Mathura: In a dig at BJP president Amit Shah, Shankaracharya Swaroopanand Saraswati today dubbed as false the party’s love for Dalits and said leaders dining with Dalit families was a “purely political act”.
“Why don’t they dine with them without prior information,” the Shankaracharya of Dwarkapeeth and Shardapeeth questioned.
“For political gains, a new tradition of Dalit bathing at Kshipra river in Ujjain was established. There is no differentiation on the basis of caste, creed or colour in rivers, temples and religious places,” he argued.
Terming BJP’s love for Dalits as “false”, he said political leaders dining with Dalit families was a purely political act.
On May 31, Shah had a meal with a Dalit family in Jogiyapur village in Sevapuri Assembly segment in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency.
Shah, who was on his way to Allahabad to address a farmers’ rally, took a brief halt at Jogiyapur and had lunch with the family of Girjaprasad Bind and Ikbal Bind.
The BJP chief sat on the ground with the family members and shared the meal with them.
On the Dadri lyching incident, he said, “Nobody should be allowed to kill the cow when there is a ban on cow slaughtering in the state (Uttar Pradesh).
Nobody has the right to slaughter any animal at his home.
–PTI