The value of a Dalit life is less than that of a cow in the eyes of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Congress alleged on Friday.
The party sought to link the blocking of former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi’s Twitter account with the BJP’s “anti-Dalit” mindset and accused the ruling party of forcing Twitter to act against Mr Gandhi.
Addressing a joint press conference, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate and Dalit Congress leader Dr. Udit Raj (a former Lok Sabha member of the BJP) questioned why Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah had been silent on incidents involving Dalit women and daughters.
“Rahul Gandhi-ji's Twitter [account] is locked, our Congress Twitter handles are being locked because the Congress stood for Dalit beti (daughter). That is it,” alleged Mr. Raj.
Referring to the incident in Delhi where a 9-year-old Dalit girl was raped and murdered, the Congress leader said, “RSS and BJP supporters didn’t go to Nangal village in the Delhi Cantonment area. If a cow had been killed, thousands of them would have descended there. In the eyes of the BJP and RSS, the value of a Dalit life is less than a cow.”
Ms. Shrinate argued strongly that the Congress was not in violation of Twitter's own policy.
"Twitter categorically states that if you have shared personal information, which has already been available on a public platform, then it is not a violation of their policy. Rahul Gandhi-ji shared personal information or the pictures of those parents on 4th August. This was already available in the public domain through many platforms, including media, [and] the National Commission for Scheduled Castes. We were not in violation," she said.
