AKHILESH: ATROCITIES ON DALITS RISING IN BJP RULE

LUCKNOW: Attacking chief minister Yogi Adityanath, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday said that Dalit atrocities and desecration of Dr Ambedkar’s statues had increased under the present regime.

In a statement issued a day after nationwide agitation over alleged dilution of the SC/ST Act, Akhilesh said: “The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been invoking Baba Saheb Bhimrao Ambedkar’s name but under its government, the state is witnessing maximum cases of desecration of Ambedkar’s statues.”

“Dalit atrocities are continuing unabated. In Banda’s Nivi village, Dalits are not getting water to drink while in a village in Allahabad a Dalit groom is not being allowed to mount a horse.

The local police are not providing him security. Dalit girls and women are no longer safe in the state,” he said.

Akhilesh said the incidents exemplify the failure

› The BJP has been invoking Baba Saheb’s name but under its government, the state is witnessing maximum cases of desecration of Ambedkar’s statues AKHILESH YADAV , SP chief

of the BJP government and the party’s anti-Dalit character.

Meanwhile, in view of the SP’s political alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Akhilesh has asked his party workers to celebrate the birth anniversary of Dr Ambedkar on April 14 across the state.

“Dr Ambedkar was a great social reformer, economist, legal luminary and a politician who struggled for the rights of Dalits throughout his life. The party should organise celebrations at a public place in each district of the state,” he said.