BENGALURU: Dalit organisations are planning to stage protests against Union Home Minister Amit Shah over his remarks on Dr BR Ambedkar. A protest will be staged at Freedom Park in Bengaluru on December 23.
The AHINDA (acronym for minorities, backward classes and Dalits) organisation on Thursday issued a statement saying it will take up a campaign against Shah, the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre and the BJP.
“We will create an opinion against the RSS, which was always against the Constitution, and urge the state government to ban the organisation,” said R Surendra, secretary of AHINDA ‘chaluvali’. Senior DSS leader Mavalli Shankar said that along with Dalits, backward classes will join the campaign against Amit Shah until he resigns from his post.
In the 2023 assembly polls and 2024 Lok Sabha elections, a major section of AHINDA communities, including Dalits, had backed the Congress. But they were disillusioned by the Siddaramaiah government which failed to take firm decisions on issues of quota, especially the classification of SC quota. The multi-crore Maharshi Valmiki ST Development Corporation scam also dented the Congress government. Now, Shah’s statement has come as a blessing in disguise for the government which is looking to capitalise on it, say analysts.
Dalit organisations were also upset over former PM HD Deve Gowda’s advice in the Rajya Sabha, while participating in the debate on ‘Glorious Journey of 75 Years of the Constitution of India’ that Parliament should contemplate whether reservation should continue based on caste or be changed to economic criteria.
“Psychologists say that true feelings sometimes come out in words unexpectedly. Amit Shah and Deve Gowda have expressed their feelings and opinions in Parliament, and revealed what is inside them,” remarked S Murthy, a convener of AHINDA ‘chaluvali’.
“We need to rethink the way the state and country are moving forward by trusting them. We need to take these issues seriously, at least from the perspective of the future of AHINDA communities. Awareness, mass movements, and protests need to be organised,” he suggested.