Nitish, Chirag, Manjhi bank on Dalit votes but mum on attack on CJI, claims Cong MP Tanuj Punia

Patna: Congress MP Tanuj Punia on Wednesday said it is baffling that Bihar leaders like Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Union ministers Chirag Paswan and Jitan Ram Manjhi, who are “known for banking on Dalit votes”, are silent on the attempt to hurl a shoe at Chief Justice of Indian BR Gavai inside the Supreme Court.

A 71-year-old lawyer almost hurled a shoe at CJI Gavai, the second Dalit to head the Indian judiciary, during a court proceeding on Monday, but was stopped by the security personnel.

“The silence of Bihar leaders Nitish Kumar, Chirag Paswan and Jitan Ram Manjhi—known for banking on Dalit votes—on this matter is inexplicable,” Punia, who is one of the party's Dalit faces, told reporters in Patna.

Manjhi, a former chief minister, and Paswan belong to the Dalit community, while Kumar is an OBC leader.

“His (the CJI’s) disrespect exposes the deep-rooted casteist mindset of the BJP and RSS,” claimed Punia, the MP from Barabanki.

The Congress leader claimed that the electoral battle between the NDA and Mahagathbandhan, of which his party is a constituent, would be between “the shoe and the pen”.

By using the word ‘pen’, he referred to Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar, a Dalit icon.

Attacking the NDA ahead of the state assembly elections, Punia alleged that the governments at the Centre and in Bihar have sidelined the Dalits through their “biased” actions.

Citing a National Sample Survey (NSS) report, Punia said that 19.15 lakh Dalit families depend on agriculture in Bihar—almost all of them small and marginal farmers—and they earn less than Rs 50 a day.

“This is where the 20-year-rule of NDA has left them,” he said.

Punia claimed that in terms of atrocities against Dalits, Bihar holds the second place in India, after Uttar Pradesh.

He accused the NDA government of “using Dalits merely as vote banks” while ignoring them in policy formation and execution.

Punia also charged the Central government with “breaking the backbone of social justice” by ushering in privatisation of Public Sector Units. This, he claimed, will lead to the abolition of around 4.8 lakh reserved posts.

He asserted that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been championing the cause of social justice for Dalits and the oppressed classes in the true sense of the term.

Gandhi believes in “holding the pen” against “the shoe”, Punia said.