STATES
The Congress’s turn towards the
upper castes became evident in March,
when it nominated Akhilesh Prasad for
the Rajya Sabha. He was the first Con-
gressman to go to the upper house from
Bihar in the past 16 years. A month later,
in April, the party nominated a Brahmin
leader, Prem Chandra Mishra, to the
lone Legislative Council seat it could win
in the state.
A senior RJD leader says the
Congress’s decision to pick Brahmin and
Bhumihar leaders is part of the party
strategy to try and win over the two
dominant and numerically significant
upper caste groups.
Unlike in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh,
upper castes comprise a mere 11-12 per
cent of Bihar’s population. But upper
caste votes have become significant and
capable of swinging elections, following
the division of other caste groups amongthe RJD, JD(U), RLSP and LJP. This
apart, upper caste voters, said to be
disillusioned with the BJP-led NDA, are
presently seen as ‘unattached’.
Once determined to dislodge Lalu,
upper caste voters shifted loyalties to
Nitish after he forged an alliance with the
BJP in 1996. Analysts, however, say that
despite their alienation with the saffron
party, regaining upper caste allegiances
will not be easy for the Congress. A
mrutha Varshini
watched Perum-
alla Pranay Kumar,
her 24-year-old husband,
hacked to death with a ma-
chete outside the Miryalgu-
da hospital where the young
couple, expecting their
first child, had come for a
check-up on September 14.
Distraught she may be, but
Amrutha is also determined
to see the killers, allegedly
including her own father, a
real estate developer from
the Vysya community, T.
Maruthi Rao, punished.
Police say Rao paid
Rs 1 crore to hire Subhash
Kumar Sharma, a contract
killer from Jagatsinghpur in
Bihar, to kill his son-in-law.
The hitman was contacted
through Mohammed Bari,
an accused in the 2003
killing of Gujarat home min-
ister Haren Pandya. Having
arrested three accused,investigators have found
out that earlier attempts to
murder Pranay in August
were aborted since the killers
lacked precise details of his
whereabouts. Also admitting
a lapse, police said the couple
hadinformedthemabout
the threat from Rao.
Sweethearts since
school, Amrutha and Pranay
dropped out of college to
wed in Hyderabad in Janu-
ary. Rao had made several
attempts to dissuade his
daughter,tonoavail.She
says her father had Pranay
murdered because he was of
‘lower’ caste. Besides crimi-
nal conspiracy and murder,
Rao and the other accused
have also been booked under
the SC/ST (Prevention of
Atrocities) Act.
Undeterred by the trag-
edy that’s befallen her, Am-
rutha has not only spoken
out against her family but
is also demanding a special
law to ensure exemplary
punishment for caste-based
honour killings. “I can’t live
without him, but I will, for
my baby, and to fight against
the caste system,” she says.
Both the young widow and
her father-in-law, P. Bal-
aswamy, have rejected the
‘generous’ compensation—
cash, a two-bedroom house
and a plot of land—offered bythe Telangana government.
Balaswamy says all he wants
is to see the killers hang after
a fast-track trial.
Amrutha, meanwhile,
has found support from
Gowsalya Shankar, whose
Dalithusbandwasmur-
dered in Tiruppur, Tamil
Nadu, in March 2016. Spe-
cially travelling up to Miri-
yalguda, she told Amrutha
how she steadfastly fought
more than 50 bail applica-
tions her parents submitted.
Eventually, the Tiruppurdistrict court convicted
eight of the 11 accused, and
handed six, including her
father, a death sentence.
“My aim is to ensure the
killers are punished and the
caste system is dismantled,”
says Gowsalya. She has
since also instituted a trust
in her husband’s name to
ensure gender equality, help
marginalised children get
education and eradicate
caste. A tall order, but she’s
working on it. A young widowights her father to avenge
her ‘lower’ caste husband’s honour killingTELANGANAFighting for Honour
By Amarnath K. MenonAmrutha is
demanding a
special law to
ensure exemplary
punishment
for caste-based
STAR-CROSSED LOVERS Amrutha and Pranay honour killings