Dalits

Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) leader Chirag Paswan on Friday raised in Lok Sabha the issue of alleged rise in crimes, especially against Dalits, in Bihar and said Parliament can't be mum when the state government is maintaining "silence". The Jamui MP noted that a woman and her five-year-old daughter were burnt alive in Arwal after their house was set ablaze by people accused by the mother of trying to sexually assault her. Raising the issue during the Zero Hour, Paswan said the culprits were angry with her, a member of the Paswan community, for complaining to police and alleged that the local administration was hand in glove with them. He said a Paswan woman was gang-raped and killed in Begusarai as he hit out at the state government for its "silence". While acknowledging that law and order is a state subject, he said the Centre should act on its own and order a CBI probe as the people of Bihar are angry at the JD(U)-RJD-Congress government's alleged lack of action. The Lok Sabh

In Ambedkar: A Life, a comparatively short biography of the leader, Shashi Tharoor nails the pretentious nature of Ambedkar's appropriation by many

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday claimed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) keeps attacking the Constitution everyday as it does not want to accept that Dalits, tribals and the poor should get rights, and hit out at Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar for "working" for the British. Gandhi, whose Bharat Jodo Yatra entered its 69th day and reached Washim district in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra from Hingoli on Tuesday, said it is only the Congress that can protect the Constitution, give education to tribals and safeguard their land and rights. The Lok Sabha MP from Kerala addressed two rallies during the day and stepped up his attack on the BJP over a range of issues - from the Constitution, to 2016 note-ban, to Goods and Service Tax (GST) to farm loans. The first public meeting, addressed by him in the afternoon, was organised on the occasion of tribal freedom fighter Birsa Munda's birth anniversary, which is also celebrated as the Janjatiya Gaurav Divas or Tribal Pride Day. T

A day after Mallikarjun Kharge was elected the Congress president, BSP chief Mayawati on Thursday accused the 137-year-old party of remembering Dalits only in its bad times and making them "scapegoats". Kharge (80), a Dalit leader from Karnataka, trounced his 66-year-old rival Shashi Tharoor in a historic election held four days ago to become the first non-Gandhi to head the Congress in 24 years. In a series of tweets, Mayawati said, "The history of the Congress is a witness that it has always neglected/disdained the messiah of the downtrodden Param Pujya Babasaheb Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar and his society. This party does not remember the safety and honour of Dalits in its good days, but makes them a scapegoat in bad days." "The Congress party remembers mostly non-Dalits in the long run of good days and puts Dalits in front in their bad days as in the current times. Is this not deceit and pseudo politics? People ask, 'Is this the real love of the Congress towards Dalits'?" she said in .

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday attacked the Congress and the Communist parties by saying they never worked for the welfare of the Scheduled Tribes and treated the Dalit communities only as a votebank. The senior BJP leader, while speaking at a Scheduled Caste conference organised by the saffron party, said the Congress was disappearing while the Communist party was on the verge of extinction. "Congress is disappearing from India while the Communist party is on the verge of extinction from the world. In Kerala, only the BJP has a future. The Congress party and the Communists never worked for the welfare of the Scheduled Tribes. They treated them as mere votebanks," Shah said. He asked whether the Congress party ever had a single Minister from the SC/ST community. He said when BJP had majority in Parliament to elect the Rashtrapathi, they selected a person from the Dalit community - Ram Nath Kovind. "On our second chance, we selected an ST community leader Draupadi Murmu,"

After a Dalit boy was beaten to death in a Rajasthan school over water, former Speaker Meira Kumar said a century ago her father was subjected to the same treatment but his life was saved

In the controversial tweet, Mevani had reportedly requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure communal harmony during his recent visit to Gujarat

Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate claimed that in 2020 alone, as many as 50,291 incidents of crime were committed against Dalits as against 33,000 in 2011

BSP won just one of the 403 seats and secured a vote per cent of 12.8, down from 17 seats and a vote share of 22.2 per cent in 2017

But not all Dalits plan the same. Many accuse Opposition parties, especially the BSP, of indulging in vote bank politics

A second arrest was made on Saturday in connection with the lynching of a Dalit man at a farmers' protest site at the Singhu border, police said

Fifteen organizations of Dalit community met Vijay Sampla, Chairman of National Commission for Scheduled Castes, and handed over complaints demanding strict action over murder near Singhu border

The BJP alleged on Monday that the Congress has made Charanjit Singh Channi Punjab chief minister for a few months merely to grab Dalit votes as part of its conspiracy

Over the next six months, Channi has to prove not just that he has the support of Punjab's scheduled castes but also of the state's caste aristocracy

In this concluding piece of a two-part series, Business Standard reports how Telangana's welfare politics risks fomenting inter-caste hatred

Dr Gail Omvedt, US-born renowned Dalit researcher, writer on Ambedkarism and the movement for the oppressed classes, passed away following a brief illness at Kasegaon

BSP supremo Mayawati on Tuesday accused the Uttar Pradesh Police of committing atrocities on Dalit families in Azamgarh and demanded strict action against guilty cops and compensation for the victims

An all-party meeting has unanimously decided to send Rs 10 lakh financial assistance directly to the bank accounts of Dalit beneficiaries to make them financially self-sufficient

Renowned social scientist Chandrabhan Prasad tells Aditi Phadnis about a new Dalit consciousness on the rise

The pandemic has exacerbated the crisis for the most vulnerable sections, and children who have lost a parent or have been orphaned are among the worst hit