Prominent Dalit writer and thinker, Professor Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd was attacked by groups of people allegedly from Arya-Vysya communities in Parkal, Warangal while he went to attend a public gathering on Saturday.
In a statement issued in the context of attack meted to him in Warangal, Kancha Ilaiah said that he is losing faith in the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech also.
Till now, Ilaiah had lodged three cases –the first one after the Arya-Vysya leaders Ramakrishna and Ramana issued threats for authoring book ‘Samajika Smugglerlu: Komatollu’, second one on threats issued by TG Venkatesh Member of Parliament, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the latest one on Saturday after escaping an attack by groups of people from Arya Vysya community in Warangal.
Knowing about the arrival of Ilaiah, it was reported that scores of people belonging to the Vysya community gathered at the Ambedkar centre and tried to obstruct him when his car was about to enter the Warangal road.
Explaining his fear-stricken travel, Ilaiah said “Even though the police followed me on two vehicles, there were several Arya-Vysyas on the road to attack our car. The Local Circle Inspector protected us with a great skill by taking us through village roads and I reached Hyderabad safely in the night at 10 pm.”
With the situations around him getting intensified, Ilaiah has put himself under a self-house arrest, to protest against the continuous threats. He said “till 4th October 2017, I impose a Self-House Arrest on myself and remain at Home. If I need to go out on personal needs like (medical and other) I will inform the Osmania Police Station." He also said that he would remain silent for all the media networks of the state.
While questioning the silence of the Telangana Congress, TDP and other parties on the issue, Ilaiah said that only Telangana CPM and CPI have condemned the on-going attacks on him.
The Arya Vysya associations had held protests in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh earlier this month alleging that the title of Ilaiah's book and some of its contents were "derogatory and demeaning" to the community and sought withdrawal of the book.
Ilaiah coined the concept 'Social Smuggling' for his book Post-Hindu India which deals with ‘Exploitation’ and the process of wealth accumulation by exploiting the labour of the productive masses into a caste economy in India.
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