Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said, “If you want to attack, attack me, not dalits. If you want to shoot, shoot me”.

The Prime Minister was addressing a party meet in Hyderabad where he slammed the recent attacks on the dalit community and condemned the politics over the dalit issue. Attacking his political rivals, PM said, “Some people who thought that they control dalit votes could not digest the fact that people are now getting to know about BJP’s good work.”

The PM evoked the ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ (the entire world is a family) ideology, which is the fabric of Indian culture and said that it is a shame that we are attacking our own brothers and sisters.

While BSP, SP and the Congress said PM Modi’s anguish about atrocities against Dalits is not real.

“PM Modi and the BJP kept quiet for two years. How have their eyes opened now? Uttar Pradesh and other states have elections soon, and they knew that Dalit people are not going to vote for them, that’s why the statement has come,” Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati said.