"I, of course, felt bad. Such politics is not in public interest. This incident (Malinga joining the BJP) only goes on to show how politicians, irrespective of which party they come from, do not care about Dalits,"said Harshadipati Valmiki, a Dalit engineer who suffered 22 fractures after he was assaulted, allegedly by Rajasthan MLA Girraj Singh Malinga, over "disrupting power supply to a Thakur village" in Dholpur.
Malinga, formerly in the Congress and BSP, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday, 5 November, ahead of the 2023 Rajasthan Assembly Elections, in the presence of Union Minister Gajendra Shekhawat.
This was after he was denied a ticket by the Congress to contest from Dholpur's Bari constituency where Harshadipati was attacked.
'Broke Every Bone in My Body'
On 28 March 2022, Harshadipati, posted as an engineer with the Rajasthan power board, was attacked, allegedly by MLA Malinga and his men over a dispute around disconnecting power supply to a Thakur-dominant village.
"I was in a meeting with some senior officials when the MLA, along with a few others barged into my cabin. There was a sudden, awkward silence. He leaned against a chair, picked it up and said...teri itni himmat ki tu thakuron ke gaon ke connection katega? (how dare you cut the power supply of a Thakur village). Then, he threw that chair at my face and his men started beating me up with sticks, bats, rods, and whatever else they could find. They broke every bone in my body and hit me just as much as anybody could hit anyone. And then, they left me to die," Harshadipati had earlier told The Quint.
An FIR was registered in connection with the case on 29 March 2022, a day after the alleged assault, at Dholpur's Bari police station. Filed under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 332 (assaulting public servant on duty), 353 (preventing public servant from discharge of his duty), 504 (insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 506 (criminal intimidation) and relevant sections of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, the FIR named MLA Malinga and Samir Khan, a Councillor from Ward no. 2 in Bari as the accused in the case. Later sections amounting to attempt to murder were also added to the FIR.
19 months on, with Harshadipati still in Jaipur's SMS hospital, the Rajasthan police is yet to frame charges against Malinga and others.
BJP's 'U-Turn'
The state unit of BJP in Rajasthan had initially cornered Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government over the incident.
Several party members, including Rajasthan Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rajendra Rathore even visited Harshadipati in hospital.
In a tweet dated 30 March 2022, Rathore wrote, "The situation is only worsening in Rajasthan under Congress' jungle raj. Congress MLA's attack on the AEN-JEN is shameful."
On 5 April, the BJP leader shared images of his meeting with Harshadipati in the hospital.
"When it comes to politics, Dalits don't matter. This is wrong on so many levels. A goon who has multiple cases registered against him is not just being protected but also promoted by political parties," Malti added.
Reacting to BJP's u-turn, social activist Bhanwar Meghwanshi took to social media platform X (formerly Twitter) and said that by inducting Malinga in the party, the BJP has proven that its against Dalits.
According to the 2011 census, Dalits account for 17.8 percent of Rajasthan's population, and 34 Assembly seats are reserved for the Scheduled Caste category. In 2018, Congress won 19 out of these 34 seats, whereas the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 12 seats. Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) also won 4 percent vote and six seats. All six BSP MLAs, however, later defected to Congress. Ironically, one of these MLAs was Malinga himself.
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