Dalit Virodhi Mayawati shows her true colours on a trivial matter, suspends MLA who supported CAA

In what further corroborates the fact that the Mayawati led BSP has sacrificed the ideology of Dalit empowerment for minority appeasement politics, BSP chief Mayawati on Sunday suspended party MLA Ramabai Parihar for speaking in support of the Citizenship Amendment Act.

Rambai Parihar, a lawmaker from Patharia assembly seat in Damoh district of Madhya Pradesh had praised PM Modi for bringing the Citizenship Amendment Act. Now, a restriction has also been imposed on Parihar from participating in any party event. 

The suspension of the BSP MLA further corroborates the anti-Dalit stance of the Mayawati led party. Ironically, the BSP claims to be the most ardent supporter of the Dalits’ cause. However, when it had the chance to help Dalits, it voted against the grant of citizenship to the persecuted minorities in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, an overwhelming majority of whom constitute Dalits who have been systematically persecuted and harassed in Pakistan.

In fact, more than 85 per cent of the Hindus living in Pakistan are reportedly Dalits, and they have also emerged as the biggest victims of the anti-minority Islamist polity in Pakistan. They are the worst victims of discrimination, kidnapping for ransom, rapes, false blasphemy cases and poverty. In fact, the two million-odd Hindu-Dalit population in Pakistan faces extreme deprivation. 

The Hindu Dalits living in Pakistan must be the most ruthlessly oppressed community in the entire sub-continent. More than 75 per cent of the Hindu-Dalits in Pakistan remain illiterate and immensely impoverished. Slavery is rampant and the Hindu-Dalits mostly work as agricultural labourers, garment factory workers, or as sweepers in Pakistan. There are no visible signs of their political empowerment or social upliftment. With lack of access to basic facilities, like education and primary healthcare, Dalit-Hindus remain the most vulnerable and troubled section of persecuted minorities in Pakistan.

At the time of partition, Pakistan PM Liaqat Ali had even told Indian High Commissioner “who would clean streets and latrines of Karachi if they are allowed to leave?” Unfortunately for the Dalits living in Pakistan, the Islamic Republic has been actually compelling the Dalits to carry out menial jobs in line with what Liaqat Ali had planned at that time.

Hindu Dalits in Pakistan faced the persecution of the extreme kindness and now the BSP is opposing the CAA, in its nefarious attempts to push back Dalits who fled to India facing persecution. So-called “Secularism” has become the topmost priority of the BSP and Dalit welfare has clearly taken a backseat.

Hindu Dalits who came to India facing unimaginable persecution in Pakistan, are clearly the biggest victims of religious persecution in the entire sub-continent. Opposition to CAA and suspension of Rambai Parihar has thus exposed the hypocrisy of the Mayawati led party and its easily shakable ideological foundations.