Bharatiya Janata Party MP Udit Raj on Saturday alleged that members of the Dalit community were being tortured across the country after the violent protests held during the Bharat Bandh earlier in the week.
In a series of tweets, the parliamentarian claimed that a worker of a Dalit organisation run by him in Gwalior was being tortured even though he had not done anything wrong.
“Reports are pouring in that those Dalits who participated in agitation on April 2 are being tortured and it must be stopped,” Raj said on Twitter. “Dalits are tortured at large scale after April 2 country-wide agitation. People from Barmer, Jalore, Jaipur, Gwalior, Meerut, Bulandshahr, Karoli and other parts calling that not only anti-reservationists but police also beating and slapping false cases.” Raj represents North West Delhi in the Lok Sabha.
Multiple Dalit organisations called for a nationwide shutdown on April 2 to protest against a Supreme Court judgment that protects a public servant from being booked under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act without a preliminary inquiry. At least nine people died in the protests.
Raj is the fifth BJP lawmaker to have brought up the alleged atrocities against Dalits. On Saturday, a Dalit lawmaker from the party, Yashwant Singh, accused the Narendra Modi government of failing to deliver on the promises made to the community. Earlier, their party colleague Chhote Lal Kharwar had written to Modi, accusing Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath of rebuking him and throwing him out of meetings. In March, the party’s MP from Bahraich, Savitri Bai Phule, said that there was a conspiracy to end reservation and the Centre was doing nothing about it.
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