Long after I leave Parliament, I will remember what happened yesterday afternoon. It was a great learning experience. It was very embarrassing what was said about Mayawati Behenji, yet she reacted so calmly. It was the sign of a great leader.

We all, across party lines, had to convince her that we would take up the issue in the House, and we did; and then when she gave her speech, what a great speech she gave. I was fortunate enough to listen to it. Behenji, you gave it back yesterday. It was an honour, it was a privilege to work together with you for 15-20 minutes.

I respect religious sentiments. I deeply respect the worship of the cow. But while you venerate the cow, how can you mock and ridicule the oppressed whose only job is to skin the carcass. There are 25 lakh people involved with the tannery industry. How many of us in the Rajya Sabha are wearing leather shoes? What’s the problem with that? We all have our own beliefs. But we all have to do our jobs. So let them do their jobs. They were only doing their jobs.

Leather export is a great part of our country. And these people have been doing this for generations. So the issue is, let us all venerate the cow, but why mock the cow worker? The animal is important, yes, but is the human being expendable?

I heard the first speaker from the BJP. He continued the style in which this Governemnt has been functioning. For the BJP, it is all about superficial symbolism. For example, he spoke about Dr Ambedkar International Centre that was inaugurated recently, which is a beautiful construction. But the BJP speaker also spoke about the Prime Minister translating the vision of Dr Ambedkar. I have no doubt the Prime Minister is trying to translate the vision, but sometimes in translation the meaning gets lost; and I believe it’s a bad translation of Dr Ambedkar.

I can say about the conditions of Dalits in numbers. One out of three live below the poverty line; one of two are under-nourished; eight out of 10 Dalit children die before they reach the age of one; one out of two Dalit children are illiterate; one out of four prisoners in jails all across India is a Dalit; 3 lakh cases under trial involve SCs and STs.

With my limited experience, I’m reading out a line from the suicide note of Hyderabad Central University’s Rohith Vemula. I visited the university after the suicide and spoke with the students there. I’ve got a carefully-kept copy of the suicide note that Rohith wrote. He wrote: ‘Every time a Dalit student joins the university, supply him or her with a nice rope so he can use it to hang himself.’ This is the condition. What does he go on to say? ‘Please serve 10 mg sodium azide to all the Dalit students at the time of admission.’

What are we coming to today, Sir? Today is our party’s biggest day, the Martyrs’ Day rally in Bengal, but Mamata Di said “No, don’t come back,” and so three of us MPs in the House are staying here to be able to speak on this issue. Now the latest we hear is that there are people (and I’m not blaming any political party, they may be your sister organisations or whoever else) who have started a cattle census; they are going from house to house to find how many cows you have. Whose business is it to find out how many cows I have or how many goats I have or how many dogs I have at home?

There is a limit. This is a great India where it doesn’t matter what community you come from. I come from a community which has 75,000 people in India, I can eat what I want, I can drink what I want; yet the power of democracy is that it can still bring me here to the Rajya Sabha. This is the India I know; this is the India which Mamata Di believes in. This is the unity in diversity I understand and dare someone try to spoil this away from us! Any kind of community, be it Dalit, be it minority, be it the oppressed, be it the woman.

Sir, I can stand here and give you three or four suggestions about what Bengal has done. But I’m wondering should I give through you, Sir these suggestions to the Government. I can tell you that there are 70% extra seats today in Bengal in higher education, without touching the general category. I can tell you about a scheme called Shikshashree which talks about SC and ST girls from classes 7 and 8. But I won’t give you these facts, because these numbers will not make a difference, and I will tell you why.

Sir, whatever numbers I give you about the good work in Bengal, won’t matter. The problem is not with the numbers, the problem is with the mindset. It is a mindset problem. And if you start using words which I get very scared with – the speaker used the word ‘empathy,’ – what is empathy? What is empathy, Sir? The problem is, in the past, and I am not going to glorify these people by mentioning their names, there have been six to seven people from the ruling party who’ve made these obnoxious statements. Nothing has happened to them. It’s good at least one guy yesterday was thrown out.

In fact, Sir, I don’t want to get controversial, so I want this to be clarified, and after this I will conclude. In 2010, there was a controversial statement, still floating around in the media (and we need to put an end to this), when the Chief Minister of a State in western India made a statement. That Chief Minister, as reported in the media, said that the Dalits are “mentally retarded.” This is in a book titled Samajik Samrasta. Let’s clarify that. I’m saying this is a media report and this also needs to be clarified. So unless we punish the mindset the whole system will get polluted.

Sir, I have two quick points in conclusion. If you are a Dalit and if you are a Hindu, you get the benefits, excellent; that’s the way it is in the Constitution. The Constitution was further modified to include Buddhists and Sikhs to get all the benefits. Till today, if you are a Christian and you are a Dalit, you do not get a single benefit. We need to address this law, Sir, because it is also about a minority community.

Sir, in conclusion, the BJP, it has to be said, is excellent at searching for voters but maybe it now needs to seek out citizens. Each vote counts, but so does each human life. Under this glorious republican Constitution, given to us by Dr Ambedkar, a Constitution where we are all equal, a Constitution where even a humble Dalit woman has the same dignity as a self-important obnoxious politician.

Thank you, Sir.