PM Narendra Modi has time to talk about Balochistan, but not for Dalits: Congress

NEW DELHI: A delegation of senior Congress leaders from Gujarat on Sunday met President Pranab Mukherjee, seeking his intervention to ensure protection to the Dalit community, facing attacks in many parts of the state.

The Congress delegation urged the President to ensure steps, including the immediate arrest of the mastermind of the Una incident, filing of charge-sheet and solving of the case within a month and establishment of Special Courts to fasttrack the more than 5,000 pending cases of violence against Dalits in Gujarat.

“More than 1,000 atrocities are committed against Dalits every year in Gujarat. Over the last 13 years of BJP rule, the total number of atrocities against Dalits stands at 14,613. These are merely the number of reported cases. The actual number is much higher as many cases go un-reported,” said thememorandum.

The 48-member Congress delegation comprised senior leader Ahmed Patel, Gujarat PCC chief Bharatsinh Solanki, and Opposition leader Shankersinh Vaghela among others.

“The Prime Minister has time to acknowledge the suffering of people in Baluchistan but it is unfortunate that he and his party have turned a blind eye to the suffering of the marginalised in his home state. He spoke eloquently over rogue cow vigilantes but did not tell us how, as the CM, he had encouraged the very business of such vigilantes. For a party whose ideology is based on dividing society, we have no hope that they will take any serious action to erase the deep fault lines in Gujarat. Therefore, we have come to seek the protection of the President," said PCC president Bharatsinh Solanki.