Angry Dalits hit streets in Nagpur

ISSUE OVER STATUE: Maharashtra has been on the edge since Ambedkar's statue was defaced in UP.

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New Delhi/ Mumbai: The Maharashtra Government is bracing up for massive Dalit protests in Nagpur over the Khairlanji killings and the alleged desecration of B R Ambedkar’s statue in Kanpur.

On Monday, Maharashtra police arrested Dalit leaders Prakash Ambedkar, D Raja and 20 supporters outside Diksha Bhomi in Nagpur.

The state Assembly convened in the Nagpur Bidhan Bhavan witnessed stormy scenes and was adjourned after the issue snowballed over Congress' handling of the protests last week.

Dalit organisations plan to take out a protest rally of one lakh people in Nagpur to protest against the killing of four members of a family in Khairlanji village and vandalism of the Ambedkar statue.

To drum up support for the Dalit organisations, Left parties leaders and social activists plan to defy police orders in Nagpur.

RPI leader and MP Ramdas Athawale was detained on his arrival at the airport. Athawale was among the five Dalit leaders, who along with CPI(M) politburo member Brinda Karat, were banned from entering the city to participate in the rally. Karat, Dalit leaders Prakash Ambedkar, Jogendra Kawade, Sulekha Kumbhare and Rajendra Gavai were among the 300 activists taken into preventive custody.

"We will defy prohibitory orders and take out a march and court arrest," said CPI leader D Raja.

There is tight police security in the city and police have appealed to people not to assemble at 'Deekshabhoomi' where late Babasaheb Ambedkar embraced Buddhism in 1956.