BJP hits out at Nitish Kumar over atrocities against Dalits

BJP leader Sushil Kumar said cases of atrocities against Dalits have increased in Bihar

Opposition BJP on Monday questioned the silence of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over incidents of atrocities against Dalits in Bihar, while making a hue and cry over an incident in Gujarat.

Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi reeled out comparative data about cases of atrocities against Dalits in Bihar and Gujarat to support his attack on Kumar.

In 2015, while there were 1,052 incidents of atrocities against Dalits in Gujarat, the number was 7,874 in Bihar during the same period, Modi claimed in a statement in Patna.

This figure of 2015 was about 3000 more in Bihar as compared to Dalit atrocities in the state in 2013, he claimed.

"Cases of atrocities against Dalits have increased in Bihar, but the government is busy covering up such events," he alleged.

Modi, who is leader of opposition in the state Legislative Council, alleged that police in Kaimur declared a case of murder and sexual harassment of a Dalit girl as suicide even before the report of the probe.

The state government refuted allegation of a Dalit youth urinated in the mouth by perpetrators of violence against them in Paroo block of Muzaffarpur district last week, he said.

The BJP leader referred to some other incidents of cruelty against Dalits in Darbhanga, Narkatiaganj and Jehanabad to allege that the state government instead of initiating stern action tried to "cover them up."

Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP), an ally of BJP in NDA in Bihar, also alleged that cases of atrocities against Dalits had increased in Bihar under the present regime.

National Secretary of RLSP Seema Saxena alleged in a statement here that cases of rape, molestation and violence against Dalits in Bihar had gone up recently which was result of deterioration in law and order situation.

She alleged that a 55-year-old Dalit farmer was shot dead in Samastipur recently and nobody was talking about it out of fear.