Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah on Wednesday said that the Opposition was responsible for the deaths of at least nine people in protests during Monday’s Bharat bandh.
On Monday, there were violent protests in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan against a Supreme Court order last month that diluted provisions of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. After much criticism, the Centre filed a review petition before the court, which, on Tuesday, refused to stay the order.
Shah said the Opposition supported the demonstrations launched by Dalit organisations even though the government had said it would file a review petition against the Supreme Court order. This, he said, was responsible for the lives lost during the agitations, The Indian Express reported.
“When we announced that we will file a review petition, why did the Congress and other Opposition parties call for a Bharat bandh,” Shah asked in Odisha’s Bhawanipatna town on Wednesday while addressing a rally. The Assembly polls in Odisha will be held next year.
At the rally, he assured those gathered that the BJP would “neither remove reservation”, nor let “anyone end it”. “There will not be even the slightest change in the reservation policy as set by BR Ambedkar in the Constitution,” he said. “No one can dare to change it. The BJP will also not allow anyone to change the reservation policy.”
Shah made the statement on Ambedkar hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed that no government has honoured the father of the Constitution as much as the current BJP regime.
At the rally, Shah also criticised the Naveen Patnaik government in Odisha, saying it had “failed on all fronts”. “There is no electricity still in more than 33% households,” he said. “Over 12,000 villages do not have access to roads; the healthcare system has crumbled; and there is a shortage of teachers in 66% schools in Odisha.”
He also said that the “mammoth turnout in Odisha’s sweltering heat itself reflects that the people of Odisha are fed up of the present government and wanted a BJP government that can bring development in the state”.
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