Six decades after the Constitution abolished untouchability,
politicians can’t hope to woo Dalits by calling on them for supper. The poor
and landless demand their due.
The Delhi unit of
the BJP sent out a routine SMS yesterday to a number of journalists in the
city, requesting coverage of the party’s celebration of Ambedkar Jayanti. The
city state will go to the polls in six months and wooing Dalits makes perfect political
sense in an election year.
In Gujarat, for
example, the party is observing Ambedkar Jayanti as Samrashtra Divas (Equality
Day) and has launched its campaign for by-elections in four parliamentary and
two assembly seats in the state. Likewise in Bihar, it is celebrating the
occasion over three days with a series of programmes during 13-15 April to impress
the 18% strong Dalit vote bank in an early build-up to the Assembly polls.
So, it was not
surprising that Delhi BJP chief Vijay Goel held a press conference last
Wednesday and slammed Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit for neglecting Dalits.
Nobody raised an eyebrow when he made customary promises of providing Dalits with
low-cost flats and gas connections, if voted to power. An Ambedkar Jayanti gala
in attendance of national leaders such as Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Anant
Kumar and Ravi Shankar Prasad this afternoon is an obvious part of that
campaign routine.
But what gave
away the party’s upper caste snobbery was the language of its SMS media invite:
“…BJP national leaders will celebrate Ambedkar Jayanti and have a meal with
10,000 Dalits…” Really? What is it about people “having a meal with” other
people? If lunch or dinner is part of a celebration, normally, those who attend
eat together. But when top BJP leaders bring themselves to “have a meal” with
Dalits, they apparently think it is news worth covering.
Evidently, the
BJP leadership believes that such insults actually please Dalits, that such a patronising
gesture will politically benefit the party in, of all places, the country’s
capital. This brazen insensitivity only proves that untouchability, more than
six decades after the Constitution abolished it, is still very much a reality
both in practice and inside our heads.
Otherwise, when
outlandish poll promises and pre-poll incentives suffice for every other voter,
why politicians should consider sitting down to eat with Dalits essential for
impressing the community? But mind you, the BJP, and its dominantly upper caste
leadership, is not the only party guilty of this anachronistic stereotyping.
The Congress
enjoyed an almost undivided loyalty of the Dalit vote bank till the Mayawatis,
Paswans and Nitish Kumars breached that fortress. When Rahul Gandhi embarked on
a high-profile campaign to regain the party base in Uttar Pradesh, the mainstay
of his strategy was to win Dalits back. How? By demanding or accepting food from
Dalits and spending nights at their hutments.
At different
rallies in UP, the junior Gandhi promised he would continue to visit the poor and
enquire about their wellbeing while cribbing about how leaders from other
parties travelled in helicopters, AC vehicles and avoided visiting Dalit homes,
sharing food or drinking water. Not to be left out, Goel echoed the same
symbolism by announcing that he would visit Dalit colonies ON FOOT (emphasis
mine) to know their problems.
Would Dalits even
bother how and where the politicians travelled, supped or slept if they
themselves had better roads, enough to eat and roofs to sleep under? Unfortunately,
nearly seven decades after Independence, these basics still remain aspirations for
most in the community.
So while the BJP
leadership seeks to score brownie points by talking down to Dalits and the
Congress hopes to turn the tide in Bihar by appointing a mahadalit (the poorest Dalit communities) as the state party chief,
thousands of landless Dalits are marching towards Delhi.
Demanding
equitable distribution of land, they have mobilised under the National Alliance
for Dalit Land Rights and Ekta Parishad. The trigger for the nationwide movement
is the expiry of the six month deadline set for implementing the 10-point agreement reached between the Ekta Parishad’s Jan
Satyagraha (a collective of around 2000 outfits) and Rural Development minister
Jairam Ramesh last October.
In the agreement,
the government committed itself to come up with a National Land Reform Policy
to legally identify land for the landless poor and ensure equitable
distribution. According to National Sample Survey data, four out of every five
SCs are either landless or own less than an acre. In Punjab, for example,
Dalits constitute one-third of the rural population but only 2.3 per cent of
them own any land.
Of course, Dalits
themselves are also responsible for their lot. In very few pockets, they have
emerged as an informed and decisive political force and their electoral choices
are often criticised as opportunistic. At the same time, Dalits in positions of
political power – MLAs, MPs, chief ministers or union ministers -- have not triggered
any significant socio-economic growth at the community level.
Hopefully, the
wheel will begin to turn at last. Tired of symbolisms, including those statues
and parks, the fast snowballing Dalit movement of the landless is sending out a
clear message to the political establishment. With a series of elections lined
up till the end of 2014, no party eyeing Dalit votes can ignore the issue of land
rights.
On the roads of
Delhi this weekend, the new slogan of the landless may have already signalled
the beginning of the end of socio-political stereotyping of Dalits. “Give land,
take vote; No land, no vote.” I wish they had also chanted their refusal to “have
meals” with politicians.
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