No lunches, they want quota
Instead of sharing meals, issues haunting Dalits must be addressed first
The ongoing hype and hoopla over breaking bread with Dalits is unlikely to pay dividends in the upcoming elections as the politically conscious community has bigger demands and dreams than mere mingling with the upper caste.
Dr Lalji Prasad Nirmal, who had told Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Lucknow’s Ambedkar Mahasabha that he could well become ‘Daliton ke Ram’ by fulfilling their main demand for reservation in promotions in the private sector and judiciary, says, “Nothing hurts the Dalits more than the muchhyped meals at their homes as it compels them to believe they are still considered untouchable.”
According to him, Modi should have convened a meeting of chief ministers on growing attacks on Dalits instead of his party leaders breaking bread with them in the state.
Dr Nirmal could be right as Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, who had started the trend way back in 2008, has failed to win back Dalits till date.
Instead, the community forms the bulwark of Mayawati’s support base. She promised them dignity that they actually yearned for.
Dalit activist Anoop Shramik says , “Status does not change caste. Have you ever wondered why non-Dalit woman leaders are not abused as Mayawati is? Instead of sharing meals, more burning issues haunting the Dalits today in the country should be addressed.”
Rahul had first spent the night at the burnt down hut of Sunita Kori, a Dalit woman, in Gauriganj in his Lok Sabha constituency Amethi in 2008 when the state was under Mayawati’s rule. She was furious.
However, despite opposition’s criticism, Rahul did not relent and sporadically continued his night stay programme. Yoga guru Ram Dev described his visits as ‘picnics and honeymoons’ while the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi labelled it as ‘poverty tourism’ at an election rally in 2014.
Now, much to the consternation of Dalits, along with scramble for their votes has begun fierce politics over the night stays and lunches at their homes. Though the Congress has changed tack and is now moving towards ‘Kisan Yatra’ that Rahul will launch on September 6 from Deoria in east UP, the Sangh Parivar has stepped into his shoes in their bid to win over the community, crucial to their overall Hindu unity plan and the forthcoming polls .
While the rank and file have been asked to embark on a night stay programme across the state, both the BJP and the RSS chiefs, Amit Shah and Mohan Bhagwat, broke bread with party Dalit leaders, which many in their party described as part of their larger Dalit outreach mission.
While Bhagwat had lunch at the Agra residence of swayamsewak Choudhury Rajan Singh, a footwear manufacturer and Dalit face of the RSS, Shah savoured simple meal at BJP Dalit MP Kaushal Kishore’s home in Bagaria village in Mohanlalganj area of Lucknow. He had gone to Kakori for the Tiranga Yatra, part of Modi’s Independence Day celebrations.
Though the two veterans themselves described their having food at Dalit homes as apolitical, party’s rank and file were quick to tom-tom it. Giving company to Shah were invitees from a cross section of Dalit sub castes.
Rajan Singh, in his bid to downplay the Dalit factor, however said, “We at the RSS don’t believe in caste and generally visit each other’s home.” “
However, the opposition, specifically Mayawati whose advisory to her cadre for the poll day is to keep fast till the last vote is polled in their allotted areas, is amused.
At her party rallies in Agra and Azamgarh, she mocked at the lunches describing them as political drama that in no way removed the rampant untouchability in the society.
Congress leaders PL Punia finds it ‘ highly objectionable’ and ‘cheap’. He laments, “Are they obliging Dalits, that too from their own party by having food at their homes? Rahul never did that, yet they mocked him.”
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav often jibes at rival parties’ feasting at Dalits homes. “Instead of giving feasts to Dalits, these people go and eat their food”. He also says that the Yadav household has Dalit cooks for ages.
The Sangh Parivar’s Dalit outreach mission in recent years had its first public display in 1989 when a Dalit had laid the foundation stone of Rama temple in Ayodhya.
Thereafter, late VHP leader Ashok Singhal had meal at the residence of Dom Raja, the lord of the cremation ghats belonging to the ‘untouchable community’ in Varanasi. He had even mobilized Hindu religious leaders join in the community meal, something unthinkable in the past. Again in 2002, chief minister Rajnath Singh had organized ‘khirchri bhoj’ for Dalits at chief minister’s official bungalow.
Apparently, the BJP will have to do much more than breaking bread with Dalits to remove the upper-caste paint on its face. Meals at party Dalit workers’ or MP’s place may rather boomerang.
Perhaps, the BJP can take a cue from Mayawati’s Brahmin outreach programme that BSP leader Satish Mishra had meticulously executed before the 2007 assembly elections.
He had travelled several thousand kilometres organizing Dalit-Brahmin bhoj in villages besides 27 Brahmin sammelans, culminating with a massive Brahmin convention in the state capital where Mayawati promised them participation in power as per their population ratio. It paid her dividends in 2007 then. Ten years later she is, however, working on a different formula -- Dalit-Muslim combination.