Which party cares for Dalits Today?
Ram Puniyani
Recently
anti-dalit atrocity laws were first diluted inserting the clause of
anticipatory bail. Following this there were serious protests all over.
In these protests, the anti dalit nature of present ruling dispensation,
BJP led NDA was highlighted. Under the pressure of the protests, the
government had to bring in a bill to restore its previous provisions. The Lok Sabha on Monday
(August 6, 2018) unanimously passed a Bill to reverse the effects of a
Supreme Court order concerning certain safeguards against arrests under
the SC/ST law. The amended ‘Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes
(Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Bill, 2018’, now rules out any
provision for anticipatory bail for a person accused of atrocities
against people from SC or ST communities, as it stood before the
revision. Ram Vilas Paswan, part of
NDA, thanked the Prime Minster and also criticized the Congress on the
occasion. To show that Congress is anti Dalit he raked up the elections
in which Congress had contested against Ambedkar. Ram Vilas Paswan’s own
allegiance to Ambedkar ideology is strongly under cloud, as he is
allying and empowering BJP, the party with agenda of Hindu Rashtra,
something which was an anathema for Ambedkar as he stood for social
justice, secularism and democracy.
As Paswan was well described as Mausam Vaigyanik,
(Scientist predicting weather) who in order to remain in power always
twists and turns and makes the ideological compromises. His own ideology
is that of hunger for power and his words in a way should not matter
much except on electoral chess board. His projection of the electoral
battle between Ambedkar and Congress is a very selective presentation of
the relationship between Congress and Ambedkar. While he points this
out he forgets that Ambedkar was not a member of Congress party any
time. Also that it is the same Congress party in whose government he was
made the Cabinet minister. He needs to be reminded that not only was he
minister in the first Cabinet of India, he was also made the Chairman
of Drafting Committee of Indian Constitution, in which Babsaheb played a
pivotal role. To cap this it was he who was requested to draft the
Hindu Code Bill, a major step to reform the family laws towards gender
just society.
While
the likes of Paswan, hankering after power do mouth the name of
Ambedkar, they deliberately forget that the major opponents of
Constitution drafted by him, the major opposition to Hindu Code bill
came from the stable of RSS, the parent organization of the party, in
whose alliance he is enjoying the perks of power. One can say that his
ally BJP’s agenda of Hindu Rashtra is polar opposite to the dream of
Babasaheb, the dream of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, the dream of
secular democratic India. RSS never hesitated in criticizing the Indian
constitution, calling it Western; BJP never severed its umbilical cord
to the Hindu nationalist RSS. Lately from within BJP itself from top
down, Hindu nationalism is being propagated and practiced.
On
the eve of 2014 general election Narendra Modi, the Prime Ministerial
candidate himself pronounced that he was born in a Hindu family; he is a
nationalist, so he is a Hindu nationalist. Another minister in the
Center, Anant Kumar Hegde stated that
BJP is there to change the Indian constitution and that secular
identity should not be used by the people. To cap it all the UP Chief
Minster Adityanath Yogi stated that Secularism is the biggest lie of
Independent India. BJP itself is very consciously walking the rope,
balancing the phrases and actions as for as dalits are concerned. On one
hand power-lust of some dalit leaders like Paswan, Udit Raj and Ramdas
Athwaley are used to give a pro dalit veneer to BJP’s actions, on the
other hand likes of Hegde and Yogi are forthright
about their political agenda. It is also true that for the sake of
electoral equations even BJP has to pay obeisance to Ambedkar, despite
having and agenda totally opposed to his political ideology.
At
ground level the impact of BJP-NDA, of which likes of Paswan are
members, has affected dalits in a very serious way. While through social
engineering they are also trying to woo a section of dalits through
manufactured icons likeSuhel Dev and Shabri Mata among
others, they have unleashed policies which affect the dalits in a very
adverse way. The merciless beating of dalits in Una, which Paswan
dismissed as a minor event, the emotive issue of Holy cow has affected
the livelihood of dalits in a big way. We also remember that it is
during this period that institutional murder of Rohith Vemula and the
anti dalit attack at Bhima Koregaon tormented the dalit community no
end. Even Modi Government on its own did dilute the Anti Dalit atrocity
act, only once they saw a serious opposition to their move that they
were forced to retreat for electoral calculations.
While
BJP pays tribute to Ambedkar on one side, at the same time it presents
Lord Ram as the central icon of its politics. What Ambedkar has said
about Lord Ram in his various writings like ‘Riddles of Hinduism’ is
well known to us. For BJP, what is important is to garland Babasaheb; it
is of no consequence to them to take the issues of social justice in
any serious way. The attempt to selectively present the electoral battle
of Congress and Ambedkar is a deliberate ploy to undermine the efforts
which national movement and Mahatma Gandhi-Congress did to fight against
untouchablity in particular. We have miles to go as far as Babasaheb’s
dream is concerned, but one thing which Ambedkar pointed out was that
Hindu Raj will be a big tragedy for dalits of the country. It is too
much to expect that likes of Paswan will realize their folly of allying
with BJP-RSS whose very agenda is inherently anti-dalit, as they are
blinded by lust for power!
