Dalit group to hold mass congregation for conversion to Buddhism in Muzaffarnagar

Bareilly: With the recent events turning ugly, showing societies inhumanity towards Dalits, has triggered a vast impact on them forcing them to convert to Buddhism.

In a protest against the recent violence on Dalit’s in Shabbirpur village of Saharanpur, a mass congregation will soon be held by a Dalit organization for converting to Buddhism on June 14 in a district of Muzaffarnagar. The organization took to advertising about the event from pamphlet distribution to taking the invitation to social media and hopes to gather more than 1 lakh attendees from the Dalit community.

Though the administration said the event is unauthorized and orders for prohibition are already placed in Muzaffarnagar, Puran Singh District general of JSS has told TOI that all preparations for the congregation are soon to completion. President of Deoband unit of Bhim Army Deepak Kumar said the publicity has garnered a positive attention from the community.

The Muzaffarnagar officials said that they were unaware about the publicity of the mass congregation that is supposed to be held in the district at the cattle market ground in Rathedi village

“I have read the pamphlets but nobody approached me so far to hold any religious congregation in the district. Sometimes, organisers approach the sub-divisional magistrate or police officials of the area. But as prohibitory orders are already in place here, no such gathering will be allowed for any organisation at any cost” told Gauri Shankar Priyadarshi, District Magistrate of Muzaffarnagar to TOI.

Puran Singh of JSS told TOI, “Not only in Saharanpur, it has been a trend across the country of humiliating Dalits since new governments took charge in state and the Centre. Though earlier incidents of atrocities on Dalits took place, they were not at such extent that we are facing now. Everyone has seen what happened in Shabbirpur. Police and administration are taking action against the Dalits only and being partial. In protest against such incidents, over one lakh Dalits will gather in Rathedi village on June 14 to embrace Buddhism.”

The distributed pamphlets have got three contact numbers for queries, out of which one belongs to Deepak Kumar of Bhim Army unit of Deoband. “My phone has been ringing non-stop since my number was published by JSS. Even today I received calls from Punjab to Tamil Nadu. A southern India-based Dalit outfit offered to take part in the congregation with hundreds of its supporters on June 14. Though I have been in touch with the president of JSS, Amit Gautam, he didn’t take my consent before publishing my number on pamphlets”, Deepak told TOI.

The group held a camp in Shukratal, a religious place on the river bank of Saloni in Muzaffarnagar with placards saying ‘Donate for Saharanpur victims’ along with two donation boxes. The arrangements came to light after the group held camp. Hundreds of pamphlets were already distributed by the time Police arrived at the camp, Justice News reported.