Azad Samaj Party leader and Lok Sabha member Chandrasekhar Azad on Wednesday cited anecdotal cases of atrocities and discrimination against Dalits, tribals and minorities across states to allege that the central government’s slogan of Amrit Kaal has no meaning for the backward sections.
At a media conference here, Azad said the religious beliefs and practices of minorities were being disregarded and ridiculed.
“The government of India says this is Amrit Kaal. This is Amrit Kaal for the capitalist friends of the government. Dalits, backwards and minorities are facing high levels of inequality and injustice in their daily lives,” he said.
Azad cited recent instances of attacks by forward castes on Dalit youths participating in marriage processions on horseback in various places like Bulandshahr, Meerut, Mathura and Shamli in Uttar Pradesh and Dausa in Rajasthan. He also referred to the attack on a Dalit youth for riding a Bullet motorbike in Sivaganga district of Tamil Nadu.
“Baraat processions are being stopped and Dalit youths are yanked off horses. Dalits are not treated as human beings,” he alleged.
Azad also alleged that several Dalits have been murdered in different districts of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Jharkhand in recent months. He cited the instance of a person from a forward caste urinating on the face of a tribal man in Madhya Pradesh in 2023.
Azad said his party had extended support to the protest by Buddhist monks organising the Mahabodhi Mahavihara Mukt Andolan in Bodhgaya, Bihar. The monks had demanded the handing over of the Mahavihara management to the Buddhist community and the repeal of the Bodhgaya Temple Act, 1949. The management committee is dominated by non-Buddhists.
He cited cases of attacks on a group of people trying to install a statue of Sant Ravidas in Jharkhand’s Koderma.
Azad said loudspeakers at mosques had been removed across districts, including Nagina from where he has been elected.
“What is this Amrit Kaal when there is no respect for the faith and beliefs of so many communities?” he asked.