Four days after the Union government filed a review petition in the Supreme Court on its orders concerning the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act , 1989, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday asked BJP MPs to reach out to villages where 50% or more of the population belonged to these communities.
He was addressing a meeting of the BJP parliamentary party.
Briefing presspersons after the meeting, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said Mr. Modi had elaborated on the fact that there were 20,844 such villages across the country, and “MPs should work to implement welfare-oriented schemes, including Jan Dhan and Ujjwala”. A party MP would spend a night in one such village, while a Minister would spend two nights, Mr. Modi said.
Savitribai Phoole and Chote Lal Kharwar, BJP MPs, had openly dissented against the party over issues related to Dalits.
Taking his outreach to Dalit communities further, Mr. Modi said the party would observe the birth anniversary of Jyotiba Phule, a social reformer from a backward caste, on April 11 as Samta Divas (equality day).
He stressed the need for all MPs to organise events to mark the birth anniversary of Dalit icon B.R. Ambedkar on April 14, asserting that it was mandatory for them to do so.
Noting that the party had announced Gram Swaraj Abhiyan between April 14 and May 5, he asked BJP law-makers to ensure total implementation of seven welfare schemes of his government in villages, especially those with populations of over a thousand, sources said.
The party will mark 20 years of the Pokhran nuclear test on May 11.
Day-long fast
Accusing the Congress of taking parliamentary proceedings to a new low, Mr. Modi said the parliamentary party would go on a day-long fast on April 12 to protest such “negative politics”.
He said the Congress had paralysed parliamentary proceedings during the budget session, and said it was “throttling” democracy and “abusing” the people’s mandate. MPs who attended the meeting said Mr. Modi recalled that Opposition MPs had almost surrounded him during his reply to the Motion of Thanks to the President and such disruptions were unprecedented.
“He said he continued with his speech for over 90 minutes for the sake of democracy amid relentless protests by Opposition MPs,” an MP said.
“The Opposition has been left with no issues and that is why it was resorting to disrupting Parliament,” he said and asked “BJP MPs to expose such parties”.
Mr. Modi thanked party workers for their sacrifices to build the party to the stage it was occupying now in national politics. “The BJP had been treated as an ‘untouchable’ party when it was founded in 1980, but it has become strong due to people’s faith in it,” he is reported to have said.
He asked the MPs to see a drama on Maratha king Shivaji in Delhi, and noted that he had travelled to Pune from Gujarat almost 30 years ago to see it.
