Kharge blames BJP of nurturing ‘Manuwadi system’ for IPS officer Y Puran Kumar’s death

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday accused BJP of nurturing a “Manuwadi system” that he said had become a curse for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, and weaker sections of society. His remarks came after the death by suicide of senior Dalit IPS officer Y Puran Kumar.

In a post on X in Hindi, Kharge said the reported suicide of Kumar was not only “deeply shocking” but also a horrifying reflection of social injustice, inhumanity, and growing insensitivity. He expressed condolences to the officer’s family, saying that even a senior Dalit officer had been denied justice and a fair hearing under the BJP regime.

Kharge alleged that over the past 11 years, BJP had entrenched a “Manuwadi mentality” so deeply in the system that marginalised officers were left without recourse. “When the Chief Justice of India can be attacked in the Supreme Court and BJP’s ecosystem defends it in the name of caste and religion, it is clear that the slogan of ‘Sabka Saath’ was nothing but a cruel joke,” he wrote.

The Congress chief further said that such a mindset of social oppression, rooted in centuries of discrimination, was far from changing. “That is why incidents like the brutal mob lynching of unarmed Dalit youth Hariom Valmiki happen, and yet Prime Minister Modi does not utter even two words of condemnation,” he added.

Calling the episode a mirror of the BJP-RSS-backed system, Kharge said it was not just an individual tragedy but a symptom of a broader, unjust structure that continues to crush the dignity of Dalits, Adivasis, OBCs, and minorities. He warned that such a system posed a serious threat to India’s Constitution and democracy.

IG Y Puran Kumar, a 2001-batch IPS officer, died by suicide at his official residence on Tuesday afternoon, leaving the state police fraternity in shock. His wife, Amneet P Kumar, who was part of the Haryana Chief Minister’s delegation on an official visit to Japan, cut short her trip and returned to Chandigarh on Wednesday after receiving the news.