Dalit BJP MP complains against Yogi Adityanath to Narendra Modi
LUCKNOW: Chhotelal, a Dalit MP of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has complained to Prime Minister Narendra Modi against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, saying the latter scolded and shunted him out when he met him over a party-related problem.
In a letter to Modi written last month, Chhotelal, an MP from Robertsganj in Uttar Pradesh, complained about a local party functionary helping the rival Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in a block-level election and undermining his efforts. He said attempts were being made to induct the BSP rival into the BJP.
Chhotelal said the apparent grudge was that a Dalit had been elected from a general seat.
Chhotelal said he met state BJP chief Mahendra Nath Pandey thrice "to save his dignity". He also met state BJP General Secretary Sunil Bansal and other party functionaries, but there was no help.
"So, I met the Chief Minister twice but did not get any help. I was scolded and shunted out," Chhotelal said.
The BJP MP also said he was threatened with a pistol by an opponent who used abusive, casteist language against him, but the police did not register a case.
"Tired over lack of response, I wrote to the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes," he said.
"I request you to protect the honour of Dalits and adivasis...," he said in his letter to Modi.
Chhotelal, a film artiste and Bhojpuri singer, also sought registration of a case against those who he claimed had attacked him.
The letter has surfaced at a time when the Congress and other opposition parties are seeking to target the BJP over the "dilution" of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
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Pakistan reports two more polio cases; Total tally now 52
ISLAMABAD: At least two more cases of poliovirus were reported in Pakistan, taking the number of infections to 52 so far this year, a report said on Friday.
“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of two more wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Pakistan," an official statement said.
The fresh infections — a boy and a girl — were reported from the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
“Genetic sequencing of the samples collected from the children is underway," the statement read. Dera Ismail Khan, one of the seven polio-endemic districts of southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has reported five polio cases so far this year.
Of the 52 cases in the country this year, 24 are from Balochistan, 13 from Sindh, 13 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
There is no cure for polio. Only multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five can keep them protected.
