“‘Chamar’ Used As Slur For My Father, A Deputy PM”: Ex-Speaker Meira Kumar

Meira Kumar, former minister, Lok Sabha Speaker and a Presidential candidate, reacted with a visceral tweet on Tuesday to the dying of a 9-year-old in Rajasthan. The boy was overwhelmed badly by his instructor for consuming water from a pot meant for the so-called higher castes. Her father, former Deputy Prime Minister and Dalit chief Babu Jagjivan Ram, Meira Kumar mentioned, was overwhelmed for the same cause 100 years in the past. “Now, 75 years after Independence, India has not modified. Nothing has modified,” she instructed NDTV in an unique interview.

100 years in the past my father Babu Jagjivan Ram was prohibited from consuming water in class from the pitcher meant for Savarna Hindus. It was a miracle his life was saved. 1/2

— Meira Kumar (@meira_kumar) August 15, 2022

“I requested my father. ‘Why did you struggle for freedom? This nation did nothing for you. It has given nothing to you or your ancestors’. He mentioned, ‘Free India goes to alter. We could have a caste-less society’. Glad he is not there now,” Meira Kumar mentioned.

Issues didn’t change for her both, added the 77-year-old. In her case, there have been “snide remarks, gestures, open statements made to me”, Meira Kumar mentioned.

Narrating an anecdote to point out how the caste system has travelled past the borders of India, she mentioned when she was searching for a home on lease in London, the proprietor, who was a Christian, requested about her caste.

“I preferred the home and mentioned I’ll shift. When he was leaving, he shot a final query. ‘Are you a Brahmin?’ I mentioned ‘No, I am not a Brahmin. I am a Scheduled Caste. Do you’ve gotten an issue?’ He mentioned ‘No’. However he didn’t give me the home,” she added.

“It’s supposed that Dalits are silly. However Dalits have emotions, mind. We all know once we are being humiliated,” she mentioned.

“My father achieved a lot however even as we speak, he’s referred to as a Dalit chief. He achieved a lot, however was nonetheless outlined by his caste… My father was Deputy Prime Minister and he was humiliated and he was requested to go and plenty of casteist slurs had been mentioned,” she mentioned.

From her father’s life, she shared one other occasion. When Babu Jagjivan Ram, as a Deputy Prime Minister in 1978, had gone to unveil the statue of Sampurnanand, he was humiliated.

“Jagjivan, chamar, go away,’ they mentioned. They usually washed the statue with Ganga Jal. As a result of it was polluted. So that you see, the caste system embraces everybody,” she mentioned.

Requested why the casteism is so entrenched and whether or not it’s doable to come back out of it, she mentioned there must be political and social will.

“I requested my father, why does not the caste system change. He mentioned, in case your fundamental wants are met, roti, kapda, makan (meals, garments and housing), cash for healthcare, you then want two issues — love and respect. You will get love. That is simple. However it’s tough to get respect. It’s exhausting work. It’s a must to toil a lot. Those that have a maintain on the system won’t ever let it change,” she mentioned.

As we speak, there are such a lot of examples of change in varied fields. “However the place is the humane issue? There’s a lot poison, hatred, violence within the minds of individuals. Everybody pities the Dalits, I’ve an objection to that,” she mentioned.  

The political class, she mentioned, is accountable for voting on caste traces. “However to place the burden solely on the political class and political system will probably be to get the problem misplaced. You are not addressing the primary situation of how one can do away with the caste system. That is why I do not wish to focus on which get together is ruling which state. That is simply statistics,” she mentioned..