Dalits in Gujarat are all set to launch the 'Badbu Gujarat Ki' (stink of Gujarat) campaign from Kalol near Ahmedabad on Tuesday to protest against the Una flogging incident in which Dalits were flogged for skinning a dead cow.
The Dalit community will send invitations to Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan and Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting them to attend the launch.
Gujarat's tourism department had launched the 'Khushbu Gujarat Ki' (scent of Gujarat) campaign that was spearheaded by Bachchan.
The invitations, which are basically postcards with the tagline 'Badbu Gujarat Ki', will be sent to Bachchan's Mumbai residence and also to PM Modi.
Una Dalit Atyachar Ladat Samiti convenor Jignesh Mevani told reporters that the postcards would invite them to "visit Gujarat and get a taste of stink left by cow carcasses, which have not been disposed of by protesting Dalits ever since the Una atrocity."
Mevani also accused Bachchan of creating a fake image of Gujarat to further PM Modi's agenda.
"Amitabh Bachchan came to Gujarat upon invitation from then Chief Minister Narendra Modi, and talked only about Gujarat having good things like greenery, scent, progressive culture. We have given up disposing carcasses.
Hundreds of cows are lying dead and stinking all over the place. Dalits continue to die in gutter, and caste division and untouchability have made them suffer. We will invite Bachchan and Modi to come to Gujarat, spend some time and enjoy 'badbu Gujarat ki'," the convenor said.
Mevani added that it is the "conscience" of the Dalit community that is prompting them to quit the profession that the caste-based system prevalent in the society imposes on them. Dalits have broken the myth that they are solely dependent on this profession by refusing to dispose cow carcasses for which they have also been attacked by upper caste villagers, he said.
Dalits being beaten up, either for disposing or not disposing carcasses, has angered them against the state government which is still not ready to accept Dalits' demands, including allotment of land to SC/ST, among others, he said. He added that the 'rail roko' campaign will be planned at a mass gathering in Ahmedabad on Sept. 14.
The community will gherao the sub-divisional magistrate's office if the land allotted to Dalits by the state government at Saroda village in Dholka taluka of Ahmedabad in 2006 is not returned to them within five days. The land is still illegally occupied by the upper caste villagers.
