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Hyderabad: A month after a ‘purification’ ritual was performed in Uttarakhand following Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s address at a rally in Haldwani, a similar anti-Dalit practice was publicly demonstrated in Telangana on Wednesday (September 9). This happened a day after Dalit leaders and Congress workers held a protest against Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) president and former chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao.

On Tuesday, September 8, a large number of Dalit leaders and Congress workers had marched in a ‘Chavu-Dappu’ procession to Rao’s farmhouse on the outskirts of Varadharajapuram village in Siddipet district. Funereal drums, ‘Chavu-Dappu’, were beaten during this procession. Beating the drums in a funeral procession is an occupation traditionally associated with Dalits.

The Congress leaders’ procession was in protest against two BRS MLCs, Tata Madhusudhan and Naveen Kumar Reddy, who they said had insulted assembly speaker G. Prasad Kumar, a Dalit, on September 7. That was on the first day of the state assembly’s monsoon session, when the BRS MLAs and MLCs had tried to gatecrash into the assembly premises against severe security restrictions in the area.

Also read: Twenty-Nine Days After ‘Purification’ Ritual at Kharge Rally in Haldwani, Police File FIR

Alleging that the area near the farmhouse was “desecrated” by the drum-beating procession, the BRS cadre on Wednesday poured turmeric-water and milk on the road and nearby places to symbolise ‘purification’ of the entire area. The Scheduled Caste cell of the Congress termed this as an attempt to promote untouchability, and, alleging that it was done the blessings of Rao, demanding action against him under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1987.

Scheduled Caste organisations representing Mala and Madiga........

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