"It was around 2 am. I heard some sounds; I woke up and found that people with masks were taking away my husband and hitting him. They were chanting ‘Jai Shree Ram’. When I went to resist them, I was also beaten up,” Phulwati Devi, the wife of Dhanshah, who was lynched in May 2021 on the allegations of storing beef, told Outlook’s Abhik Bhattacharya.
The lynching of two Adivasi men in the Seoni district of Madhya Pradesh gained much traction at the time but is no longer an issue for the political parties, and most of the accused are out on bail. As per NCRB data, the attacks on Adivasis in MP increased by 25 per cent in 2020.
Even as PM Narendra Modi continues his campaign trail in the Adivasi region of MP, his silence on the atrocities against the tribals of the state becomes significant.