Bengaluru’s varsity students allegedly insult Ambedkar and Dalits and are called for questioning.
Story so far: The Bengaluru police registered an FIR against Jain University’s management and six students from its Centre for Management Studies (CMS). The students performed a skit that was allegedly tone-deaf to India’s caste inequality and ridiculed BR Ambedkar and the Dalit community. While the students were summoned for questioning, no one has been arrested yet.
- Once the controversy erupted on Instagram, where the college theatre group has posted the performance, the six students involved issued an apology.
- However, some Dalit organisations took offence to the skit that precipitated a case being registered against the accused under provisions of the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, and sections 153A (promoting enmity), 149 (unlawful assembly) and 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs).
Repercussions: The police have called students and faculty members for a thorough investigation. Meanwhile, CMS has suspended the students involved and formed a disciplinary committee to examine the matter. The youth festival that featured the skit was put on pause too.
About the play: The play appears to mock Ambedkar and Dalits, with dialogues that phonetically liken BR Ambedkar to Beer Ambedkar. According to Dalit organisations, the skit is casteist and intentionally humiliates the Dalit community and its leaders.
- The complainant has questioned the University authorities for allowing the play to pass through different checks and rehearsals that occur before the final performance.