Party is not against dalits: TRS leaders

HYDERABAD: A day after TRS MLA T Harish Rao slapped an OSD, K Chander Rao, a Dalit, at AP Bhavan, the TRS leadership is making efforts to convince people that the party is not against Dalits.TRS leaders hoped that Harish Rao and other party leaders who were present at the AP Bhavan, do not have to face any legal problems and expected them to wriggle out of it. “We are trying to settle the matter as soon as possible,” said party sources.TRS leaders had arrived in Hyderabad on Friday and held meetings clandestinely to discuss about the incident.Sources told the Express that leaders had watched clippings of the incident on TV and hoped that the MLA’s violent act would not attract a case under the Prevention of Atrocities (POA) Act, 1989.To play safe, TRS leaders argued that Harish Rao was just enquiring about the AP Bhavan staff and had no intention to beat up an employee.“The MLA did not know who Chander Rao was and how can one think that he knew which caste the man belonged to,” the TRS leaders questioned. According to them, this incident would not become a legal problem and that Harish Rao would be safe. However, they made desperate efforts to make people understand that their party was not “anti-Dalit”.On the other hand, they said, even if a case under the POA Act was slapped on TRS leaders, they would not be cowed down by such incidents.“We are ready to go to jail for T,” a TRS leader said.According to TRS leader, B Vinod Kumar, Harish would not face any legal problem. “We are ready to face any kind of situation in our fight for Telangana and are not bothered about the police,” Kumar assured.It is learnt that the TRS leaders are reportedly trying to make a compromise with the officer to prove that the party is not anti-Dalit.