We visit Dalit homes in spite of mosquitoes, says BJP leader: Highlights

The BJP government in Uttar Pradesh is only indulging in pretence and drama in the name of Dalits, said Congress Party

Uttar Pradesh Education Minister Anupma Jaiswal got embroiled in a controversy on Friday when she said that ministers of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are ensuring proper implementation of the schemes by visiting Dalit households, despite getting bitten by mosquitoes. Jaiswal is the third BJP minister to have made such a gaffe in a week. When asked about the controversy on Uttar Pradesh minister Suresh Rana's visit to a Dalit household, Jaiswal said, "Schemes are made for benefitting all the sections and to ensure proper implementation, ministers are paying several visits, even if mosquitoes bite them all night." 

Earlier this week, Uttar Pradesh minister Suresh Rana dined at a Dalit home, but the photographs of a catered feast that emerged over social media triggered the controversy. The BJP leader was criticised by some members of the party too. BJP MP Udit Raj disapproved of party leaders having food at homes of Dalits as part of an outreach campaign. He warned that those who do not understand the aspirations of the community will face "consequences". Raj said that he "failed" to understand why politicians, academicians and intellectuals are not able to grasp the issues of Dalit community.

The Congress said the BJP was "only indulging in pretence and drama" in the name of Dalits. The opposition party also asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to stop Bharatiya Janata Party leaders from indulging in such pretence. "The BJP government in Uttar Pradesh is only indulging in pretence and drama in the name of Dalits," Congress spokesperson Rajeev Shukla said. "This is a message among the Dalits across the country that the central government is engaged in their destruction. What has happened in Aligarh is a very biggest form of hypocrisy. It is in their nature and then they say that are working for the welfare of the Dalits," he added.

Top 10 developments on BJP leader's visit to dalit house and controversy around it

1. Mohan Bhagwat tells BJP to 'stop drama of eating with Dalits': According to reports, Bhagwat had slammed the BJP for its Dalit outreach programme. RSS chief Bhagwat reportedly said merely visiting Dalit houses is not enough to eliminate discrimination, and that the BJP is creating a drama using the Dalits. However, RSS All India Campaign chief Arun Kumar, in a press statement, said the reports are devoid of facts, and misleading, as no such meeting took place in which the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Gram Swaraj Abhiyan Mission - aimed at promoting social harmony, was discussed.

2. Mosquitoes bite politicians at Dalit homes: Uttar Pradesh Education Minister Anupma Jaiswal on Friday said that BJP ministers are ensuring proper implementation of the schemes by visiting Dalit households, despite getting bitten by mosquitoes. "Schemes are made for benefitting all the sections and to ensure proper implementation, ministers are paying several visits, even if mosquitoes bite them all night," she said.

3. Udit Raj says, eating food with Dalits not enough: BJP MP Udit Raj disapproved of party leaders having food at homes of Dalits as part of an outreach campaign. He warned that those who do not understand the aspirations of the community will face "consequences". Raj said that he "failed" to understand why politicians, academicians and intellectuals are not able to grasp the issues of Dalit community. Observing that just dining with dalits will not "satisfy" them, Raj said there is a need to address their aspirations which include respect, equality and rights and.

"Having night stay and food at houses of Dalits neither empowers the Dalit families nor benefits the politicians. Rahul Gandhi is an example of it," Raj said. The dalit leader, who represents North-West Delhi in Lok Sabha, said having food at a Dalit household is similar to a doctor giving medicines to treat fever to a patient who has a problem in his stomach. Citing the Congress' defeat in elections despite Gandhi having food with Dalit families and the Bharat Bandh organised by Dalit outfits last month, Raj said that a "lesson needs to be learnt from the protest".

4. Suresh Rana says 'dalit tourism not in BJP tradition': Throwing an open challenge to his critics who claimed that he literally gate-crashed into the house of a Dalit and had dinner with them in Aligarh's Lohagarh village, Uttar Pradesh minister Suresh Rana said that "Dalit tourism" is not in the BJP's tradition.

"I am throwing an open challenge to them to prove that even a single grain of food came from outside. In fact, all food items were cooked in the village and by the villagers.

"The programme was organised by the local MLA (Anoop Valmiki) and the village pradhan. As per the plan, a breakfast was planned with a Dalit family the next morning, but I had expressed a desire that instead of having dinner at the community centre, I will have it at the house of a Dalit," he said.

