Stop attacks on Dalits, Lok Sabha MPs demand

Chirag Paswan (LJP) drew the attention of the House towards atrocities against two Dalit youths who were allegedly thrashed and urinated upon in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district. Alleging that a series of incidents of atrocities against Dalits in Darbhanga and Kishanganj had happened as state government did not act against such crimes, Paswan demanded CBI investigation into the cases. 

He said there were 20 crore Dalits in the country, but very few people were willing to come to their rescue at times of crisis. 

Pappu Yadav (RJD) accused the Uttar Pradesh government of trying to create a rift between different castes.

Meenakshi Lekhi (BJP) said there have been a lot of politics over atrocities on Dalits and said no castiest remarks should be made, while claiming that in South India, castiest words were still being used. “Usage of such words should be stopped and attacks on Dalits should not be politicised,” Lekhi said. 

M Ramchandran (Cong) raised the issue of the arrest of two sisters on an alleged complaint of a CPI-M worker in Kerala and claimed that, as they were daughters of a Dalit leader, they were harassed by the police at the instance of the Left activists. His remarks drew loud protests from Left members present in the House. 

The incident of alleged racial harassment of a Manipuri woman by an immigration officer was raised by Thokchom Meinya (Cong).