sickle_s.gif (30476 bytes) People's Democracy  (Weekly Organ of
the Communist Party of India (Marxist)  Vol. XXV  No. 14  April
08, 2001  UP Govt’s Answer To Dalit Demand For Shelter  With the
rise of Rajnath Singh to the chief ministership of UP, the dalit
and backward mask of the BJP has fallen by the wayside and
state-backed caste oppression is the order of the day. The chief
minister of UP has talked of a new role for the police. They are
no longer there to maintain law and order; rather they are death
squads to eliminate all opposition to the BJP regime, especially
from among the dalits. His instruction that for everyone of his
henchmen killed four dalits must be killed in encounter has led
to a spree of killings. The sixteen killed in this remote
village of Bhawanipur in Mirzapur district on March 9, in a
supposed encounter with Naxalities are only a few of the many
dying at the hands of the police in UP today, while 19 history
sheeters, many of them charged with murder, sit happily doing
business as us