Rahul Gandhi on violence against Dalits

New Delhi : Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday tweeted facts in support of his charge on how violence against the Dalits and Adivasis had shot up since the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power at the Centre and in the states. “Mr 56’s best buddy, asked me to “check my facts” when I said BJP fuels violence against Dalits and Adivasis. I hope the fact check I’m attaching below will wake him and Mr 56 up from their deep slumber on these rising atrocities; or I and the Congress party will,” he tweeted.

He attached a news magazine report that says a scrutiny of the latest published crime records in the country reveals that BJP-ruled states have registered the highest number of crimes against scheduled castes.

The magazine used the 2016 report of the Centre’s National Crime Records Bureau 2016 that points out that the top five states with the highest number of crimes against Dalits are Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.

Though Uttar Pradesh was not under BJP rule in 2016, the magazine said other three BJP-ruled states — Bihar (14 per cent), Rajasthan (12.1 per cent) and Madhya Pradesh (12.3 per cent) account for 38 per cent of all the crimes against Dalits across the country. These three states are home to 20 per cent of the country’s total Dalit population.

Union Food and Civil Supplies Minister Ram Vilas Paswan questioned the pro-Dalit credentials of Congress and fired 14 questions at Rahul Gandhi at a meeting he organised here on Saturday as president of the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) to hail the Modi government for passage of the SC & ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Bill in the just concluded Parliament session. “I want to ask Rahul Gandhi, he claims himself to be a well-wisher of Dalits, but why did his party stand against Dalit icon B R Ambedkar when he contested Lok Sabha election twice? Why there was no portrait of Ambedkar in Parliament”s Central Hall while there were portraits of three members of the Nehru family? Why his party did not award Ambedkar Bharat Ratna when it was in power while filmstars were awarded,” Paswan asked.

He also faulted Congress for not building memorials where Ambedkar was born and where he lived — in Delhi, Mumbai, Nagpur and London.