LUCKNOW--Following in the footsteps of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has directed its upper caste leaders to have food with Dalits and invite them to their homes. VHP, an RSS-offshoot, had earlier asked its workers to dine with Dalits and befriend them in order to eradicate untouchability from the society.
With the latest initiative, BJP is looking to make inroads in Dalit vote bank of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). To implement the programme, the party will launch “Samajik Samrasta Abhiyan”, across the country from April 13, a day ahead of Bhimrao Ambedkar’s birth anniversary. The campaign will continue till April 20 and in these days BJP leaders will visit dalit dominated slums.
“BJP leaders from all castes and communities will visit slums in every ward, hold meetings with local residents and will also share meal with them in ‘sahbhoj’. The campaign is aimed at uniting different castes and communities,” said Gautam Chaudhary, president of Scheduled Caste Morcha, UP BJP.
The ‘Samajik Samrasta Abhiyan’ is aimed to remove the differences in society on the caste lines, he said adding a state level-programme of dinner for all castes will be organised in Lucknow during the campaign period”.
He sad the party has timed the launch of the campaign on the eve of Ambedkar’s birth anniversary as “certain people and political parties have done a branding claiming Ambedkar as their own”. He said Ambedkar was for every section and community and his contribution for the nation was not limited to any particular caste.
“The BJP will exhort its workers to make friends with families of other castes, including SCs and STs, and will encourage them to have meals at their homes. We will ask them to attend functions of families of other castes and invite them too (to their homes),” said Surendra Maithani, BJP’s Kanpur Mahanagar president.
Maithani has also decided to run a cleanliness campaign in the slums on first Sunday of every month to take ahead Swacch Bharat Abhiyan of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Indian Express
