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Chandigarh, Oct 13 (IANS) Former National Scheduled Caste Commission chairman Vijay Sampla on Monday said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab ‘does politics in the name of Dalits, but in reality it protects those who commit atrocities against them and attack their rights.’
BJP leader Sampla told the media here that AAP MLA Manjinder Singh Lalpura, who was convicted and sentenced to four years in jail in a case of assault on a Dalit woman, has neither been expelled from the party nor disqualified from the Assembly.
“Instead, he continued to receive special privileges in prison.” He said, during the Assembly session in March 2024, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann allegedly used casteist language against a Dalit MLA, thereby insulting the entire community.
In April 2024, Minister Laljit Singh Bhullar made casteist remarks against the communities during a rally in Patti.
Later both Bhullar and the Chief Minister had to publicly apologize. Former Union Minister Sampla said that before the assembly elections, AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal had promised to make a Dalit Deputy Chief Minister, but after coming to power he forgot the promise.
He said the Punjab and Haryana High Court rapped the state government for withholding its share of the post-matric scholarship fund, thereby hampering the education of Dalit students.
He said that out of the 30 victims in the Majitha poisonous liquor tragedy of May 2025, 16 were devout Sikhs. “Their families have neither received compensation nor jobs. In another case in Ludhiana, the SC/ST Act was not implemented despite Dalit victims.”
Sampla said, ever since AAP came to power, the statues of Dr. BR Ambedkar have been vandalized several times in Amritsar and Phillaur.
“The government also stopped Rs 25 crore sanctioned for the Guru Ravidas Bani Study Centre, hurting the sentiments of the Ravidassia community.”
He questioned the silence of the AAP leadership on the atrocities. He said that in September 2023, the son of AAP leader Dinesh Dhal allegedly kidnapped a Dalit youth and beat him brutally.
“Yet the police did not register the case and put pressure on the victim to compromise,” Sampla said.
–IANS
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