The minister's reaction came after reports that he may have taken his own food and water.

5. Ordering food from outside an insult: Politicians rushing to Dalit households to break bread with them but ordering food, utensils and even waiters from outside is an "insult" to the people belonging to the weaker sections, BJP MP Sadhvi Savitri Bai Phoole said.

"I disagree with the trend of politicians going to Dalits' homes. The father of our Constitution Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar was against caste system so those who follow him should not use caste for political purposes. Why only Dalit bhojs (meals) are hyped in the media and not similar events at places belonging to any other caste?" an angry Phoole asked while speaking to PTI.

"The way media reports are showing that food, utensils and waiters are outsourced...It is an insult to Dalits. It is a mockery of Dalits," she said.

6. Uma Bharti compares feeding Dalits to self-purification activity: Senior BJP leader and Union Minister Uma Bharti on Tuesday compared feeding Dalits to a self-purification activity. "I am not Lord Ram who will be able to purify the Dalits by dining with them. When Dalits come to our house and eat together it is then that we will become pure," Bharti said while addressing a rally at Madhya Pradesh's Chhatarpur district. "My house gets blessed when I serve Dalit with my hands in my house," she added.

7. BJP leader compared party leaders to Lord Ram: Yogi's cabinet minister Rajendra Pratap reportedly compared BJP leaders to Lord Ram. He said the way Lord Ram blessed Shabari (a Dalit) by eating his berries, BJP leaders were also blessing Dalits by going to their homes. The statement came after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had dinner and spent a night at a Dalit village in Pratapgarh district on April 24.

8. Congress calls BJP dalit outreach in UP a 'pretence': The opposition party asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to stop Bharatiya Janata Party leaders from indulging in such pretence.

"The BJP government in Uttar Pradesh is only indulging in pretence and drama in the name of Dalits," Congress spokesperson Rajeev Shukla said.

"This is a message among the Dalits across the country that the central government is engaged in their destruction. What has happened in Aligarh is a very biggest form of hypocrisy. It is in their nature and then they say that are working for the welfare of the Dalits," he added.

9. Dalit man forced to drink urine in UP's Badaun: Meanwhile, a dalit was allegedly assaulted and forced to drink urine by a group of men in Uttar Pradesh's Badaun district. According to reports, the incident took taken place on April 23 when the victim denied to harvest their crops. The man further alleged that a group of men also tied him to a tree and pulled his mustache.

The victim has lodged a complaint.

10. Last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked its lawmakers, including ministers at the centre and states, to spend at least a night in villages where there are 50 per cent or more Dalits - one of its most important campaigns in a year of elections and at a time Dalit groups have targeted the party accusing it of not doing enough to counter a court order they say dilutes the law for their protection from discrimination. Last year, soon after the BJP took charge in UP, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's visits to a soldier's home became controversial when it was reported that an AC was installed and a carpet, a saffron sofa and saffron towels were sent to the house before his arrival.

Later people belonging to the Musahar community, which is among the poorest in the state, alleged they were given soap and shampoo by the local administration ahead of a visit by the chief minister.

What was the controversy

Suresh Rana brought with him his own food and water at a dinner hosted at a Dalit household. Pictures of the well laid out dining table with an assortment of dishes and cutlery went viral on the social media. The dalit family said they were not aware of the minister's visit. Asked to comment on the house owner's claim that he was unaware of the dinner he was supposed to host and that he was woken up from his sleep at around 11 PM to entertain the guests, Rana said, "This is a piece of information you are giving me. The entire family was sitting with me during the dinner. I saw a news clip that claimed that food was brought from outside or some hotel. The food was prepared in that village itself by the villagers." 

When reporters confronted him by claiming that the food was served by a caterer and it did not look like it was cooked at a poor Dalit house, the minister said, "I am reiterating that the food was prepared at the house of a Dalit. The village head is a Dalit, the local MLA is a Dalit, the programme was organised by them and there was a community feast. An issue is being made out of this as some people have problems with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath." 

Claiming that those who did politics from their "plush drawing rooms, five-star hotels and AC rooms" had problems with the BJP reaching the "gaaon, gareeb and Dalits (the villages, the poor and the Dalits)", Rana said, "I will invite them to spend a night in Lohagarh village and only then will they realise."