Who will employ labourer with a guard?' Sidhi victim's new challenge

In a small under-construction house in Kubri village in Madhya Pradesh’s Sidhi district, Dasmath Rawat, a Kol tribal, is siting in the courtyard with a police guard.

- Shruti Tomar

This July, a two-year-old video of an inebriated Praveen Shukla -- a representative of Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Sidhi, Kedarnath Shukla -- urinating on Rawat went viral on social media, sparking national outrage and a sharp backlash from the state government. Shukla was booked under the stringent National Security Act, and Kedarnath was denied a ticket by the BJP for the upcoming 2023 polls. The government also gave Rawat funds to build a concrete house.

But the horrific incident has left marks on Rawat, both psychological and tangible, that have turned his life topsy-turvy. Since July, local Brahmin farmland owners are not willing to employ him, forcing his 15-year-old son to take up menial jobs to run the household.

“Who will employ a labourer with a security guard?” asked Rawat, 42, pointing at the police constable sharing the charpoy with him. The guard was provided to him over apprehensions that he could be attacked by Shukla’s supporters for lodging a police complaint after the video surfaced. “This land of the upper caste community (Brahmins) is the only source of income for me but after this incident, nobody wants to employ me,” he said, pointing at a huge canvas of land a few metres away from his house.

In July, Rawat was called by chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to his residence in Bhopal, where the CM cleaned his feet and sought “forgiveness” for a member of his party hurting someone from the tribal community. Rawat claimed that chief minister also promised him a government job. “I have been waiting for a letter. I am ready to do job of the lowest category,” he said.

When contacted about his claim, Sidhi’s district collector Saket Malviya said: “I will look into the matter.”

Tribal politics

The Kol tribals, who once used to live in forests, are used to discrimination.