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In protest against the Supreme Court’s judgement allowing sub-classification under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe category, Dalit organisations today called for “bharat bandh” or general strike.
Political parties including the Bahujan Samaj Party, Azad Samaj Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal, and Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) also supported the bandh, whose impact was largely seen in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan, while the impact of the bandh was also seen in Jharkhand, Punjab, and Delhi.
In the national capital region, Dalit organisations held protests in Tughlakabad, Raja Garden, Laxmi Nagar, Ghaziabad and Hapur. The Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) and Azad Samaj Party also held protests at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar.
During the protest, Azad Samaj Party’s national president and Nagina MP Chandrashekhar Azad said that they have been compelled to come to the streets “because we feel that the government's intentions are wrong. The kind of comments the Supreme Court has made about implementing creamy layer…we do not trust the Supreme Court”.
Dalit student leader Ashutosh, who studies in Delhi University, said, “Such classification within the community will have a direct impact on the political and social consciousness of Dalits.” Meanwhile, senior Supreme Court advocate Mohammad Principal pointed to the backlogs in the implementation of the reservation policy.
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