State Congress president Raj Babbar on Thursday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the growing atrocities against Dalits across the country.
"Modi had launched a Swachchh Bharat Abhiyan to clean the country. But it is now that I understand that the call was made to wipe out the Dalits and downtrodden sections of the society," asserted Babbar.
Reacting to the recent remarks of sacked BJP leader Dayashankar Singh against BSP chief Mayawati, the Congress leader said it was "highly objectionable". "Such derogatory words should not be used against anyone in the society. I demand stern action against the culprit, especially because it has been made agai-nst a woman," asserted Babbar.
He was addressing the media before sitting on a two-hour long 'maun dharna' in front of the Gandhi statue at GPO Park to protest against the assault on Dalits in a Gujarat village.
Beside Babbar, AICC secretaries Zuber Khan, Rana Goswami, Nasib Singh and Prakash Joshi and leaders like Rajesh Mishra, Satyadeo Tripathi, Amarnath Agarwal, Siddharth Priya Srivastava, Virendra Madan, JP Singh, Maroof Khan, MlA Aradhna Mishra and Rita Bahuguna Joshi also joined the protest.
UP Congress spokesperson Sanjay Bajpai said that similar protests were also held in other district headquarters of the state on Thursday.
later in the day, Babbar met four newly-appointed UPCC vice-presidents - Imran Masood, Raja Ram Pal, Bhagwati Prasad Chowdhary and Rajesh Mishra. Former Minister RPN Singh, who was also nominated as UPCC vice-president, did not turn up for the meeting. Sources said that Babbar discussed about the upcoming programmes planned to orchestrate a revival of the Congress ahead of the 2017 polls.