Chirag Paswan Writes To PM, Demands Executive Order To Restore Dalit Law

Chirag Paswan, son of BJP ally Ram Vilas Paswan, has hinted that unless retired Supreme Court judge AK Goyal be sacked from the Green Court, the Dalit protests of August 9 will be far more intense than the one in April, during which violence swept five states. Justice Goyal was part of the Supreme Court Bench, which, Mr Paswan's party says, "diluted" a law meant for the protection of  Dalits.

In separate letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr Paswan and his father Ram Vilas Paswan have also demanded a bill to restore the provisions of the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act in the current session of parliament. In case a bringing a bill is not possible at this point, it should be done through an executive order, cutting short the monsoon session to August 7.

On April 2, nearly a dozen people died in violence that flared up across five states when Dalit groups called for a Bharat Bandh to protest against a Supreme Court order, which they said, weakened a stringent law meant for to protect the community from atrocities. The order that stopped the arrest of accused under the SC/ST Act without any police verification, and allowed them to get bail. .

The  Dalits were upset and contended that the government was not making more of an effort to protect them.

The Supreme Court, however, refused to change its order, contending that its job was also to "protect the innocent". 

The bench comprising Justices AK Goyal and UU Lalit had said the order was not in conflict with the law. The Dalit agitation, they said, could have been held by "vested interests".

After the Supreme Court  order triggered an uproar, Paswan Senior, one of the key leaders of his caste in Bihar, had led a delegation of lawmakers to PM Modi to request that the government take up the issue strongly and ask the court to reconsider the issue.