Dalit bodies may stop BJP men from garlanding Ambedkar

Dalit organisations, led by the young Dalit legislator from Gujarat Jignesh Mevani may have given a call not to allow the ruling BJP leaders to garland statues of B R Ambedkar on his birth anniversary on April 14.

The BJP in Gujarat has announced a slew of programmes to commemorate the event.

Mevani had issued the call recently, in the wake of observations made by Supreme Court with regards to the SC/ST Atrocities Act.

He blamed the central government for not making enough efforts to convince the apex court on the issue.

"Before April 14, the government should bring an Ordinance on Atrocity Act (to repeal the recent order). If they do not, we will not allow them to garland Dr Ambedkar's statue," he had said at a public event recently. He had also said that he wanted Dalits to celebrate April 14 as "sangharsh diwas" for their rights.

While he had earlier announced that he would be part of a large human chain by Dalit workers at Sarangpur in Ahmedabad to stop BJP leaders from reaching the statue of Dr Ambedkar, he is now slated to be at Samakhiyali in Kutch district.

Mevani will be at the entry checkpoint of Kutch, blocking the national highway in protest against the transfer of land allocated to members of Dalit community several years ago.

Mevani also released a video message for his followers to ensure that there is no violence during their protest and no attempt to stop BJP leaders from reaching Ambedkar's statue.

Meanwhile, the BJP in Gujarat on late Friday evening stated that its youth wing would be celebrating Dr Babasaheb's birth anniversary by organising 'Social Harmony Convention' across all the 33 districts and 8 major cities of the state.

As part of the celebrations, BJP youth wing workers would organise 'maha aarti' in temples along with youngsters from different communities.

"Thereafter, photographs of Dr Ambedkar would be garlanded and his views on nationalism discussed. To emphasise that he was not a leader of any particular community but of the entire country, luncheons too would be held,"  the BJP said in its statement.

The events across the state would be attended by several legislators and parliamentarians from the party, with main event to be held in Surat.

The Surat event would be attended by Gujarat BJP chief Jitu Vaghani and BJP Yuva Morcha national president Poonam Mahajan.