Congress leader Rajendra Pal Gautam
NEW DELHI: In the wake of the abduction of a Dalit girl and the murder of her mother in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut, Congress on Monday alleged that Dalit atrocities are rising in BJP-governed states, but the Centre has not released the anti-Scheduled Castes (SC) crime data for the last four years, while the Union home ministry is not allowing protests against atrocities on the bizarre grounds that a 10-day notice is required for permission.Former Delhi minister and Congress SC department chairman Rajendra Pal Gautam said National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data on Dalit atrocities was last released in 2022 and has not since been made public. He said between 2019 and 2022, crimes against SCs registered a massive growth of 13.1%, with UP topping the charts. He said BJP-governed UP, MP, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and Bihar “account for 76% of total atrocities against Dalits.”Gautam alleged Delhi Police denied permission to Congress to hold a dharna against the Meerut abduction-murder of Dalit women on Monday, saying a 10-day notice should be given to the administration. “If a rape or a murder takes place, and there is urgency to highlight it, should we wait for 10 days to protest? What kind of norm is this?” he asked.The former minister said the BJP govt is taking away the constitutional right to protest and seek justice. He claimed that SC atrocities are rising because the government is not allowing protests to demand action from a reluctant administration. He said the number of unregistered cases is very high, arguing a total of 57,582 cases were registered nationally in 2022, while a central government-launched helpline call for Dalit atrocities received over 6.5 lakh calls in 2021—in which only 825 cases were registered against 3.33 lakh calls on the helpline in UP, and 718 cases were lodged out of 58,000 calls in Bihar.The Congress leader said UP has created “bulldozer justice,” but the bulldozer is rusted when the perpetrators of atrocity are upper castes, while it razes the houses within hours when the culprits are Dalit, minority, or backward.
