Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the “distressing rise” in Dalit atrocities especially in BJP-ruled of Rajasthan and Maharashtra.
Referring to the incidents of Dalit atrocities in the two-BJP-ruled States of Rajasthan and Maharashtra, the Congress president also alleged that the NDA Government had “allowed” an Ordinance, brought by UPA, to lapse and slammed it for not bringing a Bill to replace it in the last Budget Session of parliament.
Sonia’s letter to the PM comes a day before Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi visits Dalit icon BR Ambedkar’s birthplace Mhow in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday to inaugurate the national launch of the year-long 125th birth anniversary celebrations of one of the architects of the Constitution by the party.
“I want to bring to your attention the distressing rise in the incidents of atrocities against Dalits across the country. In Nagour district of Rajasthan, 17 Dalits were mowed down by a tractor by members of another community over a long-standing land dispute. Four Dalits have died while another is critical. Three months earlier, three Dallits were burnt alive in the same district,” she mentioned.
“Rajasthan is not isolated state. Other States have witnessed brutal assaults on Dalits such as the shocking instance of a Dalit youth being murdered in Shirdi Maharashtra, a stone’s throw away from the local police station for having an Ambedkar ringtone on his mobile phone,” she said in the letter.
She demanded a fair and an impartial enquiry in the cases so that the guilty are punished as per law. Stressing on importance to ensure that the institutional machinery charged with the welfare and protection of Dalits is strengthened and made accountable, she said, “It is with this intention that the UPA-2 Government brought in an ordinance which, among other things, sought to strengthen the implementation of the SCs and STs (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989,” she recalled.
“Even though the Standing Committee submitted its report in December 2014, Government did not bring it to Parliament for passage in the Budget Session,” she said.
With an eye on Bihar, Congress is in talks with various political parties including the ruling state alliance in Bihar JD (U) to form a secular alliance against the BJP in the Bihar assembly polls.
The Congress is supporting the Nitish Kumar government in the state after he broke ties with the BJP.