Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi leader Prakash Ambedkar on Monday criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the violence in Manipur, drawing parallels with the ‘Gujarat genocide’.
“Violence started in Manipur on the model of Gujarat genocide. The BJP has always promoted religious polarisation and Brahminism in the name of ‘Achhe Din’, which is leading to an increase in hate crimes against Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and minority communities,” said Mr. Ambedkar.
Mr. Ambedkar, the grandson of social reformer and chief draftsman of the Indian Constitution, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, said model of ethnic cleansing and hatred, which brought the BJP to power during the ‘Gujarat genocide’, had now been imported to the northeastern States, evident in the ongoing violence in Manipur.
“There are many similarities between what is now happening in Manipur and what has happened in Gujarat, including state-sponsored violence, prolonged conflict, genocide, atrocities against women, and mutilation,” he charged.
“What is the government doing to stop the violence there? MLAs, MPs and other public representatives, who are trying to visit Manipur are being stopped… Irrespective of their religion and the party ruling the State, the people of northeast have always supported the Centre,” Mr. Ambedkar said.
“The shop of hate and casteism and the biggest contractor of this trade is sitting in Delhi. This person calls himself Pradhansevak. I would like to tell him, don’t live up to the name [Congress leader] Sonia Gandhi gave him after the 2002 Gujarat violence. This has put a question mark on the future of India as a secular federal state,” he said.
During the 2007 Gujarat Assembly polls campaign, Ms. Gandhi called Mr. Modi ‘merchant of death’ for the 2002 riots in the State.
