Middle Ages: Even IAS, IPS officers untouchable

GANDHINAGAR: Rajan Priyadarshi, a 1980-batch IPS officer, has risen to the rank of inspector general. He holds the post of Range IG, Rajkot. People from different walks of life often approach him with folded hands, with numerous problems.
But, when the same Priyardarshi decides to visit his native Kadagra village in Dehgam taluk, the equation changes dramatically.This senior cop still cannot buy a house in the locality, inhabited by higher castes of the village. He continues to have a house in the ''Dalit vaas'' of Kadagra. Though Priyadarshi does not want to speak on the subject, sources say till last year even the village barber did not entertain Dalit customers.
And Priyadarshi is not alone. A lot of high ranking officials and even politicians continue to face similar discrimination, despite enjoying a high status in the government.
Take the case of P K Valera, an IAS officer who retired as commissioner (fisheries) a few years before. When Valera organised a social gathering in his native Borisana village near Kalol in 1997, the person he had given the cooking contract to refused to clean the utensils. "They suddenly disappeared. We made frantic efforts to look for them, but we were told they would not wash utensils at a Dalit''s place. The embarrassment cannot be expressed in words," he says.
Ironically, Valera also worked as a director of social welfare department in the state and his brother, P Valera, is a senior police official, currently with the state intelligence bureau.
He says even today there are people who do not accept a cup of tea at his home in his village. "Sitting in urban areas, people may think the issue of untouchability is over. But most educated and well-placed Dalits face ostracisation when they visit their villages. I may have been a senior bureaucrat and my brother a police official. But that makes no difference to my status in my native village," he says.
When Kanti Makwana, who retired as a DSP, decided to take out the marriage procession of his son last year in Govana village in Harij taluka, he was not allowed to do so by villagers.
"He finally had to limit the procession to the confines of the Dalit neighbourhood," said a source from Navsarjan, an NGO fighting for Dalit rights.