The Punjab Congress will hold candle marches across the state on Monday to protest against the Haryana BJP government over the suicide of senior IPS officer Y Puran Kumar. The move comes after Dalits organised a large gathering in Chandigarh on Sunday against the incident.
BJP’s Punjab media cell head Vineet Joshi accused the Congress and the AAP of turning the issue into a political tool for their own interests. He said the parties raising questions about the BJP’s record on Dalit rights have themselves failed to protect those rights in the past.
The Punjab Congress has demanded the arrest of Haryana DGP Shatrujeet Kapur in the case. The party blamed the BJP government for dividing society along caste and religious lines, saying such polarisation led to the tragic incident.
State Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring demanded that the DGP be removed and arrested immediately. He said if a senior Dalit IPS officer could not get justice, it shows how difficult it must be for ordinary Dalits to be heard.
Warring pointed out that the Chandigarh Police, which comes under the BJP-led central government, had not included all the names mentioned in the officer’s suicide note in the FIR. He said this was deliberate to polasire people along communal and caste lines so that I could remain in power.
Former Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi blamed the “Manuvadi” ideology for the discrimination faced by Dalits. He said this ideology, drawn from the Manusmriti, promotes caste-based discrimination. Channi added that Y Puran Kumar’s suicide was not an isolated case, but part of a pattern of bias and oppression under the BJP government.
Also Read: IPS suicide: FIR updated after wife objects to ‘diluted sections'
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