New Delhi, Apr 14 (TOI): Responding to opposition attacks over “dilution” of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act following a Supreme Court ruling, PM Modi said on Friday that the Centre would not allow the law to be affected in the least and instead accused Congress of being insincere in its commitment to Dalit rights.

The assurance was part of a speech at a function to inaugurate the B R Ambedkar memorial at Alipur Road in New Delhi where he tore into Congress, alleging it was spreading rumours that reservations and social safety nets for Dalits would be done away with. He urged people not to fall in the “Congress trap” while reiterating his oft-repeated theme of Congress humiliating Ambedkar in his lifetime and death.

Addressing the controversy over the SC ruling doing away with automatic arrest for offences under the SC/ST Act, Modi said, “When the SC gave its judgment on the Act, we immediately filed a review petition. Very few know there was a six-day public holiday between the day of the judgment and filing of the review. I want to assure the country that the law, which was made stringent by us, will not be allowed to be affected (by the SC order).”

On March 20, the SC barred mandatory filing of cases under the SC/ST Act and also inserted the provision of anticipatory bail. It triggered a row and the Centre has since filed a review in the SC while Congress and other opposition parties accused the Centre of being slack in court.

Seeking to assure an important target constituency, Modi said it was his government which strengthened the SC/ST Act in 2015 by increasing the number of crimes to be treated as anti-Dalit atrocities from 22 to 47. He said when the law was amended, the government had not touched the provision which denied interim bail to the accused.

Modi devoted the rest of his speech for targeting Congress as being inimical to the interests of oppressed classes. Modi claimed Ambedkar quit the Nehru cabinet as he was not given adequate work and once he left, Congress repeatedly stalled his bid to get elected to LS. According to Modi, the political importance gained by backward classes in the 1990s forced Congress to talk about Ambedkar — calling it Congress’s “biggest compulsion”.
Interestingly, he also touched upon protests organised by Dalit groups on April 2 to argue that it gave a peep into how Congress created rifts in society by spreading rumours.