They are expected to join the protest in big numbers and express solidarity with millions of people in India and around the world who are feeling outraged
Clarion India
DALLAS, Texas – Several concerned Indian American citizens and organizations, including the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR), Dalit Solidarity Forum and Global Indian Progressive Alliance among others have planned to organize a protest on Sunday (October 18) to condemn the rape and subsequent brutalization and killing of a 19-year-old Dalit girl in Hathras in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
The protest will be held near Dallas Municipal Court from 2 pm to 5 pm.
Indian Americans in Dallas are expected to join the protest in big numbers and express solidarity with millions of people in India and around the world who are feeling outraged over this brutal and inhuman crime.
Instead of protecting the family of the girl and bringing the perpetrators to justice, the Chief Minister of UP, Yogi Adityanath, who belongs to Thakur caste, said the Dalit girl was not raped. His government ordered that polygraph and narco tests would be conducted on her family.
The very same night when the victim’s body was being forcefully cremated on the pyre, reports of three more rapes, where one of the youngest victims was only six-years-old, came in from various parts of Uttar Pradesh.
The Dallas protest has been organized to highlight the fact that these are not isolated crimes committed in remote parts of India. Crimes against women and children are skyrocketing, especially in states like Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar and Delhi. Rape is now the fourth most common crime against women in India, despite it being grossly underreported.
According to the 2019 National Crime Records Bureau’s (NCRB) annual report, 32,033 rape cases were registered across India, averaging 88 cases per day.
The NCRB report also states that the crimes against Dalits have risen by 37%, and crimes against women has increased by 86% with a sharp increase in rape cases by 50%. In 2019, with 11,829 cases, Uttar Pradesh saw the highest number of cases of crime against Dalits, followed by Rajasthan with 6,794 cases, and 6,544 cases in Bihar.
While the Adityanath’s administration is busy covering up the crime, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has refused to even acknowledge such crimes, much less taking steps to prevent them. These latest incidents are a scary reflection of what a Hindu supremacist state portends for the most vulnerable people in a country with a population of 1.2 billion.
Indian Americans, across the US, have been consistently protesting against the heinous crimes being brazenly perpetrated by the Narendra Modi government, over the last six years. These include the mindless lynching of Dalits and Muslims, the abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir and the draconian Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens.
