A day before Ambedkar Jayanti, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said the BJP continued to isolate Dalits.
Addressing a ‘Dalit Sammelan’ organised by the Congress here, Mr. Gandhi said, “Modi ji talks about development, education, schools and colleges, and the Congress also talks about the same, but, there is a difference [between the visions of the two parties]. The BJP and the RSS want that in schools, Dalits must sit alone, cut-off from children of other castes.”
Equating the situation of Dalits today to that during Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s times, Mr. Gandhi said, “Like Ambedkar wrote that he was not allowed to take water by himself and that a peon in his school fetched him water to drink, they [the BJP and the RSS] want that when you want to drink water [in your school] you must seek approval from someone who can open the tap for you. [However,] the Congress wants that you must be able to open the tap [by yourself]. The Congress also wants that if you want you must become teacher, principal, you must run the school, and the entire country. This is the difference between us and them [the BJP].”
Earlier, Mr. Gandhi visited Trimohi village in Barmer district to meet the family of 17-year-old Delta Meghwal, who was found dead under mysterious circumstances.
On March 29, Delta’s body was found in a water tank of her college at Nokha near Bikaner. While it is alleged that her physical training teacher had raped her and that she was murdered, the police continue to call it a suicide.
