An angry Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday met Jitender — a Dalit whose house was set on fire allegedly by upper caste men at Sunperh in Faridabad leading to the death of his two children — and blamed the Haryana government, the Prime Minister and the RSS/BJP for the incident.
“They are weak and poor, that is why they are being treated like this. This is not the government of the weak,” Mr. Gandhi’s office tweeted. “This is an attitude shared by PM, CM & BJP-RSS. If somebody is weak, they can be crushed. What you are seeing is the result of this attitude!”
A visibly agitated Mr. Gandhi shot back when asked whether he was there for a “photo opportunity,” saying “people were dying left, right and centre,” and the question was an insult to the family.
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CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat also visited Haryana and blamed the State government and the police for the incident. She said the police hadn’t acted on multiple applications the children’s father had filed and accused the government of “not taking complaints of Dalits seriously.”
A day after the incident, the death of the Dalit children threatens to snowball into a national controversy at a time when Bihar is in the midst of polls. The State has 16 per cent Dalits, and the BJP has been trying to enlist the support of two major Scheduled Castes — Dusadhs and Musahars — through alliances with their leaders Ram Vilas Paswan and Jitan Ram Manjhi. However, the Haryana incident has given a chance for rivals to question the BJP’s credentials on Dalits. While the BJP had brushed off criticism on the Dadri lynching and the killing of rationalists by saying it was the State governments of the Congress and the Samajwadi Party that needed to be questioned, rivals are using the same argument against the BJP’s Haryana government now.
The reverberations of the Haryana incident in which a Dalit family was set on fire, burning alive two children, were immediately felt in Bihar, with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, RJD leader Lalu Prasad and even Mr. Ram Vilas Paswan reacting to it.
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Torching generates poll heat
Mr. Kumar tweeted, “Shocked at this gruesome incident. Where are those now who claimed, bring our government, and everything will become better.”
Mr. Prasad also tweeted: “Before giving speeches in Bihar, PM Modi should answer till how long will Dalits and the backward classes be exploited and killed under their rule in Haryana and the Centre.”
Mr. Paswan of the LJP, too, laid the blame on the Haryana government of Manohar Lal Khattar: “Law and order is totally the State government’s accountability.”
BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain shot back: “Lalu ji seems to have forgotten that it was during his regime that maximum Dalits were killed in Bihar. Today he is shedding tears for votes.”