BJP MLA faces charges of insulting Dalit panchayat president

    Danapuram (Andhra Pradesh), June 20 (PTI) BJP MLA from Adoni Constituency in Andhra Pradesh, PV Parthasarathi, is facing charges of insulting a Dalit Panchayat president at Danapuram village in Kurnool district recently.
    The Panchayat president filed a police complaint.
    The alleged incident occurred during Parthasarathi's visit to Dhanapuram on Monday where he was overseeing the Jal Jeevan Mission programme implementation at a temple premises.
    In a video that has gone viral, Parthasarathi was seen calling the president Chandrashekhar onto the rostrum in the temple premises, however as the president did not turn up, he called for him three-four times and then enquired that if the president was a Christian and hence hesitated to come onto the platform.
    Then a local woman TDP leader seen and heard in the video whispering to the MLA that the sarpanch belonged to a Schedule Caste (SC), later, the MLA acknowledged the whisper and gestured the sarpanch to stand on the ground in front of the elevated platform.
    The MLA's action is being criticised as caste-based discrimination.
     As the video went viral and triggered a controversy, the BJP MLA responded saying that he asked only about the president's religion because he "appeared reluctant to step onto the temple platform".
    "I called him to join me. As he seemed hesitant, I asked if he was from a different religion. TDP leader responded, as seen in the video," Parthasarathi told reporters.
    While denying discrimination, he acknowledged that the TDP leader mentioned his caste and apologised for that, taking full responsibility for what happened in his presence.
    Meanwhile, the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSRCP condemned the MLA's behaviour, accusing the ruling NDA coalition government of displaying "blatant caste discrimination".
    "Why does your alliance have such disdain for SCs, Naidu?" questioned the YSRCP in a post on 'X'.
    Similarly, the Human Rights Forum (HRF) condemned BJP MLA for failing to stop the public 'humiliation' of Dalit sarpanch during a Jal Jeevan Mission event.
    "TDP leader blocked the sarpanch, citing his caste," it claimed, demanding to invoke the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 against both the BJP MLA and the TDP leader and warned of protests if authorities fail to respond.
    "Despite taking an oath under the Constitution to uphold equality, the BJP MLA's silence in the face of discrimination is deeply troubling," said the HRF in a press release.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)