Bangalore: Finally, the aggrieved Untouchable Madigas have won their battle. The Holeyas, the dominant section of them who monopolised the SC/ ST reservations in Karnataka and refused to concede the Madiga just demand for proportional share saying that “Dalit unity” would break, have lost their Battie. A Jagjivan Ram statue is coming up right behind the Vidhana Soúdha, the seat of h the State Govt. and legislature in Bangalore. Preparations have begun.
Where is Dalit unity: Madigas might not have won their battle for categorisation of the SC/ST reservations. But the very fact they could get the statue was a great symbolic victory.
This development once again proves that Dalits are not a single homogenous community but a collection of castes. There is nothing like “Dalit unity”. Unity will be there as long as you share and care. If in the name of “Dalit unity”, a section of Dalits want to dominate, as it happened in Maharahstra, there will be no unity. In Karnataka, the premier Dalit Sangharsha Samiti (DSS) is already divided into four parts. Dalit movement itself is dead. Yet the Holeyas talk of Dalit unity.
