Bhim Army holds protest in Delhi against Chandrashekhar’s arrest
NEW DELHI :: Mobil is ed by the Bhim Army, a large number of Dalit youths today hit the streets of Delhi, for the second time in less than a month, protesting caste violence in UP and demanding the release of Chandrashekhar Azad, the outfit’s chief.
The spirited gathering, of around 2,500 as estimated by the police, saw the presence of Chandrashekhar’s mother Kamlesh Devi and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) founder Kanshi Ram’s sister Swarn Kaur among others.
The stretch between the Parliament Street police station and the New Delhi Municipal Council convention centre turned into a sea of blue, the colour of Dalit resistance, and pulsated with the cries of ‘Jai Bheem’ as protesters from UP, Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab trooped in. “I will protest, sit on dharna and also stage indefinite fast till my son is not released. We will fight. I have no expectation from the Narendra Modi government or the Uttar Pradesh government, especially since the violence has been triggered by the very rise of Yogi Adityanath,” Kamlesh Devi told PTI. Like the previous gathering on May 21, which had seen a bigger turnout, speaker after speaker laid emphasis on keeping the “social movement” away from politics and mainstream political parties professing the Dalit cause like the BSP.