A three-day conference is being organised in Karnataka on Dalit icon, BR Ambedkar, and the state of Dalits in the country.
In his inaugural address at the symposium on Friday, human rights activist and social reformer, Martin Luther King III drew a parallel between India and the US, and said that both countries are being ruled by people who have “little regard” for the poor, and where there is no respect for the rule of law.
He said both the countries are seeing a rise in hate crimes — a sweeping indictment of the Modi and Trump governments.
The conference comes a day after the BJP sent a strong political message by ensuring an emphatic victory for Ram Nath Kovind in presidential elections.
A California State University research says there have been over 1,000 hate crimes in the US since the 2016 election. And here (in India), cow vigilantes kill Muslims and Dalits as the police stand by,” King III added.
He was addressing 2,000 delegates at the conference, including Congress vice-president, Rahul Gandhi, Dr BR Ambedkar’s grandson, Prakash Ambedkar and Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi.
“If my father were here, he would have stood by the Dalit demonstrations that the country is seeing in different places,” King III added, drawing parallels between the values espoused by Ambedkar and King Jr.
Chief minister Siddaramaiah is hosting the conference, at a time when the Congress is trying to retain power in a state that has a majority population of Dalits and OBCs.
Polling in the states will take place in April 2018.
“Today we are told that being a good Indian means we have to ignore the inequality and exploitation in our midst. I reject such majoritarianism. It is opposed to the spirit of the Constitution,” Siddaramaiah hit out at the central government.
The three-day conference would conclude with a ‘Bangalore Declaration’ that outlines specific constitutional and institutional ways to respond to attacks on social justice.
