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Why is PM Modi silent on Dalit atrocities, asks Opposition

The discussion which was scheduled for two hours went on for six hours in Rajya Sabha

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Uttar Pradesh Congress president Raj Babbar leads a maun dharna against Union government over Dalit atrocities, in Lucknow on Thursday
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A united opposition on Thursday managed to engage a beleaguered BJP for six hours in discussion on the recent incidents of atrocities against Dalits that was originally scheduled for only two hours in Rajya Sabha.

The hotly debated sensitive topic saw allegations and counter allegations flying all through the debate between BJP and opposition parties and presentation of statistics to pin down one over the other.

Bearing the Opposition onslaught laced with potshots against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not speaking on the issue of Dalit atrocities even when it happened in his home state, union home minister Rajnath Singh at the end of discussion announced giving Gujarat government a 60-day deadline to file the charge sheet and bring the perpetrators of Una incident to justice within six months, in which four Dalit youth were beaten ruthlessly in public by a cow vigilante group.

In his concluding remarks, Rajnath also conceded that that conviction rate in crimes against Dalits is less and needs to be corrected.

Driven on the back foot by BSP chief Mayawati's demands to include a Scheduled Caste judge in the fast track court, Rajnath said the government has already requested the high court to set up a fast track court and he would talk to Gujarat chief minister to make it a two judge bench with a SC judge.

Claiming that opposition parties are deliberately trying to malign BJP ruled states for having higher incidents of atrocities against Dalits, Rajnath said, according to NCRB data, 13 murders, 35 rapes and 979 total incidents happened in Gujarat while in Bihar they were 78, 42 and 6667, in Karnataka 44, 58 and 1852 in UP 204, 444 and 8357 respectively.

"I did not want to go into figures but concentrate on the subject but rambling of statistics forced me to present these figures," Singh said.

During the discussion, Congress members contradicted and contested social justice and empower minister Thawar Chand Gehlot when he said that the Dalit protests spread in Gujarat spread after the issue was raised in the Parliament and opposition parties tried to politicise it.

Congress members contradicted, saying the BJP is belittling people's anger and political parties' role that are supposed to take up people's issues, especially when they are of such grave concern like atrocities against Dalits.

Wondering what BJP suffers from "diarrhea of words and constipation of action", CPM leader Sitram Yechury said, "Since this government has come to power, new avenues have been opened up in terms of attacks against Dalits… The ideology of RSS gives theological justification towards ill-treatment of Dalits. They believe in varnvastha, which states that if a person is born Dalit,"

Azad warned the BJP government to see the unrest that is building up in the society for the first time after independence and take action against the right wing group groups that are becoming bold every day to take law in their hands.

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