Mayawati shedding crocodile tears for Dalits: BJP

New Delhi, Aug 5: Hitting back at BSP supremo Mayawati, BJP today alleged that she was merely interested in doing politics in the name of Dalits and cited a number of cases of crimes against the community members in UP to wonder why she never visited these families.

BJP targeted her after she launched a sharp attack on it in Ahmedabad over beating up of Dalits by cow vigilantes in the state ruled by the saffron party. Its national secretary Shrikant Sharma accused her of entering into a deal with Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh.

"She has double standards. When she was in power, there were over 30,000 cases of atrocities against Dalits. A Dalit family in Kannuaj was run over and one person died in police firing but she did nothing. Now she is shedding crocodile tears.

"A Dalit girl was raped and murdered in Hathras on January 1 this year and another was raped and killed in Meerut on November 9 last year. A similar incident happened in Noida. She visited none of the victim families. She has a deal with the SP government," he said.

Sharma said the BJP government in Gujarat had acted swiftly and all the accused are behind bars. He claimed that the Modi government had taken a number of welfare measures for the uplift of the Dalit community and referred to its decision to develop five places associated with Dalit icon B R Ambedkar.

"She is merely doing politics in the name of Dalit," he alleged. In a stinging attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and RSS, she said on one hand they talk of 'Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas', but on the other target Dalits and Muslims in the name of 'gau raksha' (cow protection).

PTI