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ADalit groom in Gujarat’s Sabarkantha district was flanked by more than 60 policemen during his wedding procession on Saturday. Needless to say, the wedding procession bore striking resemblance to a police flag march.
It would be surprising to know that this Dalit groom was no political leader. The police cover provided to him for the course of his wedding was sanctioned by the Deputy Superintendent of Police.
Earlier this week, the groom’s family approached Sabarkantha DSP DM Chauhan and raised apprehension that “upper caste people” may cause trouble during the wedding procession.
DSP Chauhan decided to quell the fears of the Dalit groom’s family. For this purpose, he stationed a team comprising a deputy SP, a police inspector, seven police sub-inspectors and 60 constables across the village to provide cover to the wedding procession.
This team of police personnel was stationed along the half kilometre route of the procession to ensure that no untoward incident takes place.
Which century do we live in #India?
#Durlabh a #Dalit frm #Gujarat had to seek #policeprotection as nearly the entire village minus Dalits of #bhjapur threatened violence if he dared to ride a horse in his wedding procession.@GujaratPolice put 80 cops on duty. #DalitLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/Ptt4fRzBtS— Deepal.Trivedi (@DeepalTrevedie) March 7, 2021
In May of 2019, the wedding procession of a Dalit groom was halted in Gujarat’s Aravalli district. Police had to resort to baton charge to disperse those who held up the wedding procession for over five hours.
A similar incident was reported from Sandipada village in Banaskantha district of Gujarat in February of last year. The wedding procession of a Dalit man was taken out under police protection allegedly after ‘upper caste’ villagers objected to him sitting on a horse and even pelted stones at the wedding party.