Act against VK, demand Maya, Manjhi
BSP president Mayawati, on Friday, demanded the dismissal of Union minister Gen. V. K. Singh ( Retd) for insulting dalits and accused the BJP of shielding the accused.
Talking to reporters here on Friday, Ms Mayawati said that, “Mr V. K. Singh has made a serious comment and it would have been proper if the Prime Minister had taken action against the minister.”
Urging the Prime Minister to dismiss the minister, she said that Gen. Singh should be sent to jail under the SC/ ST Act. The BSP president also slammed BJP over Haryana chief minister visiting the dalit family and said it was under the party leadership pressure.
She also criticised Congress vice- president Rahul Gandhi’s visit to the bereaved family and said that the BJP and the Congress were doing politics over dalits.
“Both Congress and the BJP re insensitive towards dalits, they help people involved in atrocities against dalits. Atrocities against dalits are happening in many states and we condemn these attacks,” she said.
Ms Mayawati said that the Faridabad incident was not a case of personal rivalry but an atrocity by the “dabbang” people of that village.
“The family had left the village but were convinced to return,” she added.
Meanwhile, BJP ally and Hindustani Awam Morcha’s ( HAM) chief Jitan Ram Manjhi on Friday criticised Gen. Singh’s dog remark and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to initiate action against him.
“If Mr Singh has compared the incident of burning of dalits with ( burning of) dogs, the Prime Minister should take cogni- sance of it and initiate appropriate action against him,” Mr Manjhi said in a statement.
Mr Manjhi, a former Bihar chief minister and a prominent dalit leader, sought “stringent” action for the remark “so that no leader dare to make such a statement on incident of atrocities on dalits.”
He said he was deeply hurt by the Faridabad incident. Mr Manjhi said taking birth in any caste or a house was not in the control of an individual. “If somebody has taken birth in a dalit family, so what’s his/ her fault? What kind of crime is in being a dalit?”, he said in the statement.