Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao condemned the attacks on dalits on Monday when the latter were organizing a Bharat Bandh.
The CM called upon the people of the country to stand by the dalits, since they were economically, socially and politically suppressed for generations.
KCR said that special rights were incorporated in the Constitution for dalits and successive governments at the Centre had enacted laws to protect their rights and interests, for that very reason. And governments had a bounden duty to ensure that the laws and acts made for the dalits were implemented properly.
He said that dalits felt that the recent Supreme Court ruling making arrests not mandatory any more when complaints were filed under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act had weakened and diluted the act. The judiciary should take into account the feelings, agony and opinions of the dalits, he said.
The CM also said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should speak to the CJI in this regard, and urged the PM to tell the Supreme Court how the guidelines issued by it were punching holes in the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act.
The union government should take a sympathetic view on the ongoing agitation by the dalits who were crestfallen with the SC ruling, KCR said, and instill faith in the dalits that it stood by them.