Growing Dalit anger bad news for saffron brigade
AT STAKE Preplanned attack on Dalits has shattered their confidence in govt, say activists
After the worst ever Muzaffarnagar riots which rocked West UP in 2013, a man on the street had described the tension by reciting lyrics of a soulful number from Muzaffar Ali’s film Gaman, ‘Sine mein jalan , aankho mein toofan sa kyon hain, is shahr mein har shaks pareshan sa kyu hai’. The same aptly describes today’s scene in West UP.
The communal lab of the country is now sitting on an old tinder box — caste clashes. It has witnessed Jat-Jatav clashes before BSP’s rule, as Mayawati gave voice to Dalits across UP. However, in western region, Dalits were socially and economically empowered, unlike those in East UP. Today they are active on social media, rebutting the rising abuses against their icons, including BR Ambedkar and Mayawati.
Activists like Dr Satish Prakash of Meerut believe West UP will become the nerve-centre of country’s Dalit politics in coming days. This comes as a bad news for the Sangh Parivar which has been making concerted efforts to penetrate the precious vote bank of 21% Dalits, considered loyal to the BSP till the 2017 assembly elections.
And now when they are preparing for 80/80 Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 elections as announced by Yogi Adityanath, a document called ‘Alert 19’ is already making waves in the community. Dr Satish says it focuses on the political and social challenges ahead for the community as the BSP has weakened.
Interestingly, Dalit activists across the state have joined hands to take on the attack. Satya Prakash Teetal from Agra, often described as Bheem Nagari, says, “Suddenly we find mushrooming temples, use of derogatory words like chamar by even our friends, increased misbehaviour with our women and damage to statues of Dr BR Ambedkar. Instead of taking action, the administration is maintaining a studied silence which manifests their complicity.” Significantly, caste clashes are between Dalits and Rajputs (the CM’s caste). According to Teetal, as many as 125 Dalit groups have come together on social media to take on the mudslinging campaign unleashed by the ideology that believes in social hierarchy.
Teetal says, “Dalits were attacked in a pre-planned manner on Tuesday despite the presence of police in Shabbirpur village in Saharanpur.”
This has shattered the confidence of Dalits in the government. “Our youths are angry; they are not going to remain silent for long. We fear civil war if immediate steps are not taken,” he added. Most of the activists feel that the Hindutva lobby, which had earlier turned this zone into their communal lab, always had two enemies – Muslims and Dalits. While Muslims are fearful under a BJP government in the state and the Centre, Dalits have become easy target.
Dr Satya Prakash says, “Dalits aggression will also provoke Muslims to retaliate.”
Perhaps nothing would suit Mayawati, whose party was completely decimated in 2014 and 2017 elections. She has been trying to build Dalit-Muslim unity which failed before BJP’s aggressive Hindutva that in fact took away a slice of her Dalit votes also.
Author and expert Dr Badri Narayan feels the fight for caste identity and supremacy has begun again. Some castes that were lying in limbo in SP-BSP regimes are raising their heads again. “Problems will flare up if contradictions in dissemination of power and resources is allowed. The government must build social harmony to prevent the situation from going out of control,” he says.
Prof MP Ahirwal of BHU says, “We were apprehending trouble after the elections. The upper caste, which could not tolerate political empowerment of Dalits, are now taking revenge, committing atrocities.” According to him the upper caste is resenting Jai Bheem slogan, which is symbol of their empowerment.
But many like Brajendra Kumar Gautam of Allahabadbased Dalit Resource Centre feels it is an outcome of Dalit disunity that weakened their movement. The community votes divided in different parties and now they are realising their political blunder.
According to him the tormentors are back. Politically, BJP would not want to lose Dalits to the BSP. But, as of now, Mayawati is again emerging as their saviour.
ACTIVISTS LIKE DR SATISH PRAKASH OF MEERUT BELIEVE WEST UP WILL BECOME THE NERVECENTRE OF COUNTRY’S DALIT POLITICS IN FUTURE