The Dalit Sangharsh Samiti (Sagar) has charged the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre with promoting communalism, casteism and suppressing the voices of religious minorities and Dalits and supporting directly and indirectly the stepped-up attacks and atrocities on Dalits and religious minorities in the country.
The DSS, which organised a protest rally here on Thursday, said that the two-and-half year rule of the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre saw a rise in communalism and casteism and suppression of the rights of Dalits and the religious minority groups.
The DSS, in a memorandum addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and submitted to the district authorities, said that the wanton infringement on the rights of Dalits and religious minorities guaranteed in the Constitution after the BJP came to power at the Centre has exposed the hidden agenda and designs of the BJP and the Sangh Parivar to divide the country on communal lines and support the upper castes.
The memorandum pointed out that the attack on Dalits by cow vigilantes in Una in Gujarat was the height of oppression of Dalits, indicating the imposition of views of a small section of Hindus on a majority of Hindus and other religious minorities.
The cow was also an animal like any other and a section of Hindus worshipping the cow as sacred have their right to do so. But this belief of cow as a sacred animal should not be imposed on others who held different views about the animal, the memorandum said.
In the name of protecting the cow, the DSS said, cow vigilantes or any other group have no right to moral policing.
Appreciating the stand taken by Dalits in Gujarat that they would not skin dead cattle or bury it in future, the DSS said that the unity and the resolve of Dalits in Gujarat should be emulated by other Dalits throughout the country. The protest rally was led by the district convener of the DSS Suresh Hadimani and other Dalit leaders.
The rally from Ambedkar Statue at Jagat Circle passed through the thoroughfares of the city and ended at the Deputy Commissioner’s office.
