Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Friday accused the BJP of trying to divide society on caste lines to promote its political interests.
Referring to the BJP’s attempt to take out a so-called ‘Dalit Insaf Yatra’ on October 22 without taking due permissions, Capt. Amarinder said, “These divisive tactics will never succeed in Punjab, whose people are happily living together for their collective progress.”
Capt. Amarinder said the BJP has no moral right to talk about Dalit rights, which they had been brazenly trampling wherever they were in power.
He said statistics showed that Uttar Pradesh, under the BJP rule, accounts for over 25% of the total cases of atrocities against the Scheduled Caste people in the country, and had recorded the highest number of such incidents in 2018.
“Is this your definition of justice for Dalits? Is this what you are offering the SC people of Punjab,” he asked the BJP.
‘Failed the farmers’
The Chief Minister said the BJP, finding itself totally cornered over the farm laws, was indulging in theatrics and mispropaganda with the sole motive of diverting public attention.
“The fact is that the party has completely failed the farmers and also the SC students, whom its national leadership had deprived of access to higher education by abruptly withdrawing from the Central post-matric scholarship scheme,” he said in a statement.
Capt. Amarinder attributed the BJP’s attempted rally to the fact that it was rattled over the State government’s successful launch of its scholarship scheme for the SC students. “Despite suffering ₹800 crore losses due to the anti-Dalit decision of the BJP-led Union government, the cash-strapped Punjab government had not only introduced a new scheme – B.R. Ambedkar SC Post-Matric Scholarship - for SC students, but even expanded its ambit to benefit more youngsters,” he said.