Waman Meshram

Waman Chindhuji Meshram is the national president of BAMCEF, a non-political, non-agitational, and non-religious organization of employees which represents oppressed and exploited communities in the Indian society. BAMCEF is an acronym for "The All India Backward and Minority Communities Employees Federation". Waman Meshram became national president of BAMCEF in March 2000.^[1]

History

Waman Meshram was born in Ramgaon village which is located in Darwha Tehsil of Yavatmal district in Maharashtra, India. Waman Meshram took his primary and secondary school education in Darwha. After this he went to Aurangabad for further education. Waman Meshram started contemplating to join public life when he still was in Baba Saheb Ambedkar college at Aurangabad in the early 1970s. In 1975 Meshram joined BAMSEF. Meshram started attending meetings of BAMCEF, shared views with even detractors of the movement from his own community, learnt more about the early visionaries and their lifelong struggles and also came to know that Kanshi Ram, the harbinger of the mass political revolution.^[2] After that there was no looking back. Working 24/7 became his norm. He travelled extensively almost every day and met thousands of people belonging to his part of society. During the last 35 years, Waman Meshram delivered thousands of public lectures with an average of two a day. His theme was to condemn Brahmanism, awaken Bahujans including Muslims whom he calls ‘Mulnivasi’ (Indigenous) to rise above the religious barriers. He exhorted them to unite and form a strong anti-Brahminist base to fight against Brahminical hegemony.

Movement against EVM

Waman Meshram and his organisation Bharat Mukti Morcha(BMM) launched a five-phased protest campaign across the country from March 2017 demanding for discontinuing electronic voting machines (EVMs) in the electoral process in India. Addressing a press conference in march 2017, Waman Meshram said, "Using EVMs is the worst practice in the electoral process in the world. We will continue to fight against EVMs till their usage is stopped,". Meshram stated that he had had filed a petition against the Election Commission of India(EC) asking it to attach Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) in the EVMs but it is being delayed deliberately. Delaying this is going to only help two organizations, the EC and the some ruling party. If we want to keep the democracy of our country alive, ballet papers must be used for election as they cannot be rigged," he added. Talking about the petition filled in the Supreme Court, Meshram said, "I had filed a case of contempt of court against Election Commission of India(EC). The apex court in its verdict of October 8,2013, had clearly said that EVM machines can be fixed or rigged, so as a hard proof VVPAT machines must be attached to EVMs but the guidelines have not followed." Meshram also alleged that the Election Commission of India(EC) is been pressured by the Central government to rig elections across the country. "The election commission in a reply to my letter said that the Central government is not providing funds to attach VVPAT machines, but the EC is an autonomous institution. It should have gone to the President or held a press conference as the citizens have the right to know," he said.^[3]

References