Dalits to invite Bachchan, Modi to feel ‘Badbu Gujarat Ki’

Ahmedabad, Sep 11 (PTI) Dalits protesting against the Unaflogging incident have decided to launch a postcard campaigncalled ‘Badbu Gujarat Ki’ (stink of Gujarat), in response tothe tourism department’s ‘Khushbu Gujarat Ki’ (scent ofGujarat) initiative spearheaded by Amitabh Bachchan. The Una Dalit Atyachar Ladat Samiti will launch thecampaign from Kalol near Ahmedabad on Tuesday, when thousandsof postcards bearing the tagline ‘Badbu Gujarat Ki’ will bemailed to Bachchan’s residential address in Mumbai, and PrimeMinister Narendra Modi inviting them to the state. The postcards will invite them to "visit Gujarat andget a taste of stink left by cow carcases which have not beendisposed by protesting Dalits ever since they pledged againstit following the Una atrocity incident," Una Dalit AtyacharLadat Samiti convener Jignesh Mevani said today. Mevani alleged that Bachchan created a fake image ofGujarat to propagate Modi’s agenda. "Amitabh Bachchan came to Gujarat upon invitation fromthen Chief Minister Narendra Modi, and talked only aboutGujarat having good things like greenery, scent, progressiveculture," he said. "We have given up disposing carcasses. Hundreds of cowsare lying dead and stinking all over the place. Dalitscontinue to die in gutter, caste division and untouchabilityhave made them suffer," he rued. "Now that we have given up disposing dead cows, we willinvite Bachchan and Modi to come to Gujarat, spend some timeand enjoy ‘badbu Gujarat ki’," Mevani said. Following the Una case in which Dalits from MotaSamadhiyala village were brutally beaten up by self-styled cowvigilantes, the community members from the state pledged enmasse to give up their traditional profession of disposing cowcarcasses as a way of protest. "This is about the conscience of Dalits to quitcaste-based occupation that caste system imposes upon them. Inresponse, thousands of Dalits have pledged not to pick up cowcarcass, and in hundreds of villages it has been given up.This has also broken the myth that Dalits are solely dependenton this profession," Mevani claimed. The Dalits were even attacked by upper caste members inmany villages for not disposing cow carcasses, he alleged.(MORE) PTI KA PD GKDV