AAP leader who quit as minister now calls Modi weak PM, says UP CM must resign for not protecting Dalits

AAP leader Rajendra Pal Gautam, who resigned from ministership after a controversy erupted over a religious conversion event, on Monday hit out at the Prime Minister for failing to control crimes against Dalits in the country.

Gautam called Narendra Modi “a weak PM” and demanded his resignation and also of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, over an incident of beating of a Dalit man by upper caste men in UP.

Read | Delhi minister Rajendra Pal Gautam resigns after controversy over religious conversion event

“Stop these casteist shoddy acts Narendra Modi ji. Otherwise you resign. Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh is a complete failure in handling law and order. I know that you are such a weak Prime Minister that you can't even take resignation from him! You don't worry, my Bahujan Samaj will answer,” Gautam said in a tweet in Hindi.

He also shared a purported video on his Twitter account which showed a few men abusing and assaulting a man. It has been alleged that the assaulters belonged to an upper caste and the victim was a Dalit.

Gautam, a former minister of Delhi's Social Welfare department, resigned from his post on Sunday amid a controversy that erupted after he was found attending a religious conversion event where Hindu deities were allegedly renounced.

The BJP had used the issue to attack AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal during the election campaigning in Gujarat and accused him of being "anti-Hindu."

Gautam, who was the Minister for Social Welfare, SC and ST, and Registrar of Co-operative Societies and Gurudwara Elections, said he is resigning as minister as he does not want his leader or AAP to be in trouble because of him.

According to sources, Gautam's resignation is yet to be accepted by Kejriwal.

The controversy erupted after a video from October 5 went viral showing Gautam at an event where hundreds took a pledge to convert to Buddhism and to not consider Hindu deities as gods.