Bengaluru: Social reformer and Civil rights activist Martin Luther King III who inaugurated Dr B R Ambedkar International Conference in Bengaluru compared Donald Trump and Narendra Modi’s governments and said the minorities are being targeted in their leaderships.
“Like Donald Trump’s campaign and the election of Modi has unleashed a ferocious animosity against minorities,” King III said.
“In India cow vigilantism is present. A Dalit or minority is killed by cow vigilantes and the police just stand and watch,” he added, reports OneIndia.
Drawing parallels between the two nations, King III said: “Has anything changed for the blacks in America now? After all the struggle my father went through? Economic instability continues and here in India caste bias continues.”
He said after Donald Trump’s election, hate crimes in America have been on a rise. Similarly, in India, Muslims and Dalits are being thrashed.
“Cow vigilantes attack Muslims while police remain spectators. Assaulting a Dalit, Muslim, a woman or anyone weak has become the new normal. People who believe that India should be a Hindu nation are being placed in powerful positions of democracy,” the activist added.
“Caste system is a prison without walls. Just like my father spoke of ‘black life matters, Dalit life matters. Untouchability was outlawed 60 years ago, yet upper caste men do not eat with Dalits or sit with Dalits,” he said. Drawing parallels between life, principles and works of Dr B R Ambedkar and his father Martin Luther King Jr, King III said that it was time for India to be through racism, casteism and sexism.