Click to play videoNew Delhi: Atrocities on SCs and STs continue unabated. Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharsthra are the worst offenders according to the latest data compiled by the Union Home Ministry.
Two rapes and four murders – all of a Dalit family – rocked Khairlanji village in Maharashtra on September 29. Had the police registered the crime against the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act of 1989, the Khairlanji script would have been different.
Khairlanji is a story repeated across the country, but in Maharashtra at least, the Chief Minister isn't unduly worried.
''The implementation of Atrocity Act is very good. We have already filed about 9000 cases in Maharashtra under Atrocity Act and out of this 50 per cent of the cases have been disposed off by the court and 50 per cent cases are still pending in the court,'' said Maharashtra Chief Minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh.
But the Home Ministry's data tabled last week in Parliament tells a different story.
Of 833 crimes registered under this Act in Maharashtra in 2005, convictions were only in 6.3 per cent of the cases. In 2004, 689 cases were registered and convictions were 4.8 per cent.
Surprisingly, Uttar Pradesh, under fire from the UPA for its poor law and order, has done rather well in protecting this section of society. Of the 4369 cases registered last year, nearly half the offenders were convicted.
Gujarat on the other hand is the worst off. Of 1301 cases registered last year and the conviction rate was a measly 3.8 per cent the Chief Minister had nothing to say to these figures.
"Will talk after the meeting," said Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Clever vote bank politics is the key to winning elections. But the next time the UPA demands the dismissal of the Mulayam Singh government over law and order, it should remember that where atrocities against SCs and STs is concerned, Uttar Pradesh is much better off then most UPA ruled states, where the conviction rate is in a single digit.
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