Date:25/06/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/06/25/stories/2007062554600500.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Brahmin federation for replication of UP formula

Staff Reporter

VIJAYAWADA: The All-India Brahmin Federation (AIBF) has set the ball rolling for a harmonious Brahmin-Dalit co-existence in the social, religious and political arenas across the country.

Addressing a press meet here on Sunday, the secretary general of the federation Kota Shankar Sharma said a consensus among the ‘liberal’ and ‘fundamentalist’ Brahmin groups arrived on the issue at the three-day historic meeting of the federation’s executive council at Tirupati on June 9,10 and 11.

Attended by nearly 200 delegates from across the nation, delegates of the federation’s Uttar Pradesh unit drew the council’s attention to the Dalit-Pandit (Brahmin) unit, which resulted in a strong political front in that State.

Mr. Sharma, who is also the general secretary of Andhra Pradesh Brahmana Seva Sangha Samakhya, said the samakhya had realised the need for an alignment much before the council meeting and had begun to work out an arrangement to this effect. Sticking to a resolution adopted on November 5 last year, the Samakhya members performed ‘last rites to untouchability’ with a slogan of ‘Brahmin Hitam at Dalit doorstep’ at Govardhanagiri village under Pichatur mandal in Chittoor district. Thousands of people, led by the MLC from Chittoor K. Jayachandra Naidu, had witnessed the ritual aimed at paving the way for Dalit-Brahmin coordination in all fields.

Mr. Sharma said to achieve the goal, the federation had constituted five committees, which would tour the nation to hold confabulations with the local Brahmin communities and explain to them the urgency to implement the move. To prove their point, the delegates on June 11 headed to Surutupally, a village located on the border of Chittoor district and Tamil Nadu and renamed an S.T. Colony Yanadipally as Adi Shankarapuram after a joint meeting.

They also paved way for joint entry of Brahmins and Dalits into a village temple and organised ‘sahapankthi bhojanam’ (community lunch). The federation meeting at Tirupati adopted resolutions to thank the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawathi for having kept her word by giving adequate representation to the Brahmin community in her Cabinet of Ministers. D. Ravi Kumar, T. Srinivas and P. Chandrasekhar of the federation were also present.