Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Friday charged the BJP with trying to divide the society on caste lines “to promote their political interests.” He also said that he would not allow them to impose their agenda on the state.
“I will not let them disturb the peaceful atmosphere of Punjab at any cost,” the Chief Minister said, pointing to the BJP’s attempt to take out a ‘Dalit Insaf Yatra’ on Thursday.
He said that they were trying to take out yatra without taking due permissions. These divisive tactics will never succeed in Punjab, whose people are happily living together for their collective progress, he added.
The BJP, said Captain Amarinder, had no moral right to talk about Dalit rights, which they had been brazenly trampling wherever they were in power. He said the statistics showed that Uttar Pradesh, under BJP rule, accounts for over 25% of the total cases of atrocities against SC people in the country, and had recorded the highest number of such incidents in 2018. “Is this your definition of justice for Dalits? Is this what you are offering the SC people of Punjab?” he asked the BJP.
The Chief Minister said the BJP, finding itself cornered over the farm laws, was indulging in theatrics and mis-propaganda with the sole motive of diverting public attention. The fact is that the party has completely failed the farmers and also the SC students, whom its national leadership had deprived of access to higher education by abruptly withdrawing from the central post-matric scholarship scheme, he said.
Captain Amarinder attributed the BJP’s attempted rally to the fact that “it is rattled over the state government’s successful launch of its scholarship scheme for SC students”. Despite suffering Rs 800 crore losses due to the “anti-Dalit” decision of the BJP-led Union Government, the cash-strapped Punjab government had not only introduced a new scheme – B R Ambedkar SC Post-Matric Scholarship – for SC students but even expanded its ambit to benefit more youngsters, he pointed out, adding that the BJP clearly could not digest this.
“We Punjabis will sacrifice anything, as we did during the freedom struggle, to protect our unity and integrity, which forms the ethos of the Indian Constitution,” the Chief Minister said, warning the BJP against continuing its agenda.