Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Gujarat of promoting a pattern of injustice and oppression against Dalits and tribal communities and promised to amplify the voices of victims.
Sharing a video of his interaction with a delegation from Gujarat, including those affected by the 2016 Una caning case, the Congress leader regretted that the victims of the caning case were still waiting for justice.
Gandhi’s interaction came in the backdrop of the March 17 ruling by a special court in Gujarat’s Gir Somnath district, which sentenced five people to five years in prison. The court also acquitted 35 others of the July 11, 2016 attack, when more than 40 men from an upper-caste community stripped and flogged four Dalit men for skinning dead cattle, claiming they had killed the cow. The brutal assault was recorded on a mobile phone and sparked massive outrage across the country.
“About 10 years ago, the Una incident shook the entire nation. Some Dalit youth were publicly stripped naked and brutally beaten. I was along with their families at that time. But it is deeply unfortunate that even after a decade, they have not received justice nor have their wounds healed; instead, the situation has worsened,” Gandhi said in a post accompanying his YouTube video.
“Una’s victims are still waiting for justice. This long wait for justice, lasting more than 10 years, is in itself a grave injustice. This is not just a few incidents, but the failure of a system in which the voices of the weak are suppressed and the perpetrators are protected,” he added.
“Listening to the delegation today, it was clear that instead of improving, the situation has become even more horrible… Under the BJP government in Gujarat, the atmosphere of hatred, discrimination and atrocities against Dalits and tribal communities has continued to deepen,” he said.
The delegation complained that the state government had not fulfilled its promises of assistance to the victims. “It’s been 10 years and not a single demand has been met. The court released the police and we fear for our lives,” a family representative told Gandhi. Another member said he suffered 19 fractures after an attack by the mining mafia in the state, and said they had the support of senior officials.
