Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya on Thursday said the ‘Bharat Bandh’ against the SC/ST Act was a political conspiracy against the Bharatiya Janata Party and an attempt to malign the image of the ruling party.
“The people behind this ‘Bharat Bandh’ are trying to take political mileage and thus, they are trying to conspire and confuse the members of the upper castes,” he said.
“The SC/ST Act was passed in Parliament with the support of all parties but now conspiracy is being hatched against Prime Minister Narendra Modi to prevent him from retaining power in 2019,” Maurya said while talking to the media here on Thursday.
Maurya said the conspiracy started from Madhya Pradesh, where elections are due soon. “Political people are engaged in the protest and they are trying to defame the Bharatiya Janata Party over the issue. This is not right,” he said while claiming that the government would not allow harassment of any caste or community, whether it was upper caste, backwards or Dalits.
Asserting that the government would not allow misuse of the SC/ST Act at any cost, Maurya said that no one would be allowed to commit atrocities against the Dalits or tribals.
The Deputy Chief Minister, who in the past couple of days held meetings with backward leaders of the BJP in the state capital, said the party would connect with the backwards and other communities.
“We have even connected with Muslims in a big way. It is BJP which is fighting for the Muslim women who are harassed in the name of triple talaq,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) criticised a certain section of society for protesting against the SC/ST Act, which, it said, protected Dalits and tribals from harassment.
CPI (ML) state secretary Sudhakar Yadav, in a statement here on Thursday, claimed that ‘Bharat Bandh’ was a total failure. It said that Bharatiya Janata Party and Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh were behind the forces who gave the call for ‘Bharat Bandh’ and were trying to threaten the Dalits and tribals.