The Congress on Monday targeted the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh over the alleged killing of a Dalit woman in Meerut, alleging that hatred is being fuelled along caste and religious lines under the patronage of Bharatiya Janata Party dispensations.
A 22-year-old man allegedly killed the Dalit woman and abducted her daughter from a village in Meerut on Thursday morning, police said. The incident triggered tension in the locality, prompting the deployment of additional police forces. The deceased was identified as the mother of a 20-year-old woman.
The abducted Dalit woman, taken from Kapsad village in the Sardhana area, was recovered from Saharanpur district on Saturday and the accused arrested, police said.
Addressing a press conference, Congress Scheduled Caste department head Rajendra Pal Gautam said, “Hatred is being fuelled in the country on the basis of caste and religion, and this is happening under the patronage of the BJP government.”
“Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogiji is openly using resources to crush Dalits, tribals and backward classes. Chief Minister Yogi's bulldozer often operates only after considering caste and religion. When a Dalit is oppressed in the state, their bulldozer does not move,” he said.
“In Meerut, a girl was going towards the forest with her mother. The daughter was abducted and when the mother came to save her, she was brutally killed…. When we went to meet the victim's family, we were stopped,” Gautam added.
“If the Uttar Pradesh Police showed the same diligence in preventing crime and ensuring punishment for the guilty, crimes would stop happening altogether,” he said.
Gautam claimed that if the perpetrator was a Dalit, tribal or from the backward classes, the "chief minister's bulldozer" would run down his place within 24 hours.
"We believe that the law should not do its work by looking at caste and religion. If this is done, the country will weaken. The situation is such that the government itself has not made public the data on Dalit oppression after 2022. This is a complete failure of the government," the Congress leader said.
In the last five years, the highest number of cases of atrocities against Dalits in the country has surfaced in Uttar Pradesh, he claimed.
"Five BJP-ruled states in the country -- Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Bihar -- account for 76 per cent of Dalit-atrocity incidents. The shocking fact is that 26 per cent of Dalit-atrocity incidents have come to light in Uttar Pradesh alone," Gautam claimed.
"The government did not allow our protest earlier by saying that in any case, one must inform 10 days in advance to hold a protest. Our question to the government is -- if a rape or killing happens anywhere in the country, will we have to wait for 10 days to demand justice?" he asked.