Congress attitude of treating Dalits patronising: Shah to Rahul
New Delhi, Aug 9 : BJP President Amit Shah on Thursday advised Congress President Rahul Gandhi to give "some time to facts", accusing his party of treating Dalits with "patronising and condescending" attitude.
"Rahulji, when you are free from winking and disrupting Parliament, give some time to facts as well. NDA Government, through a Cabinet decision and in Parliament ensured the strongest amendment to the Act. Why are you protesting that?" Shah said in a series of tweets.
The Bharatiya Janata Party chief's remarks came soon after Gandhi said the government's "anti-Dalit mindset" became clear when Prime Minister Narendra Modi rewarded with re-employment a judge who diluted an Act that sought to deter atrocities against the marginalized.
Gandhi also said the BJP and the governments it led at the Centre had no space for Dalits in their hearts.
"Would have been good if Congress President would have spoken about his party's treatment towards Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, Babu Jagjivan Ram and Sitaram Kesari. Congress way of treating Dalits is patronising and condescending. For years Congress insulted Dalit aspirations," Shah alleged.
The Supreme Court had in a March 20 ruling laid down stringent safeguards, including provisions for anticipatory bail and a "preliminary enquiry" before registration of a case under the Act, citing instances of its abuse for political or personal reasons.
The ruling had angered Dalits. On July 6, Justice Goel retired from the Supreme Court. On the same day, he was appointed the NGT chairman.
The government had made an amendment to the 1989 act that overturned the Supreme Court ruling and restored the provision for immediate arrest of an accused.
The amendment was passed in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
The Rajya Sabha MP also said: "Is it a co-incidence that the year Sonia Gandhi joined the Congress, the Third Front-Congress government opposed reservations in promotions and the year Rahul Gandhi becomes Congress President, they oppose a tough SC/ST Act and OBC Commission! Anti-backward mindset visible."
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
