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Big turnout at Dalit rally in Madhya Pradesh fires up BJP |
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Saturday, 01 October 2005 |
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For a party which has traditionally never been consciously associated with Dalit mobilisation, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Scheduled Caste "mahasangam" on 1 October 2005 at Dasara Maidan evoked an encouraging response. So much so that a beaming LK Advani said more Dalit rallies were in the offing in Punjab (he did not spell out the host city) and Bangalore in the coming weeks. He said he had never seen something like this for a long time. Frontline BJP leaders like Murli Manohar Joshi, M Venkaiah Naidu, Uma Bharti, Kailash Joshi and Madhya Pradesh state unit chief Shivraj Singh Chauhan were present on the occasion. Advani also told the huge gathering that he would soon be convening a conference of chief ministers of all BJP-ruled states to get an update on what they had done for the Dalit cause. Parties like the Congress had, over the years, glibly talked of serving the Dalit interest, but nobody had done as much for them as Bhairon Singh Shekhawat during his stint as Rajasthan Chief Minister. The Antyodaya scheme, under which his regime took in its economic care the five poorest families in each village, remained a landmark. Advani said party patriarch Deen Dayal Upadhyaya had maintained that the surest way to measure the country’s economic progress was the condition of its weakest classes. In fact, this was also the sole criterion in measuring the success or failure of any ruling regime.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 25 July 2007 )
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