Rahul Gandhi meets victims of Saharanpur violence at dhaba

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said there was no place for Dalits and the poor in today’s India. “Dalits are being oppressed and it is happening across the country and not just in UP,” he said.

Mr. Gandhi was speaking from a dhaba at the Haryana-UP border, where some of the victims were brought with the help of local Congress leaders. Mr. Gandhi was denied permission to visit violence-hit Saharanpur in western Uttar Pradesh, as well as the district hospital where victims are being treated.

“Rohit Vemula was oppressed and every day millions of people in this country are being oppressed. The governments responsibility to protect the citizens of this country but this government, is it doing its job properly,” he questioned.

“I wanted to go to Shabbirpur but I was stopped. The local administration denied my request to go to Shabbirpur village. It also refused my request to go the district hospital and meet the injured. I am going back after the local administration assured me that they would themselves accompany me to Shabbirpur village,” he said.

“The government has failed on law and order in UP. The national government is spreading fear in every section. The poor, Dalits, minorities, farmers are being oppressed through fear. This government listens to only the rich. And this is not how a country like India could be run,” he said in his speech.

Prohibitory orders have been enforced in Saharanpur and the borders have been sealed. When The Hindu contacted official sources, they said prohibitory orders would be lifted once normalcy returns.

Saharanpur authorities have denied permission to former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav as well.

Party sources had earlier told PTI that Mr. Gandhi left for Shabbirpur village, the centre of the caste-based violence in the district, by road on Saturday morning after meeting Congress president Sonia Gandhi. District authorities had said he would be stopped at the border.

Violence first broke out in Saharanpur about 40 days ago following a procession to mark Ambedkar Jayanti. On May 5, a person was killed and 15 people were injured in communal clashes.

About a dozen police vehicles were set ablaze and 12 policemen were injured on May 9.

On May 23, another person was shot dead and two others were wounded, following which the government suspended the SSP and district magistrate and transferred the divisional commissioner and the deputy inspector general of police.