On 8^th June 2017, Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan, was arrested by Uttar Pradesh police in connection with the violence in Saharanpur. Chandrashekhar Azad had denied any involvement in the violence. Atrocities against the Dalit or underprivileged communities are on the rise since BJP’s Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath took charge.

It should be kept in mind that so-called Thakurs of the area had burnt more than 100 Dalit houses, abuses Dalit women, tried to throw Dalit children in fire and even burnt livestock of Dalits. Those who burnt Dalits’ homes are roaming free and Yogi Adityanath government is giving compensation to them. What kind of justice is this?

The arrest of Chandrashekhar Azad is nothing surprising. Whenever Dalits speak against the atrocities, Brahminical administrations of India either tries to buy that person or try to implicate that person in false cases, which we are seeing in the case of Bhim Army and Chandrashekhar Azad. Same has been warned by Chandrashekhar Azad in his speech at Jantar Mantar a few weeks ago, a rally which was attended by lakhs and ignored by Brahminical media.

Chandrashekhar Azad had offered to surrender at that time in Delhi but the administration didn’t arrest. Since then he was saying that till the time fake cases against his team members are not taken back, he will keep on fighting and will surrender only after when fake cases registered against Bhim Army members are not taken back.

Today Chandrashekhar Azad was arrested from Dalhousie in Himachal Pradesh as per the reports and he was in Punjab a few days ago. Chandrashekhar Azad has emerged as a new face of Dalits’ assertion, sending the clear message that Dalits will not tolerate atrocities anymore and will not sit silently.

He had earlier this week said he would surrender if 37 innocent Dalits, arrested in connection with the Saharanpur violence, were released on bail. “I feel the UP government has failed to address the issues of the Dalits. The chief minister has lost control over the police and the administration. There have been more cases of atrocities against the Dalits in the past two-and-a-half months as compared to last one year,” he told PTI.

“Instead of arresting the real culprits of the Saharanpur violence, the police “have arrested innocent people and put them behind bars. This has resulted in growing anger among the Dalits,” the 30-year-old activist said.

As witch hunt continues but Bhim Army is working on the ground as normal. More than 300 schools are being run by Bhim Army as normal and support for Bhim Army has grown many-fold and many people from abroad also are with Bhim Army now. Special emphasis is given on educating the Dalit students. Following the “Educate, Agitate, Organise” advice of Babasaheb Ambedkar Bhim Army opened tuition centers to educate Dalit students.

Dalits’ fight is for equal rights and we will do everything and anything within our power and within the constitution to get those equal rights. Dalits’ fight will not stop with the arrest of Bhim Army chief but will make Dalits’ resolve to fight even stronger.

They can arrest us, put us in jails but they can’t arrest our pens. We will continue to write stories of atrocities committed by Brahminical India.

We understand the Brahminical forces will do everything to stop Bhim Army from spreading and will register false cases against the leaders of the organization as Brahminical forces did with Dalit Panthers. Dalits need to come forward and support Bhim Army.

[irp]