E-Paper
At its social justice meet, BJP woos Dalit Pasis in UP
Party leaders also recalled how BJP regimes had always taken up tasks for promoting Dalit Pasis in UP
Top leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday played out to Pasi subcaste among Dalits in UP in its second caste outreach meeting which the party has named social justice meets. The BJP had started off these meets by holding a meeting of Prajapatis, the Other Backward Caste (OBC) community, recently.
In the absence of chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who was in Kushinagar to take stock of PM Narendra Modi’s visit for the inauguration of the Kushinagar airport on Wednesday, UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev hit out at the opposition parties accusing them of running a ‘family trust’.
Targeting the Congress, which has been focusing on “soft Hindutva” in the run-up to the 2022 UP polls, the BJP chief said, “The Congress refused the existence of Lord Rama, coined words like Hindu terror and got the revered Shankaracharya arrested.”
Pitching the BJP as a party with honest leadership, he said, “The Congress and the other opposition parties have looted the country. In contrast, the country today has a Prime Minister who used to sell tea and whose family members never sat on a government vehicle but who promised government scheme for houses for the poor.”
UP deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya hailed the contribution of Pasi community country’s freedom struggle. “The Pasi rulers made life hell for the British. This community has been given full respect by the BJP unlike the Congress and other opposition parties which have only flattered to deceive them,” he said. Deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma cautioned against powers who, he claimed, were out to divide the masses.
The BJP leaders also recalled how BJP regimes have always taken up tasks for promoting the community. Union minister Bhanu Pratap Verma, national chief of the party’s scheduled caste wing Lal Singh Arya, BJP’s state general secretary Priyanka Rawat, scheduled caste wing chief Ramchandra Kannaujia, UP minister Suresh Pasi among others were also present in the meeting held in Lucknow.
To woo Dalits, specially Jatavs, the BJP has already got Baby Rani Maurya, its national vice president, to hold rallies across the state.
