46 pc more anti-Dalit atrocities, 91 pc more attacks on Adivasis: Congress cites NCRB to PM Modi

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had yesterday, 9 October, sharply taken to task the BJP's ‘Manuwadi system’ following the discovery of a suicide note from senior Dalit IPS officer Y. Puran Kumar in Haryana, calling it a “horrific testament to social injustice, inhumanity, and insensitivity” perpetuated by the current regime. Today, 10 October, he noted it was part of a chain of events resulting from the Modi government’s “direct assault on the fundamental principles of India's Constitution, social justice, and equality”.

In a follow-up post on X today, Kharge directly addressed prime minister Narendra Modi and cited the latest NCRB report, highlighting that the figures from 2013 to 2023 (Modi’s tenure began in 2014) reveal that atrocities against Dalits (the Scheduled Castes of India) have increased by 46 per cent and those against Adivasis (the Scheduled Tribes) have gone up 91 per cent under his governance.

Crimes against women and children had also gone up by 44.7 per cent and 204.5 per cent in this time, the Congress president – and leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha – highlighted, by way of a short video titled ‘No Achhe Din’.

Cyber crimes were up a whopping 1,418 per cent, the video added.

The ‘B’ in BJP stands for ‘betrayal’, the Congress video concluded.

In his post on X, Kharge — who belongs to a Dalit community himself — highlighted recent instances of such ‘betrayal’ by the Modi government, citing:

• Caste discrimination against the Haryana IPS officer who took his own life, leaving a suicide note that cited “blatant caste-based discrimination” and persistent harassment by senior officials.

• The recent lynching of Hariom Valmiki in Raebareli.

• The shoe attack on the Chief Justice of India, B.R. Gavai — also from a Dalit community — by a senior lawyer ostensibly ‘defending the Sanatan Dharma’, which the “BJP mindset” seeks to justify

• The atrocities against elderly Dalit woman Kamla Devi Raigar in Sawai Madhopur district of BJP-ruled Rajasthan…

“All these recent incidents are not just isolated events, but a dangerous manifestation of the RSS–BJP's feudal mindset,” Kharge cautioned.

Kharge’s post continued with the warning that the BJP-RSS politics now threatens democracy itself — in the ‘world’s largest democracy’ — by creating an atmosphere of intimidation and suppression, especially for Dalits, Adivasis, backward classes, minorities and other marginalised groups.

Kharge’s message is steadfast on one point — that this cannot be the nation’s future: “India will be governed by the Constitution, not by the decrees of any extremist ideology.”

He accuses the ruling establishment of ignoring the widespread suffering —and lightly echoing colleague Jairam Ramesh from earlier today, who took exception to the PM’s silences partnered by ‘performative statemanship’ — as the Congress president posted: “Dalits, Adivasis, backward classes, minorities and weaker sections are bearing the brunt of this, and you are keeping your eyes shut to these issues while remaining engrossed in your own spectacles.”

Why these warnings matter

These remarks come as the Congress intensifies its campaign against caste crimes, mob lynching and what it labels ‘bulldozer justice’ under the Modi-led central government and assorted BJP state governments — even as assembly elections are lined up in Bihar this year and several other states next year. The INDIA bloc Opposition allies have been repeatedly calling for legal accountability and social reform, and have individually and together reaffirmed their commitment to the vision of equality and justice enshrined in the Constitution of India by its lead architect Dr B.R. Ambedkar.

Kharge and other opposition leaders — including Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi and Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav, the Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav and other — have urged citizens to unite against injustice and insisted that the fight for dignity, safety and equal protection under the law must continue until every Indian enjoys the rights assured by the Constitution.

Kharge’s post also reflects not only the pain and anger of those who have suffered personal tragedies, but an effort to leverage these shocking events towards making social justice, constitutional rights and anti-discrimination politics the core issues in India’s ongoing democratic debate — to the end of, hopefully, bringing those soaring statistics back under some semblance of control in an increasingly polarised nation.

By contextualising these statistics and personal stories, Kharge has challenged not just PM Modi but Indian civil society to confront both individual perpetrators as well as the systems and attitudes that sustain discrimination, intolerance and hate crimes.

With elections, policy reforms and nationwide protests on the horizon from various Opposition groups (not just the INDIA alliance but also, for example, Ladakh’s fight for the Sixth Schedule and Manipur’s vigil for justice), Kharge’s intervention seeks to galvanise both the political class and ordinary citizens in the cause of equality — reminding all that the battle for social justice in India, as promised by our Constitution, is far from over... almost eight decades after Independence.