At the Thaan Dalit Mahasammelan held on October 2, close to 50,000 dalit community members gathered in Thangadh town to protest the killing of three youths in police firing on September 22 and 23.
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Speaking on the occasion, Raju Solanki, Dalit rights activist said:
‘Somebody asked me, ‘why are you going to Thaan?‘
I told them five sentences, listen to it very carefully. I said, ‘My father is Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar (not Narendra Modi or Rahul Gandhi). There are 40 lakh members in my family in Gujarat, and three kids of my family have been killed in Thaan. I will go to Thaan to console them and if anybody tries to stop me, I would crush him.’
‘This is my call to all my comrades: in coming days, if any atrocity happns to any of our relatives in Gujarat, I will give a call to go there, like we did for Thaan; and we all, as we have done here, go there in thousands.’
‘When I gave call ‘Chalo Thaan’, I was sure it was going to create history in Dalit movement and more than 50,000 Dalits gathered at Thaan confirmed my faith. Salute to all sons and daughters of Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar.’
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[Video and pictures courtesy: the internet]
