Raj Dalit child death: Dirty picture of politics or curse of casteism?

Jaipur, Aug 18 (IANS): The death of class 3 Dalit student in Jalore district of Rajasthan after being bashed up by his school teacher is opening up new revelations each day, nullifying the claims being made earlier.
The initial fact being circulated around that the school teacher bashed the student for touching his water pot has fallen flat as villagers and school students unitedly had claimed that there was no water pot in school. Students, since years, have been using one water tank installed in school premises, without any bias, said a local villager talking to IANS.
In fact, police officials and the education department team also maintained silence and have not confirmed anything about the water pot. In fact, they are yet to receive a single clue in that direction.
Superintendent of Police (SP) Jalore, Harsh Vardhan said, “The theory of water pot is yet to be verified. Our investigation is on.”
Similarly Rekha Shankar Garg, chief block education officer Sayla, said, “We went to school on Sunday and could not find out water pot for teachers or any caste based discrimination in school. There is a water tank and everybody drinks water from it, we have learnt so far.”
Another student of the school Rajesh Tailor said, “The deceased had a fight with him over a textbook after which school teacher Chhail Singh slapped two of them. After that, the child did not come.”
In fact, the audio going viral on social media highlighting conversation between father of the deceased and school teacher Chhail Singh, also proves that the child was beaten due to indiscipline and the school teacher had offered financial help for treatment of the student.
One Ajmal from Surana village in Jalore said, “The child had an ear infection and he was undergoing treatment for the last two years. He was coming to school with cotton in his ear for the last few months.”
In fact, there is another myth busted in the matter. The school where the incident was reported was Saraswati Bal Vidhya Mandir and many considered it to be the RSS-run school as Saraswati-named schools are generally RSS-run schools in Madhya Pradseh and Uttar Pradesh.

Eventually, veteran leader Digvijay Singh took the lead and tweeted, “At Saraswati Vidya Mandir, Guru ji was so angry that he killed a Dalit student drinking water from his pitcher!!”
“Dalit student was studying in third class in Saraswati Vidya Mandir, a teacher’s beating took his life, know what happened in school that day?,” he said, and tagged a media report.
Similarly, Congress leader Udit Raj also mentioned the school to be run by RSS and tweeted, “A 9-year-old Dalit student was beaten to death by a caste teacher because he drank water from teachers’s pot at the Saraswati Vidya Mandir by RSS in Jalore, Rajasthan. Discrimination is taught in their schools and the government should take over all the schools,” he said and share a media report.
Later, when he realised that the school is run by a private body, he apologised and said, “Usually Shishu Mandir and Saraswati Vidya Mandir are run by the Sangh. The name of the school where the incident happened with the Dalit student in Jalore is also Saraswati Vidya Mandir. Later I came to know that this school does not belong to the union, so I apologize for this mistake,” he said.
Meanwhile, a private school association of Block Sayla has given memorandum to tehsildar Kaushalya Jangid in the name of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot claiming that there is no caste discrimination in any school in the district.
However, there is another angle to the story. A source confirmed to IANS that a professor associated with Delhi-based JNU aggravated the issue. He hails from Jalore and has worked with Jodhpur University too.
Meanwhile, the villagers are quite disheartened with the overall episode.
“What happened with our son is sad, but the worst part is that it has been given a casteist touch which has brought ill fame to our village. This should be stopped, said residents of village Surana.
However, the deceased’ mother, brother and father claim that their son was beaten for touching a water pot which was used by the teacher.
Meanwhile, investigations are on to know whether this is a part of the dirty picture of politics or else even after 75 years of Independence, casteism still remains a curse killing the social fabric of our nationalism.