Khairlanji massacre: Prakash Ambedkar urges Bhotmange family hut be made a memorial for Dalit justice

Mumbai: Eighteen years after the Khairlanji massacre, Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi founder-President Prakash Ambedkar on Monday demanded that the hut of the Bhotmange family must be converted into a memorial. 

A mob of about 50 villagers attacked the hut of Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange (then 52), a Dalit farmer on September 29, 2006 at Khairlanji and lynched four members of his family including his wife Surekha (45), young daughter Priyanka (18) and two sons Sudhir (23) and Roshan (21). 

Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange, the head of the family, managed to survive the carnage. 

Bhaiyyalal  Bhotmange passed away on 20 January, 2017, following a heart attack.

The Khairlanji massacre is one of the worst incidents of caste atrocities in Maharashtra. The deaths became a major political issue and investigations were handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) following a series of agitation by Dalit organisations.

Ambedkar, the grandson of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, the chief architect of the Constitution, slammed the erstwhile Congress-NCP Democratic Front government over its handling of the situation.

“Everyone from the perpetrators, policemen, powerful politicians from Congress, NCP were involved in the cover-up of the most cruel, heinous and barbarian caste violence and denying justice to Bhotmange in the Khairlanji massacre,” said Ambedkar. 

“Today, Bhotmange’s hut is lying vacant. I demand that the hut be converted into a memorial for the Bhotmange family as a reminder to the denied justice to Dalits, particularly Dalit women, and the prevalent caste-based atrocities against Dalits,” said Ambedkar, a former two-time Lok Sabha MP from Akola and one-term Rajya Sabha MP.