Bhagwat asks RSS workers to connect with Dalits

After having lunch at a Dalit RSS worker’s residence in Agra recently, Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat is in the state capital to take stock of various initiatives, including Sangh’s Dalit outreach mission in the state due for polls in six months’ time.

Bhagwat’s directive to the cadre was simple – ‘Connect with Dalits, share the stage with them’. Work towards winning the hearts of Dalits, give them an important stage, connect Sangh’s shakhas with sewa bastis.’ The Bharatiya Janata Party, ideologically close to the RSS, hopes to gain from the Sangh’s campaign among Dalits whose 23% votes in UP could be crucial for the BJP. In fact, the BJP too has a similar campaign going in Uttar Pradesh where its chief Amit Shah recently had lunch at a Dalit BJP MP’s residence in the state capital.

Bhagwat focused on setting up sanskara kendras in slums – an activity the RSS’s affiliate Vishwa Hindu Parishad has already taken up. The RSS chief after reviewing the Dalit outreach mission reportedly stressed on the need to fast track efforts to reach out to various marginalized Dalit sub groups. Among the marginalised Dalit sub group are Jatavs – considered loyal to BSP and its Dalit chief Mayawati who, has of late accused the BJP of going all out to “weaken the BSP.” The RSS cadres, however, refuse to admit that Bhagwat’s Dalit discourse have a political agenda.

“Our campaign has a larger objective. You may see politics in it but for us Hindu unity is also important to check conversions, which the Christian missionaries are busy promoting in various parts of the country,” a RSS source said.

Interestingly, while Bhagwat was busy interacting with cadres to promote ‘samarasta’ or social harmony, senior VHP office bearer Sapan Chakraborty was exhorting cadres in Ayodhya the need to shun untouchability.

“We are busy setting up satsang and samskara kendras in villages to promote social harmony,” Chakraborty said.

Since the Ayodhya temple movement of the 90s that united Hindus – and led to the formation of BJP governments both in UP and at the centre – the Sangh Parivar has found it difficult to check the menace of casteism. The RSS chief reportedly expressed concern at the fact that “some people” don’t want to end the caste system – a statement that is being interpreted as a political take on UP’s ruling Samajwadi Party and the main opposition Bahujan Samaj Party.

The RSS has already tasked its student arms -- the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) – to connect with UP’s countryside, especially in Dalit dominated regions to propagate social harmony and appeal for an end to caste dominated culture of the state. This work to end casteism or ‘jaatiwaad’ fits perfectly into BJP’s scheme of things ahead of the 2017 UP polls in which the BJP would be up against OBC-packed Samajwadi Party and Dalit-dominated Bahujan Samaj Party – both influential caste players who have been alternately forming governments in UP since 2002.