Congress to unveil Dalit Agenda from poll-bound Karnataka

NEW DELHI: The Congress is planning to come out with a Dalit agenda for poll-bound Karnataka this month.

This will be done at a three-day conference from July 21 to be organised by the Siddaramaiah government to be inaugurated by party vice-president Rahul Gandhi, who held a preparatory meeting with the state leaders and AICC representatives in Delhi on Wednesday.

The Dalit agenda will be part of the Congress electoral and political positioning across India. Human Rights advocate and activist Martin Luther King III will be the chief guest at the event.

“The issue of overall justice for Dalits will be the main theme of the 3-day conference. Many intellectuals, academic and activists, including many from abroad, who have done works on the issues of the Dalits will attend this conference”, party MP Shashi Tharoor told ET.

“The declaration that will come out of the conference will form the broad contour of the Congress agenda for Dalits across India,” added K Raju who heads the AICC department for SC affairs.

The conference will deliberate on the aspects of political, economic, human rights aspects of Dalits and their exclusion and marginality. “The conference will be an umbrella platform for all progressive forces committed to safeguarding the idea of a pluralistic and democratic India”, they said.

The meeting will also applaud the works of Ambedkar. The political thinking behind the plan is to project the conference as the beginning of a political and intellectual counter at a time the Dalit community is reportedly at loggerheads with the NDA regime over a series of issues such as cow vigilantism, restrictions on cattle sale and debate over beef eating. Poll-bound Karnataka, one of the remaining bastions of the Congress, has a very significant Dalit population.