily, a Dalit song writer was stripped and paraded naked in the market place by some youth who were apparently offended by some references to their community in a song penned by the Dalit lyricist.
The youth beat up the Bhojpuri song writer and made him write an apology before releasing him.
The incident took place on Tuesday in Nandganj police circle of Ghazipur district when Keshav, a local Bhojpuri song writer, whose lyrics have been sung by another local artist Nandlal, was dragged to a spot in the crowded market place by some youth.
The young men played a song written by Keshav and objected to a line in which a reference had been made to one ‘Jumman Nai’. Since one of the young men had the same name, he insisted that the song writer had made the deliberate reference to humiliate him.
The youth beat up Keshav and then stripped him. Keshav was paraded and chased for almost an hour in the market place and when some people attempted to offer clothes to the naked song writer, they were intimidated by the youth.
After humiliating Keshav, who is also the principal of a local school, the youth took him to a lonely spot and forced him to write an apology letter, begging pardon for having written the particular song.
The Nandganj police reached the spot almost two hours after the incident even though the market place is barely 8 km from the police station.
A report has been registered naming the youth but no arrests have yet been made.
The police admit that Keshav was beaten and his clothes were torn but deny that he was paraded naked in the market place. However, eyewitnesses claim that Keshav’s clothes were still lying in the marketplace.