NEW DELHI: The Congress on Sunday accused the Modi government of being “anti-Dalit” and “anti-tribal” and announced a “Dalit-Adivasi Self-Respect Meeting” on September 29 over the “purification” ritual conducted after party president Mallikarjun Kharge’s rally in Uttarakhand last month.
The Congress SC/ST MPs’ Forum will organise the meeting in collaboration with the AICC departments concerned with Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The venue was listed as Mavalankar Hall, Constitution Club of India.
“The meeting will discuss the purification ritual following Kharge ji’s public meeting in Haldwani, Uttarakhand, in August,” Congress MP Mallu Ravi said.
He said the meeting would also discuss incidents across the country involving violations of the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955, and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, and prepare a roadmap to prevent their recurrence.
Congress MPs from both Houses of Parliament, former MPs, ministers from Congress-ruled states, MLAs and AICC representatives will attend, he added.
“This was not merely an insult to Kharge ji, but an insult to the entire SC/ST community,” Ravi said of the ritual.
“The Uttarakhand government initially did not register an FIR. After MPs staged a protest at the Parliament Street police station, an FIR was eventually registered in Haldwani. This is what is happening in a BJP-ruled state,” he said.
Ravi alleged that the BJP supported the incident, saying its state president had openly backed the Ram Sena members who conducted the ritual. He accused the party of deliberately seeking to divide people on caste lines.
“The Prime Minister (Narendra Modi), Home Minister (Amit Shah) and Uttarakhand Chief Minister (Pushkar Singh Dhami) have not yet condemned the incident,” Ravi said at a press conference attended by party leaders Manoj Kumar, Tanuj Punia, Karamveer Baudh, Bhajan Lal Jatav and Vikrant Bhuria.
The forum said the Constitution guaranteed every citizen, including members of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, the right to self-respect, dignity, equality, freedom and fraternity.
Expressing concern over continuing violations of laws meant to protect these communities, it urged their public representatives to unite against discrimination and social prejudice in Parliament, state legislatures and public forums.
The initiative is being organised in collaboration with K. Raju, national coordinator of the SC, ST, OBC and Minority Departments and AICC in-charge of Jharkhand; Rajendra Pal Gautam, chairman of the AICC SC Department and in-charge of Uttar Pradesh; and Dr Vikrant Bhuria, national chairman of the Adivasi Congress and MLA from Jhabua.
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