Rahul visits Gujarat Dalit victims, slams BJP govt.

In Modi ji's Gujarat, we are being beaten and trampled daily, says the Congress vice-president

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday met the Dalit victims who were flogged by a cow vigilante group in a Gujarat village and slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “suppressing and crushing weaker sections”.

“I met the mother and father [of the victims] who said they did not know what to do. In Modiji’s Gujarat, people are being beaten and trampled upon daily,” Mr. Gandhi told media persons after a 45-minute meeting with the family members of four persons who were flogged with iron rods and pipes in public on July 11.

Attacking the Prime Minister for his “Gujarat model,” the Congress vice-president said: “Modiji talks about the Gujarat model, but whoever raises a voice against their ideology, whoever asks for education or stands against big corporates, is immediately crushed and suppressed here.”

‘Ideological fight’ He said it was a fight between “two ideologies — one representing Gandhiji, Sardar Patel, Nehruji and Dr. Ambedkar and the other of the RSS, Golwalkar and Modiji.”

“I have told the victims that we will defeat this ideology in Gujarat and elsewhere,” Mr. Gandhi said.

Drawing a parallel between the Gujarat incident and the suicide by Dalit student Rohith Vemula in Hyderabad, Mr. Gandhi said: “Some time back, I went to Hyderabad where a youth had committed suicide. The government in Delhi attacked the same family. Today, I went to a hospital here where 11 people from different parts tried to commit suicide. This means, weak people, irrespective of their castes, are suppressed here."

The Gujarat Congress has announced Rs. 5 lakh assistance for the victims. Mr. Gandhi, who first landed in Diu, went to Mota Samadhiyala village to meet the victims’ family members. He had tea with them and later went to Rajkot to meet those hospitalised.