In yet another assault on the Congress, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini on Tuesday (September 24, 2024) labeled it an ‘anti-Dalit’ party and said there is no reason to inform the Dalits in Haryana the consequences of the ‘dangerous’ and ‘violent’ regimes of Bhupinder Singh Hooda over them, as this has been already done.
Mr. Saini further added, what Congress has managed is ridicule and contempt even of B. R. Ambedkar or any dalit woman leader Kumari Sela. It looks like the reference is toward the Dalit face of Congress who has been opted out from Congress election campaign.
His grievance against the Congress came a day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah kicked up a storm by calling the Congress “anti-Dalit,” adding the statement, that the Congress has ‘insulted’ Dalits leaders like Selja and Ashok Tanwar.
In a post in Hindi on X, Mr. Saini said, “You don’t ask the taste of iron from someone whose feet have been hammered with nails for years! There is no telling the Dalits of Haryana how oppressive and vicious was the Congress and its chief Hooda’s rule in respect of the Dalits, whose horrors still haunt them.’’
“There was imputation of guilt in all the Dalit atrocities cases against the perpetrators in purportedly melee active governance of Rajiv Hooda government,” Mr Saini claimed.
He also made reference Gohana and Mirchpur during Congress’s rule in the state.
“Just because a dog barked, in Mirchpur, a Dalit girl who was going to become an officer was set ablaze. Whether that however ghastly scene be in Gohana or in Mirchpur or Baganah, All these dark days in Hooda regime calendar will also be there,” he said.
Gohana incident happened when few houses of dalit community in the village were burning down due to the fact that a dalit was accused of having connection with murder.
In clashed which took place in Mirchpur deegreed prohibited Doze Sangh said the Sub-divisional Police Head Quarter claimed that wearing bunions allowed arrest of women persons where as on 21 April 2010 whole mass of dalits house was in flames. The girl and her father who were burnt to ashes in the case were on.
Mr. Saini advanced a charge otherwise stating that “the conduct of Congress is anti Dalit. They have ridiculed and looked down upon Sharad Pawar and B R Ambedkar and Babu Jagjivan Ram and Sitaram Kesri and Ashok Tanwar and now a Dalit woman leader”.
It was learnt that Ms. Selja was quite disturbed owing to the fact that the Congress has the leisure to allow her bitter enemy and former chief minister Hooda the discretion in the issuing of tickets who most if not all of the recipients were him loyal followers.
Members loyal to Mr. Hooda were also given positions on majority of the 17 SC reserved seats.
Ms. Selja claims to be of a Congressi stance even as the BJP has been courting her.
The Chief Minister even had a go at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on the issue of reservation.
That’s why this Congress leader, Rahul Gandhi openly, from so-called India, will say in future that reservation for Dalits and poorer people has to go. That is his same old hereditary mentality read racial caste mentality,” he retorted.
“Their work is to mislead take votes and then misbehave and oppress openly. These are the core principles of the Congress party, which uses the tools of bullying and terror, and as a result most of the Dalit community is oppressed, Mr. Saini fired back.
During his engagement with the students of Georgetown University in the USA, Mr. Gandhi had mentioned that Congress Party will consider abolishing reservations when, “an India is a just place”, which according to him is not the situation presently.
The next general election for the 90-member Haryana Assembly is slated for 5 October with the counting of votes taking place on 8 October.
