Ahmedabad: Gujarat has proved the power of Dalit Voice which has been able to shake the state’s noted Dalit leader, Rameshchandra Parmar, for his alleged statement that the Untouchables of India are not suffering under casteism (racism).
A Letter of one Anand Parmar to this effect was published in DV of May 16, 2001 (p.17) saying that the Gujarat Dalit Panther chief attended the UN preparatory conference at Geneva as the Govt. of India delegate and defended the brahminical rulers of India and said that the Indian Untouchables never suffered from casteism (untouchability).
Parmar’s silence: As the country was getting ready for the UN conference at Durban, and Gujarat was sending a strong team led by Martin Macwana, Pravin Rashtrapal, MP, Gujarat’s top Dalit leaders statement came as a shock to the entire state.
An Editorial Note under the above Letter asked Rameshchandra Parmar “to explain and offer a truthful statement”.
The publication of this news in DV created a big controversy and scores of Dalit journals reproduced the DV Letter and Parmar came under severe attack. Hundreds of photocopies of the Letter were distributed all over the state.
Parmar desperately tried to contact the Editor, and his Letter was published in DV June 16, 2001, p.16.
But the Letter was silent on whether Parmar had made the alleged statement at Geneva or not.
When untouchability was declared as the world’s worst form of racism, how could a top Dalit leader deny its very existence? How dare he go against Dr. Ambedkar’s verdict on untouchability?
Meanwhile, Anand Parmar in his Letter of July 1, 2001 (p.12) denied having written the original letter criticizing Rameshchandra Parmar who meanwhile became the target of all-round criticism from Dalits.
Book release postponed: During all this controversy, a function to release the Editor’s latest book, Aggression on Indian Culture, followed by a seminar at Ahmedabad on the same was postponed in view of the raging controversy on the role of Rameshchandra Parmar.
Dalits were asking why the noted Dalit leader of Gujarat was refusing to deny the statement attributed to him saying that Indian Dalits did not suffer from untouchability (racism). Did he make the statement or not?
The “Rameshchandra Parmar controversy” was refusing to die as more and more Dalit journals were reproducing items from Dalit Voice with another veteran Dalit leader, Valjibhai Patel, openly attacking the role played by the Panther chief.
Meanwhile, Ramesh Bhai is admitted to a hospital for heart trouble.
Rameshchandra Parmar is a good old friend of the Editor who visited Gujarat twice during the 1981 “Gujarat caste war” on his invitation.
