Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday met Dalits who were thrashed by members of a Hindu “cow protection group” and blamed the Gujarat government for their misery.
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Trinamool Congress delegation to visit Gujarat over Dalit protests. “No government can even think of collusion in such a barbaric act”, state BJP spokesperson Bharat Pandya said. The situation became worse when in order to register their protest, a number of Dalit youth began to attempt suicide including a Congress Councilor by consuming poison and phenyl taking the toll up to 17.
Hundreds of people took to the streets in Gujarat state in India to protest against the flogging of four men – all belonging to the low-caste Dalit community – who were accused of skinning a cow.
A junior minister in the Narendra Modi government today urged Dalit youths from across the country to desist from removing cow carcasses and called on the cow protection brigades to carry out the task.
The state government is also working to set up a special court to try this case within six months, he said.
The National Human Rights Commission, meanwhile, has issued a notice to the district collector and district superintendent of police to provide details of the Una incident and the action taken. The policeman was killed in stone-pelting a couple of days back during the protest by Dalits against the Una incident. Utter discrimination, manual scavenging and atrocities committed against them on a daily basis leads to with more than 4,000 cases reported in the span of 3 years. “The police told the attackers that they were going to the place of the incident”, said the report.
Singh said crimes against Dalits were a “social evil” and all parties should join hands to eradicate it. Expressing dissatisfaction over the Home Minister’s reply, Congress and TMC members staged a walkout.
Kejriwal assured the murder accused of “all possible support to fight for justice”.
“No government in India has done so much for the poor and dalits as the Modi government has”, the Home Minister claimed as he spoke about schemes like Jan Dhan and Start-up India aimed at their financial inclusion.
Reacting to spate of high profile political visits to Gujarat on the issue, Anandiben Patel said: “I appeal to people not to listen to them (to the politicians visiting them) but keep faith in their own government”.
However, the meeting evoked strong reaction from BJP.
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“I asked them why they are committing suicide”.
