BJP, Congress neglect grievances of Dalits: Mayawati

Condemning the atrocities against Dalits in Gujarat's Una, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati on Wednesday accused the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of being hand-in-glove when it comes to matters concerning the suppression of the community.

Mayawati said the sad thing about this issue is that the Opposition parties reacted to this only after she raised the matter.

"All these parties be it the Congress or the BJP-led NDA, they want to curb matters relating to the conditions of Dalits. The Congress and the BJP are hand-in-glove when dealing with sensitive issues related to the Dalits. They initially try to shun matters related to Dalit atrocities, but when the BSP raises this matter then they begin to speak on the same for political gains," Mayawati said.

"The Dalit incident, which took place in Gujarat, is extremely painful, shameful and unfortunate. It has violated human rights. I strongly condemn it. I would like to say that the BSP never does drama, it fights for the causes. Our Gujarat state unit is in continuous touch with the victims' family and is helping them," she added.

A policeman was killed in mob violence and a Dalit committed suicide on Tuesday as protests against last week's thrashing of four youth in Una town snowballed across Saurashtra region of Gujarat.

The Dalit, who died during the day, was among the five persons from the community who tried to take their own lives in separate incidents in Gujarat.