The seating arrangement on the occasion of International Yoga Day on June 21 in Madhya Pradesh’s Jabalpur has sparked off controversy as state’s ruling BJP’s Rajya Sabha member Sumitra Valmiki has accused the district administration of not giving her a chair on stage due to her being a Dalit.
Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar was present as chief guest on the occasion.
The MP claimed that she was later called on stage but her chair was pushed back and she wasn’t given a bouquet. The matter came to the fore after she wrote to Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and state BJP president V. D. Sharma regarding the ‘slight’ to her.
“I was not given any bouquet and also a proper seat on the stage because I am a Dalit. District Collector Saurabh Suman deliberately insulted me because of my caste,” Valmiki alleged.
Talking to media persons, she said: “We (Dalits) have been tortured for centuries. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is trying to end this practice. He wants to give us equal status, but there are still some frustrated minds in society. As Nelson Mandela fought for apartheid throughout his life, Modi ji is also fighting against caste discrimination today.”
In response to the allegations of the MP, District Collector Suman said that they were only following the action plan as given to them by the government. He also apologised to her.
Meanwhile, the Congress called the incident “an insult to the Scheduled Caste community”.
“BJP made a Dalit woman a Rajya Sabha MP for votes and politics, but their purpose was never to give respect and equal rights to them. The Congress party condemn the incident,” state media in charge K.K. Mishra said.
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