As the Congress and other opposition parties termed the ruling BJP as anti-Dalit for giving a weak response to the Supreme Court ruling which resulted in dilution of the law covering cases of atrocities against Scheduled Castes and Tribes, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday said that the government was planning a structured response to the ruling.
A group of BJP Dalit MPs met Prasad on Thursday and said that they would meet party president Amit Shah next to press for a review petition against the Supreme Court ruling that pronounced that a sanction from the appointing authority would be necessary before arrest or prosecution of an accused guilty of violating the provisions of SC/ST Act.
The MPs are wary that the ruling can be used by the opposition parties as a poll plank to portray the BJP as anti-Dalit, which could weaken their base among Dalits further. BJP has already lost some support from Dalits and people belonging from Scheduled Castes and Tribes because of the number of incidents of attacks on Dalits by cow vigilantes.
The Congress has upped the ante against the BJP saying that the 'upper caste party' is deliberately weakening the law that was brought by Rajiv Gandhi.
Congress Dalit leader and Rajya Sabha MP, PL Punia on Thursday charged the BJP government in Maharashtra and in Centre for not taking active part during the Supreme Court hearing and sending a junior law officer, instead of Attorney General, who failed to defend the law.
Punia charged that the submission of provision of anticipatory bail was, in fact, made by the junior law officer. He also criticised the Centre for misleading the court by stating that 75 of the cases have resulted in acquittal/withdrawal whereas the actual reason lies in improper investigation and not due to false cases.
BJP Dalit leader and spokesperson Bizay Sonkar Shastri conceded that it was a serious issue as 90 of criminal cases result in acquittal of the accused and the order would further weaken the law.
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 "Ravi Shanker Prasad with Santosh Kumar Gangwar-PTI")
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