Mayawati: "There is an atmosphere of terror in Gujarat"

by Guest Thu Aug 04, 2016 11:03 pm

Ahmedabad, Aug. 4: Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati today met the victims of the Una flogging in hospital, accused the BJP of trying to hush up the atrocity, and claimed the incident "got national attention" only after she had raised it in Parliament.
"There is an atmosphere of terror in Gujarat. The victims will not feel safe until the mastermind, the conspirator of the Una flogging, is arrested," she said.
Mayawati described how she had felt when she first watched the video, which showed half-naked young Dalits being chained to a car and whipped by cow vigilantes.

"I felt as if I was being flogged," she said, expressing shock that a crowd and police had watched the barbarity without intervening.
Mayawati accused the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh of sowing the seeds of atrocities in the name of cow protection, initially against religious minorities and now against Dalits.

She stressed that the frequency of attacks on Dalits and tribal people had risen sharply after the current government came to power two years ago.
"Cow protection is a well-thought-out strategy of the Sangh against Muslims and Dalits, which has fuelled the mushrooming of cow vigilantes who have unleashed terror and communal violence," she said.

She alleged the victims had told her they didn't want to go home without adequate security.
Mayawati accused the state's BJP government of repeatedly trying to deflect attention from the Una atrocity.

"Just when I was about to visit Una, they made a senior Uttar Pradesh BJP leader (she did not name Dayashankar Singh) pass derogatory comments against me," she said.
Dayashankar, former vice-president of the BJP's Uttar Pradesh unit, has been expelled for six years for his remarks.

"On August 1, when my programme to visit Ahmedabad and meet the Una victims in hospital today was finalised, Gujarat health minister Nitin Patel put pressure on the hospital to discharge the patients. The victims refused to leave the hospital," she said.

The discharge was aborted after Dalit activists gathered in large numbers at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital and an upcoming community leader, Jignesh Mewani, spoke to the hospital management.

"Days before my visit, they made Anandiben Patel resign (as chief minister), again to divert attention," Mayawati alleged.
She met the four Dalit patients at the trauma centre of the hospital, spending nearly five minutes talking to each of them. "I'm with you," she told them, offering all possible help.
Mayawati gave Rs 2 lakh each to seven Una victims - the other three, who hadn't needed to be hospitalised, attended her public meeting in front of the Ambedkar statue at Sarangpur.

"Many politicians have come to meet the victims but it is only now that we feel that someone who is one of us, like a family member, has come. Her presence was soothing and healing," Kevalsinh Rathod, a relative of one of the victims, said.

Mayawati said she had told the hospital not to discharge the patients before their condition became stable.
"I told them that if the hospital wants, it can refer them to Delhi where the BSP will bear the expenses of their treatment," she said.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1160805/jsp/nation/story_100687.jsp#.V6QPXZMrKqA