“The BJP government in Gujarat is inflicting atrocities on Dalits, it is anti-Dalit”, he said.
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Delhi Chief Minister and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal, like Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, shared a cup of tea with the family while hearing their plight.
He said the Gujarat government did not act in time because the attack on the Dalits was blessed by people at the top. By attacking dalits for skinning a dead cow, they have brought to surface the hypocrisy on which cow protection is built.
The Dalit youth in Jamnagar, however, was learnt to have attempted suicide apparently to protest against work conditions and behaviour of his higher ups in the local self government body where he is employed.
“I am going to meet the victims of these attacks in Una and see what I can do to help them”, Athawale stated.
Mr Kejriwal also triggered a controversy by meeting a Dalit youth arrested for allegedly murdering a police head constable in Amreli during protests over the thrashing of youths from the community by cow vigilantes.
RJD supremo Lalu Prasad hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for second successive day on Friday on his “continued silence” on atrocities against Dalits and wondered whether “these incidents are taking place at his instigation”. Gujarat is now witnessing widespread protests following the incident at Una. Their community face discrimination at nearly every level right from education to medical facilities.
Urging the government to take action in Gujarat, she said, “I want to tell the central government that this matter is serious and it is the responsibility of the central government that they have a government in the state as well and they should ensure justice”. Incidentally, BJP had formed government under Keshubhai Patel there in 1995 and ruled for most of the period till 2001 when Modi took over. The incident came to light after the video of the atrocity went viral on social media.
The Aam Aadmi Party leader demanded strictest punishment for the guilty and claimed that many more people were involved in the incident but only a few had been arrested so far.
Mr Singh said, the incident is unfortunate and condemnable.
Opposition parties also expressed concern on the rising number of incidents in which Dalits have been targeted since 2014. “They have to do this for a living, they don’t own any land”, Kejriwal said.
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In the past two days, a Dalit man committed suicide while at least four others tried to take their lives.
