Bahujan Samaj Party supremo, Mayawati, after not being allowed to speak on the various issues of violence against Dalits and other minorities, decided to leave Rajya Sabha. She was trying to raise what she alleged were atrocities on Dalits in Uttar Pradesh.
Accusing the BJP of being anti-Dalit and anti-minorities, Mayawati said, “Since the BJP has come to power, there have been atrocities on Dalits, minorities starting from Rohith Vemula in Hyderabad, then the Gau Rakshaks (cow vigilantes).”
Protesting over the ruckus created by the BJP MPs when she was speaking, an angry Mayawati then walked out of Rajya Sabha. She said that she would quit if she was not allowed to speak. “Let me speak or I will resign from the Rajya Sabha if I am not allowed to speak on Dalit atrocities,” Mayawati told Rajya Sabha Speaker PJ Kurien after he asked her to cut her impromptu speech short.
Before she walked out of the Upper House in protest, the Dalit leader raised the Saharanpur violence and criticised the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh for its handling of the matter. She also raised the suicide by Rohith Vemula and the flogging of Dalit men in Gujarat’s Una by self-styled cow vigilantes.
After walking out, she had a word with media where she accused BJP of being anti-Dalits and anti-minorities.