Union Minister Pashupati Paras flags 'rising' crimes against Dalits in Bihar at NDA meet

New Delhi, Dec 6 (PTI) BJP ally and Union Minister Pashupati Kumar Paras on Tuesday accused the Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government of acting with a sense of revenge against Dalits, particularly Paswans, and raised the issue of "rising" crimes against the community's members at a meeting of the ruling NDA.

The Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party leader, a day before the Winter Session of Parliament begins, also sought the Centre's intervention into the matter. In Arwal, a woman from the community was burnt alive along with her daughter for daring to complain to police about she being sexually assaulted, he said at the meeting that is customarily held before the beginning of a parliamentary session. 

He claimed that police did not act on her complaint initially, and also spoke about similar such incidents. Paras also alleged that officers from the Paswan community are being shunted to insignificant positions by the JD(U)-RJD-Congress alliance government in the state. 

Paswans are largely seen to be supporters of the Lok Janshakti Party founded by Ram Vilas Paswan. 

Though the party now has two factions, one headed by Paras and the other by his nephew Chirag Paswan, the groups are close to the BJP. 

While the Paras-led faction is officially a BJP ally, Paswan has also moved closer to it and has maintained a strong stand against Kumar. 

Paras claimed that incidents of crime against the community have been "rising" after Kumar snapped ties with the BJP. 

The NDA meeting was chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. Two other BJP allies, Union Minister Anupriya Patel of the Apna Dal and Agatha Sangma of the NPA skipped the meet.

(The above article is sourced from news agency PTI. Zeenews.com has made no editorial changes to the article. News agency PTI is solely responsible for the contents of the article)