Patna: Dalit RJD MLAs and leader of Opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav on Friday pro-tested against the central government over the Supreme Court ruling on the SC/ST Act.

RJD MLAs accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of hatching a conspiracy to do away with quota and said a first step in this direction was taken by not arguing strongly in the case related to changing provisions of the SC/ST Act.

The court ruled that sanction of appointing authority is required before arrest or prosecution of an accused under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

First, the Dalit RJD MLAs addressed journalists at the party office. They slammed the Narendra Modi government and demanded that it file a review petition in the Supreme Court. Sarvajit said atrocities against Dalits will increase manifold after the change in provision.

"Ever since the NDA came to power, a conspiracy is on to suppress Dalits and the downtrodden. It started with doing away of quota in promotion and now the central government did not fight the case aggressively. We don't want to comment on the court ruling but the central government should oppose the changes," Sarvajit said. He also asked Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan to break the alliance with the BJP if he cannot assure justice to Dalits.

Later, the MLAs went to the Assembly and shouted slogans against the Centre under the statue of Karpoori Thakur. "The central government should file a review petition in the Supreme Court as soon as possible," Tejashwi said. "If that is not possible, why can't the NDA bring a new bill for the rights of Dalits? There is a double engine government, Nitish ji is there, Paswanji is there. They can bring in a new bill."