Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati strongly condemned the violence in Maharastra and alleged that the saffron brigade was trying to hurt the sentiments of Dalit community by attacking its members. She demanded stern action against all those involved in violence and adequate relief to the family members of the victims of violence.
“The attack on Dalits during the 200th anniversary celebrations of Bhima-Koregaon battle in Pune district last Monday was a well organised move of Saffron brigade to hurt the sentiments of the community,” asserted Mayawati while accusing the BJP and Rastriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) of fuelling violence against Dalits.
Mayawati, who earlier resigned from the Rajya Sabha for not being allowed to speak against excesses on Dalits, accused the BJP-RSS combine of ‘conspiring to divide people’ on caste and religious lines.
“The BJP and the RSS were fuelling and instigating violence against Dalits across the country. They conspire to divide people and society and create an atmosphere of illusion that only they were nationalists,” she charged.
“In all the attacks made on Dalits in BJP rukled states, none of the victims got justice during the course of enquiry. The incident in Maharastra was yet another glaring example after castiests clash in Saharanpur, in which BJP Government facilitated the attack on Dalits,” she alleged in a communique.
“The role of top BJP leadership in the attacks on Dalits is very shameful. The BJP government in Maharashtra has failed to control violence as it did not make proper arrangements in Bhima-Koregaon. The judicial probe ordered by Maharastra government was nothing but an eye-wash as the attack clearly pointed that it was a BJP-sponsored violence. Without patronage and help of local government, it was impossible to create unrest in such a big way,” she charged
Several towns and cities of Maharashtra were on the edge as Dalit protests against the violence in Pune spilled over to Mumbai and agitators took to damaging buses and disrupting road and rail traffic even on the third day on Wednesday.
Trouble started last Monday when Dalit groups gathered for the 200th anniversary celebrations of Bhima-Koregaon battle in Pune and later came to a head with right-wing Hindu outfits which left a man dead on January 1.