"Usage of such words should be stopped and attacks on dalits should not be politicised," said BJP.
Cutting across party lines, members in Lok Sabha on Monday highlighted the cases of atrocities being committed on Dalits in various parts of the country and demanded steps to prevent them.
Chirag Paswan (LJP) drew the attention of the House towards atrocities against two Dalit youths who were allegedly thrashed and urinated upon in Bihar's Muzaffarpur district.
Alleging that a series of incidents of atrocities against dalits in Darbhanga and Kishanganj had happened as state government did not act against such crimes, Paswan demanded CBI investigation into the cases. He said there were 20 crore Dalits in the country, but very few people were willing to come to their rescue at times of crisis. Pappu Yadav (RJD) accused the Uttar Pradesh government of trying to create a rift between different castes.
Meenakshi Lekhi (BJP) said there have been a lot of politics over atrocities on dalits and said no castiest remarks should be made, while claiming that in South India, casteist words were still being used. "Usage of such words should be stopped and attacks on dalits should not be politicised," Lekhi said.
M Ramchandran (Congress) raised the issue of the arrest of two sisters on an alleged complaint of a CPI-M worker in Kerala and claimed that, as they were daughters of a Dalit leader, they were harassed by the police at the instance of the Left activists. His remarks drew loud protests from Left members present in the House.
The incident of alleged racial harassment of a Manipuri woman by an immigration officer was raised by Thokchom Meinya (Cong). He said the people from North East faced such attitude even 70 years after independence, which reflected the failure of nation building. North East does not find mention in National Anthem and text books do not teach history of that region, Meinya said as he demanded a strong anti-racial law in India.
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