45 Dalits stopped from gifting Yogi 125kg soap

A group of Dalit protesters from Gujarat were stopped at Jhansi railway station on Sunday evening, with police saying the preemptive step was taken as their presence in Lucknow could disturb peace.

The 45-member group is carrying a 125kg bar of soap with the image of Buddha carved on it, which they want to gift to Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath to allegedly “cleanse his mentality towards Dalits”.

The gift is viewed as a tit-for-tat response against reports of officials distributing shampoo and soap bars to 100-odd Musahar Dalit families at a village in Kushi Nagar a day before their meeting with the chief minister this May.

The incident happened after bureaucrats placed sofas, new curtains, carpets and an AC in a freshly painted room of slain BSF soldier Prem Sagar Prasad’s home when Yogi called on the family to offer his condolences. The items were later taken away.

Senior police officers said the Gujarati protesters were offloaded from the Sabarmati Express and would be kept at a guesthouse before they are sent back home.

The group is associated with a social organisation, the Dr BR Ambedkar Bechan Pratibandh Samiti. They staged a sit-in at the platform after police cut short their journey. “Their presence in Lucknow on Monday could have caused law-and-order trouble,” said Avinash Chandra, ADG Kanpur zone, who is in Jhansi.