Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde says his life is an example of what can be achieved if marginalised communities like Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are offered opportunities. “I was a class IV employee in a court, I rose to become leader of the ruling party in the Lok Sabha; it was not easy but I got the opportunity. Sometimes people don’t believe me when I tell them what caste I am from,” he said speaking at the National Conference on Protection of Civil Rights and Prevention of Atrocities on Scheduled Castes here.
It was unfortunate that in India, no matter how high a person rose professionally, he/she was still identified on the basis of his/her caste, he said. “We need to reflect on this… government alone cannot do much; civil society needs to do more. I have told various Shankaracharyas too that even religion and philosophies need to change and caste bias needs to be rooted out.”
