Cong buys plot to give Dalit home

Adding another chapter to the battle for Amethi and its Dalits, the Congress today bought land to rebuild the house of a lower-caste family ...

Adding another chapter to the battle for Amethi and its Dalits, the Congress today bought land to rebuild the house of a lower-caste family razed allegedly by Thakurs in Punnupur village, an incident that had invited the now-famous visit from Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

The plot lies right next to the spot where the original house of Ram Bhajan and family stood.

The Congress decision follows almost a week after Mayawati challenged the Nehru-Gandhi8217;s show of concern for Dalits and two days after the Chief Minister made Amethi a district and renamed it as Chatrapati Sahuji Maharaj as her sop for the Dalits.

8216;8216;This is our dignified reply to Mayawati8217;s outburst at her Amethi rally on December 11,8217;8217; Sultanpur District Congress Committee leader Jaya Ram Gautam told The Indian Express after a party workers8217; meeting in Amethi today. 8216;8216;We8217;ll construct the house by shramdaan and ask Priyanka to hand it over to Ram Bhajan.8217;8217;

The Dalit family8217;s plight had drawn national attention after Priyanka made it a point to visit them at Punnupur village during her Amethi visit on November 24. She had personally taken Ram Bhajan to Sangrampur police station and forced them to register a case about destruction of his house. She had also announced that the house would be rebuilt by Congressmen through shramdaan.

In a sharp reaction, Mayawati had justified the administration8217;s stand that the land on which the Dalit8217;s house stood belonged to a Thakur, and her government had stopped Priyanka from proceeding towards Punnupur for shramdaan.

In a rally at Amethi later, Mayawati had gone on to attack the Nehru-Gandhi family and announced a separate district of Amethi named after Sahuji Maharaj. The state cabinet endorsed her decision on Wednesday.

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The Congress has now decided to respond by rebuilding Ram Bhajan8217;s house. 8216;8216;A biswa of land on the adjoining plot 869 has been bought by the AICC from Pratap Narain Shrivastava of Punnupur and now no one can stop us from building a house there. We8217;ll ask Priyankaji or Soniaji to hand it over to Ram Bhajan,8217;8217; Rajiv Singh, president of the Amethi Block Congress Committee, said.

Amethi Congressmen have also objected to the move to name the new district after Sahuji Maharaj. They plan to stage sit-ins across the Lok Sabha constituency on December 24 to press that the new district either retain its name or be named after Rajiv Gandhi, who once represented the seat.

Mayawati is also facing resistance from ally BJP on the issue. Immediately after the Cabinet decision, scion of Amethi8217;s ruling family and BJP leader Sanjay Singh had publicly denounced the move. Singh8217;s wife Amita is an MLA from Amethi and a minister in the Mayawati government. He says the BJP leadership had assured him that the name of Amethi would not be changed.

A section of BJP leaders admit that Singh fears erosion of the influence wielded by his family in Amethi if it is named after Sahuji Maharaj. Singh, of course, wants Amethi to be renamed after his father, Raja Rananjay Singh.