Mayawati asks govt to take action against those involved in assault of Dalits in Guna

Lucknow: BSP president Mayawati on Thursday termed as "cruel and shameful" the attack on Dalits in Madhya Pradesh, saying incidents of Dalits being "uprooted" under the BJP regime are as common as during the Congress rule.

A purported video of the incident on social media showed the police hitting a Dalit man mercilessly with batons and his wife and others trying to save him.

Officials had said that a Dalit couple, who were being removed from a plot of government land allotted for a college in Guna city, consumed pesticide in protest on Tuesday.

In a tweet, the BSP supremo said, "To force a couple to attempt suicide by damaging their crop sown by taking debt with the help of JCB machine, in the name of encroachment, is most cruel and shameful.

Nationwide condemnation of the incident is natural.

The government should take strict action.

" "On the one hand, the BJP and its government blow its trumpet on settling Dalits, while on the other hand, incidents of uprooting them are as common as they were during the Congress rule, then what is the difference between the two.

Dalits should especially think about this," the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said.

Officials in Madhya Pradesh had said the (farm) land was reserved for a government model college.

Rajkumar Ahirwar (38) and his wife Savitri (35) were working on the land.

When officials asked them to vacate the field, they protested and drank pesticide at the behest of those who had encroached on the land, they claimed.

The two also refused to go to the hospital so the police had to use force to take them to hospital, they claimed.