The Bharatiya Janata Party scheduled caste cell national chief Lal Singh Arya accused the Congress of being anti-Dalit and opposed to the constitution. He was in Dehradun where he addressed the media, campaigned for the party and interacted with members of the community on Monday.
Arya arrived in Dehradun as part of the party’s nation-wide SC seminar and contact programme with community members. Addressing the media, Arya said that the government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has accorded the highest respect to BR Ambedkar and is working to carry his ideas forward. He said, “This campaign has been completed in more than one lakh settlements in the country so far. We informed the residents about the works done by the Modi government for the welfare of the backward and poor during the past 10 years.We experienced in these contact programmes that most of the residents in such areas are very happy with the works done by the Modi government and the State governments. They are determined to re-elect PM Modi for a third term.”
Targetting the Congress, Arya alleged that it along with the opposition parties had simply given slogans of poverty alleviation but did nothing concrete in their 60 years in office. “The Congress attempted to defeat Ambedkar in the 1952 election and 1954 by-election. The Congress did not consider it important to honour him. The VP Singh government conferred the Bharat Ratna upon him after a period of 43 years. They did not name any major government scheme or building after Ambedkar or Sant Ravidas. Soon after coming to power, the Modi government started observing Constitution Day in 2015. The Congress never wanted Ambedkar to be remembered,” the BJP SC Morcha chief alleged.
He averred that PM Modi started providing opportunities for political, economic and social equality by first announcing the Swachchhata Abhiyan from the ramparts of the Red Fort on August 15. “The Modi government has constructed about 12 crore toilets, out of which 1.37 crore are for members of SC community. Similarly, out of the 80 crore people who got free ration, 33 crore are from the backward community while 1.34 crore homes out of the four crore homes built under the PM Awas Yojana are for members of the SC community,” he said.
Arya further stressed that Modi is working to take Ambedkar’s ideas forward. At present, four governors and 12 ministers in the Union cabinet are from the SC community, he added.
Regarding the Uniform Civil Code in Uttarakhand, Arya said that the State government under chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has made an appreciable effort by implementing the UCC which will accord equal rights to all citizens. The anti-conversion law, anti-copying law, three free cooking gas cylinders and other welfare schemes are also benefitting the Dalits and deprived sections of society, Arya said.
