The Congress on Ambedkar Jayanti accused the Narendra Modi government of endangering the constitutional culture of the country, reminding the BJP that its 2014 manifesto had said “social justice and harmony are as important as economic justice and political empowerment”.
The Congress argued that constitutional principles were in peril under the Modi government, be it in the context of violence against Dalits or the principles of equality, transparency and accountability.
The party posted several messages to buttress its allegation of attack on the Constitution and recalled the government’s attitude in cases like the alleged forcible burning of a rape victim’s body in Hathras, the custody death of a Dalit in Agra, and the massacre of farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri and tribals in Sonbhadra.
The Congress also linked the purported suicide of a contractor accusing Karnataka BJP minister K.S. Eshwarappa of demanding kickbacks for government projects to violation of constitutional principles and therefore disrespect to Ambedkar.
Party spokesperson Gourav Vallabh said: “The contractor, a BJP worker, said he was harassed by the minister, who demanded 40 per cent cut for releasing payment dues for government work. But no action was taken. The minister should have been arrested had the constitutional spirit been respected.”
The recent acts of sending bulldozers to demolish the houses of people in Madhya Pradesh’s Khargone merely on the suspicion of stone-pelting was described by the Congress as violation of the constitutional spirit. The punishment meted out by the administration without judicial scrutiny was dubbed illegal.
Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate on Thursday said the official figures suggest that 50,291 crimes against Dalits were registered in 2020 while the number a decade ago was 33,000. “Ten Dalit women are raped every day,” she said.
Shrinate also pointed to reduction in the budget for centrally sponsored schemes for Dalit welfare. The Rs 15,000 crore allocated for Dalit women in 2022 has been cut to Rs 11,000 crore in 2023.
“The amount for post-matric scholarship was not sent to six states and Union Territories. In 2020 and 2021, the amount for pre-matric scholarship was not sent to nine states and Union Territories.”
Shrinate said attention was being drawn to this on Ambedkar’s birth anniversary to remind the government that paying tributes to the Father of the Constitution was not enough when his desire for educational opportunities for the weaker sections of the society was not being honoured.
The BJP, however, claimed that the targeted schemes for welfare of Scheduled Castes had received significant boost in the Modi regime.