Caravan News
MEERUT — The statue of Dr. B R Ambedkar was “purified” with milk and ‘gangaajal’ (Ganga water) by a group of Dalit lawyers in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh soon after it was garlanded by Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) state secretary Sunil Bansal on Friday.
The lawyers were protesting against what they called the “BJP/RSS dual strategy when it comes to treating Dalits.”
The lawyers say that the statue placed near the district court here got “dirty” after Bansal garlanded it.
“We are purifying this statue because Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s Rakesh Sinha came and garlanded it. BJP government oppresses Dalits. They have nothing to do with Ambedkar, but still they use his name just to promote their party and allure the Dalit community,” a lawyer said, reports ANI.
“We want to expose the double standards of the BJP and RSS towards Dalits. On one hand, they are involved in harassment of the Dalits but on the other, they want to show that they are ‘pro-Dalits’ by doing such things (garlanding statues),” said advocate Praveen Bharti.
Meerut: A group of Dalit lawyers ‘purified’ statue of Dr BR Ambedkar near Dist Court y’day, say “RSS’ Rakesh Sinha came&garlanded the statue.BJP govt oppresses Dalits.They’ve nothing to do with Ambedkar but do this to promote BJP&allure Dalits. So we purified this with Gangajal.” pic.twitter.com/cs8tnzZ3XE
— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) August 11, 2018
Ambedkar played a pivotal role in inspiring the Dalit Buddhist movement and campaigned against social discrimination towards Untouchables.
Earlier, a temple in Uttar Pradesh’s Hamirpur town was purified with ‘Gangaajal’ and statutes of deities were sent to Allahabad for purification after the visit of Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Manisha Anuragi. Manisha Anuragi visited the temple on July 12 while she was in her assembly constituency to attend a function.
