CPI leader urges Modi to travel by train to gauge extent of open defecation

New Delhi: CPI MP Binoy Viswam has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to travel by train through any north Indian state to gauge the extent of open defecation taking place in the country, days after two Dalit children were allegedly beaten to death in Madhya Pradesh for defecating in the open.

In a letter to Modi, Viswam has said the deaths of the two Dalit children days before October 2, Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary, should be investigated and that the prime minister should mention them in his speech. "On October 2nd this year, you will declare India an open-defecation-free country.... I urge you to undertake a morning train journey through any of the north Indian states. What good is a declaration when our reality is this?

"Before you declare India an open-defecation-free country invoking the memory of Gandhiji on the 2nd of October, do enquire about the deaths of these two children," the Left leader has said in his letter to the prime minister.

Two children, aged 10 and 12 years, were allegedly beaten to death for defecating in the open in Bhavkhedi village of Madhya Pradesh's Shivpuri district.

"Our system did not stop the accused from killing these Dalit children, who were forced to defecate in the open because they did not have a toilet at home. These children, who were not allowed to share a seat with others in their school, or to draw water from the common well, have now been murdered. Father of our nation Mahatma Gandhi hoped to wipe off the tears of these downtrodden communities. I wonder if Godse did not kill these goals too when he shot the Mahatma," Viswam has written to Modi.