Bharat Bhushan - Dalits’ anger may spell the end of Modi magic
The Narendra Modi
government virtually allowed the dilution of the provisions of the Scheduled
Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Hoping that the
courts will rule on issues which the political executive is shy of addressing
directly can be a recipe for disaster.
In the face of the
rising dalit anger, however, the government has gone into damage control mode.
The BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) have sent teams to various
states to contain the political damage. Prime Minister Modi has asked all BJP
MPs to spend two nights each in a dalit village. And there will be a mega-event
on Dr B.R. Ambedkar’s birth anniversary on April 14, with high rhetoric flowing
from the Prime Minister himself. However, the BJP is
unlikely to remain unsinged by the dalit anger. The dalits’ perception seems to
be that their fortunes are sliding as the legal and constitutional provisions
safeguarding their interests are being systematically dismantled.
The Supreme Court
ruling comes in the wake of the increasing atrocities against the dalits under
BJP rule. A dalit youngster can be beaten or even killed for daring to ride a
horse to his own wedding or for sporting a moustache. The only time upper caste
goons forget about untouchability is when they rape dalit women. From Una,
Shaharanpur and Bhima-Koregaon to Gwalior more recently, there has been an
unprecedented display of arrogance towards dalits by politically emboldened
upper caste Hindus. That is why the BJP’s protestations about protecting dalit
interests lack any credibility.
Given the party’s
largely upper caste support base, it has in fact been in favour of diluting the
provisions of the SC/ST Act. This was one of the critical demands of the
Maratha agitation after the rape of a girl from their community in Kopardi
village in Maharashtra in 2016. Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis
had assured the agitators that he would recommend reviewing the provisions of
this law to the Centre. Fearful of losing the Maratha vote, the BJP was keen to
have a less stringent law.
Some in the Opposition
have even suggested that the Central government was complicit in these
developments. They point to the government not directing either of its two top
law officers — the attorney-general or the solicitor-general — to defend the
existing provisions of the law. The government was instead represented by the
additional solicitor-general. He admitted that the government had received
certain complaints about misuse of the provisions and argued that anticipatory
bail should be granted in cases registered under the SC/ST Act.
Not only did the
government not mount a vigorous legal defence in the Supreme Court, it also did
not move a review petition immediately after the ruling. A senior dalit leader
and a minister in the government, Thawar Chand Gahlot, who had immediately
alerted the government to the impending trouble, was ignored. Only when the
BJP’s allies and ministers Ramdas Athawale and Ram Vilas Paswan began speaking
out against the court ruling that the government decided to act. The ruling
came on March 20 and the review petition was filed two weeks later, on April 2,
with the attorney-general himself appearing in court, on the very day dalits across
the country had called a Bharat Bandh against the order.
By this time, however,
the ground had shifted. Even the dalit leaders of the BJP had started
rethinking their future. Five dalit MPs from the party — Ms Savitribai Phule
from Bharaich, Mr Chotelal Kanwar from Robertsganj, Mr Ashok Kumar Dohrey from
Etawah, Dr Yashwant Singh from Nageen and Mr Udit Raj from North-West Delhi
constituencies — raised the red flag about the party’s attitude towards dalits.
While Mr Udit Raj vented his anger on the social media, the rest wrote angry
letters to the Prime Minister. They alleged discrimination in the party against
dalits, threats to removing reservations for SCs and STs and police brutality
against those who had protested against the Supreme Court’s order on April 2.
It is not surprising
that four of the five protesting dalit MPs were from Uttar Pradesh, which has
21 per cent dalit population. They reflected the palpable fear in the party
that the dalit vote which it had mobilised successfully in 2014 was likely to
slip away. Not only could the dalit vote shift, it could also catalyse an
alliance with the Other Backward Castes (OBCs) and Muslims for the 2019 general
election. The OBCs also think
that they are being targeted. The common perception of Yadavs in Bihar is that
their leader, Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav, has been singled out for punishment while
all upper caste leaders accused in the fodder scam were discharged; and that he
continues to be denied bail while Salman Khan was given bail within 48 hours of
conviction. These perceptions may not have a legal basis, but they have strong
political implications. There is also a strong suspicion that the BJP-RSS
combine is keen to do away with OBC and dalit reservations — RSS chief Mohan
Bhagwat has repeatedly called for a review of the policy. His statements have
emboldened the upper castes to mount anti-reservation protests.
As for Muslims, who
form 15 per cent of the total population, the Hindutva forces in the past four
years have attempted to reduce them to second-class citizens by setting up a
series of hoops they must jump through to prove their nationalism. Hate crimes
against them have gone up and they have been targets of lynching in the name of
cow protection. From 2012 till now, it is estimated that 97 per cent of all
cow-terrorism deaths have taken place since the BJP assumed power in 2014 —
that is 76 people killed, most of them Muslims. And they have been killed
mostly in North India.
The ground is fertile
for forging political unity among dalits, OBCs and Muslims. In North India,
that could make things very tough for the BJP in 2019. Such an alliance is
already taking shape in Uttar Pradesh and could soon spread to other Hindi belt
states. It’s in this alliance of disgruntled communities which have borne the
brunt of Mr Modi’s misgovernance that he may eventually get his comeuppance.
http://www.asianage.com/opinion/columnists/120418/dalits-anger-may-spell-the-end-of-modi-magic.htmlsee also
http://indianexpress.com/artic
