Attacking the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtruiya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) over the Dalit thrashing incident, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said “weaker sections are being terrorised and trampled upon in Gujarat”, a state that Prime Minister Narendra Modi projects as a “model.”
On a day’s visit to the state, Gandhi also met the kin of the tannery workers, who were beaten up allegedly by self-styled vigilante for skinning a dead cow, and assured them of all help. He also visited the hospital in Rajkot, where the victims are admitted.
Declaring his party’s support to the agitating Dalits, he said the Congress would defeat this ideology throughout the country. “The youth were thrashed by 40 people. Eleven people tried to commit suicide. It means that all over Gujarat, the weak people, irrespective of their caste, and who have no money are being suppressed,” he said.
“It is a fight between two ideologies – on one hand Gandhiji, Saradar Patel, Nehru and Baba Sahab Amedkar, and on the other RSS, Golwalkar and Narendra Modi,” he said, after meeting the family members of the Dalit youth, who were thrashed by cow vigilantes in Gir-Somnath district.
Bringing up Rohith Vemula issue, Gandhi linked the Hyderabad campus incident with suicide attempts by youth during the ongoing Dalit protests in Gujarat . “Some time back, I went to Hyderabad. There a youth had committed suicide. The government in Delhi attacked his family, who were demanding their rights,” he said.
“Today I went to the hospital here, where 11 people from different parts of the state who tried to commit suicide are admitted. What does this mean? It means that in entire Gujarat, weak people, whichever caste they belong to who do not have money, are being suppressed,” he said.
Gandhi was accompanied by Congress leaders Kumari Selja and Gurudas Kamat.
Meanwhile, Gujarat continued to simmer for a third consecutive day as protests flared up with incidents of vandalism and arson being reported from several parts of the state.
In Mehsana’s Kadi area, protesters torched three state transport buses, while a mob held up Ahmedabad-bound Navjivan Express on tracks for several minutes in Surat. In Ahmedabad’s Dholka, a rampaging mob vandalised Mamlatdar office and hurled stones at the police, who in turn fired 12 teargas shells to quell the protest.
The police detained 40 people, which triggered more protests as residents ‘gheraoed’ the police station, demanding the release of the detainees.
The situation is under control, police said.