The SC/ ST riots and Bharat Band
“The taste of anything can be changed. But poison cannot be changed into nectar.” – BR Ambedkar.
Bharat Band, thousands arrested, few killed, 1700 anti-riot workers, you have heard it all in the news and the papers in the last couple of days, but what do you really know about the SC/ST Act or the alleged dilution of one of its provision?
The SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, also known as the POA Act, was made to support and protect the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes and other Minority Tribes from the atrocities of the society.
The intention of the government while making this act was simple, which was that the SC/ST also had the equal rights and the right to voice their opinions and protect themselves from the atrocities of the society.
After several years, there came a time when this act was manipulated and used for quick and wrong purposes just for the sake of protection and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes thought that they had some sort of an upper hand and could use this Act in empowering themselves in wrong ways.
The Act was used for reporting false cases of harassment or torture or other atrocities, like there were a few cases in several businesses where on the simplest of conversations, wherein an SC/ST employee was asked to perform well and to achieve targets on time and efficiently, the employee would file complaints and FIRs against their employers under the pretext of atrocities under the POA Act.
The authorities would then end up immediately arresting employers for all the fake reasons and allegations or they had to go through arbitration, which is one example of how the SC/ST tribe used this Act in their favour, and not for its actual purpose.
After almost 29 years of the existence and misuse of this Act the very people whom it was made for, the Apex Court on 20th March 2018 announced the dilution of one of its provisions. The Top Court stated that the Act was never made for innocent citizens to be accused, which was not intended the legislature.
It never intended to use the POA Act as a means to fuse personal vengeance or blackmail people. The Supreme Court also stated that the law was being missed ever since it came into existence almost three decades ago.
Many parties all across the country’s political spectrum took exception to the ruling of the government and the court. They have pleaded to look into the ruling again and some parties stated that there need to be ramifications in this Act as it has almost been three decades old and there ought to be certain loopholes.
After the word caught air that the court had decided to dissolve the POA Act, the SC/ST, Dalits and other minority communities took to the streets to protests and show their anger against this ruling, there was a nationwide shutdown on April 2, 2018, protestors clashed with police in the states of Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Odisha where the normal life was paralysed.
You can only hope for these communities to see this through once the dust settles.
