The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment on Monday moved a review petition in the Supreme Court challenging the order that made amendments to Section 18 of the Scheduled Castes and Schedules Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. It came 11 days after the order, and not before significant political mobilisation by the Opposition, the government’s own allies and even a rebellion by BJP MP Sadhvi Savitribai Phoole.
Ms. Phoole spoke to The Hindu a day after a fiery public meeting that she had addressed in Lucknow asking that there be justice for Dalits. She denied that she had in any way rebelled against the party line on the issue.
“What have I asked for? The implementation of the Constitution in letter and in spirit, the way it was intended by Babasaheb Ambedkar. Even Modi ji [Prime Minister Narendra Modi] speaks of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas , how is what I have said any different,” she said.
She cited statistics on the percentage of population under the poverty line belonging to Dalit communities.
“It is not against this government that I’m saying all this, it is about previous governments too,” said the Bahraich MP.
‘Rise in incidents’
She concedes that there have been a rise in incidents of atrocities against Dalits. “ Daliton ke viruddh atyachaar charam seema par hai [atrocities against Dalits are at its height]. In Allahabad, Dilip Saroj was killed (referring to the barbaric murder of a Dalit law student in February), in Unnao a girl was killed. Statues of Babasaheb Ambedkar have been violated in Meerut, Saharanpur and Aligarh but no action seems to be taken against those who have done this.”
“People who have voted for me expect me to raise this issue,” she said. “I have been raising this issue since I was elected in 2014, speaking in the Lok Sabha that the reservation quota should be filled in government jobs, Dalits should feel safe and the Constitution be implemented in letter and in spirit.
"I am not the only one saying this — Anupriya Patel [Minister of State for Health], Uma Bharati ji [Sanitation Minister], Upendra Kushwahaji [Minister of State for Human Resource Development] have all said this,” she adds. “I have not broken any party discipline in the matter,” she adds.
The BJP’s Scheduled Caste Morcha chief and Kaushambi MP Vinod Sonkar took the trouble to distance himself from Ms. Phoole’s rally. “Whatever she did was in a personal capacity,” he said.
"I know that from the beginning we had asked Prime Minister Modi to appeal the order of the Supreme Court in the SC/ST atrocities case and he had assured us that he would,” Mr. Sonkar told The Hindu . “I don’t know why she felt the need to hold a public meeting,” he added.
Many in the party link Ms. Phoole’s public meeting to the mood engendered by the recent bypoll loss that the party suffered in Phulpur and Gorakhpur and talk of a coalition between the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party. “That is, however, linked to Uttar Pradesh, the protests today were across the country,” added another MP.
As the Bharat bandh left four people dead and several wounded, the ruling party will have to address its own internal contradictions on this issue before the 2019 General Elections.
