While MPs were paying their homage to Dr B.R. Ambedkar in Parliament, former Union minister Kumari Selja told the House that when she visited the temple at Dwarka as a minister, she was required to spell out her caste. The chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, P.L. Punia, says when he went to Puri, the sanctum sanctorum was promptly shut down for visitors. In Haryana alone, there has been a seven-fold increase in cases of atrocities on Dalits between 2000 and 2014. The situation, agrees P.L. Punia, remains grim and neither the Constitution nor the National Commission are able to protect the Dalits. Excerpts of his conversation with Bula Devi.