Narendra Modi 'anti-Dalit', says Congress

JALANDHAR: Congress dubbed BJP leader Narendra Modi as "anti-Dalit", citing a quote from a book written by him in 2007 in which he purportedly says Valmiki community do manual scavenging not for living but to attain "spiritual experience".

"Narendra Modi thinks that scavenging is a way to attain spiritual enlightenment as he mentioned in his book 'Karmayog' printed by Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation. (If it is so), why Modi himself does not engage in scavenging for attaining spiritual enlightenment," Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala told a press conference.

"Modi in his book 'Karmayog' printed in 2007, has said, scavenging must have been a spiritual experience for the Valmiki caste," he said.

Distributing a copy of a particular page of the book to mediapersons in which the alleged quotation in question was printed, Surjewala referred to a quote in which he said,"I don't think they do scavenging for their bread and butter. If it is so, then they would not have done it from centuries. In my sense, they feel doing it as attaining spiritual experience unknowingly".

Surjewala questioned Modi that why he himself does not engage in scavenging for attaining "spiritual enlightenment", saying the statements show Modi's "anti-Dalit" mindset.