Condemning police action against a Dalit group planning to protest against the Yogi Adityanath government, the Congress today accused the BJP regime in Uttar Pradesh of "adopting double standards" in its treatment of the community.
"Dalits, who were on their way to Lucknow from Gujarat to express their anger, were stopped and sent back from the Jhansi railway station yesterday. Those expressing solidarity with them in the state capital, including a retired IPS officer, were also taken into custody...This spells out the double standards of the ruling party towards Dalits," alleged Congress spokesman Ashok Singh.
Citing reports of shampoo and soaps being distributed in a Dalit locality before the chief minister's visit there, he said this was the "reality of BJP's Dalit prem".
In yesterday's incident in Lucknow, retired IPS officer S R Darapuri and seven others were detained and later released by the police for attempting to take out a rally.
In another instance, a group of Dalits from Gujarat, on their way to the state capital with a plan to gift a 125-kg soap to Adityanath as a mark of protest, were stopped and sent back from the Jhansi railway station.
Singh said, "BJP president Amit Shah and other leaders of the party are now eating food with Dalit families in a bid to woo them...These are the same people who used to criticise Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi when he did the same thing."
"BJP is a party of double standards. It says one thing and does another," he alleged.
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