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BJP's Dalit love - Why the party is feverishly indulging in 'appeasement' now

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Sanjukta Basu
Sanjukta BasuAug 06, 2018 | 11:58

BJP's Dalit love - Why the party is feverishly indulging in 'appeasement' now

Telling opening lines in an India Today report, "The Centre has decided to reverse a Supreme Court ruling through an amendment bill in Parliament." It reminds us of another era, but I'll come to that later. 

First, let me give you the backstory 

In March 2018, a Supreme Court bench comprising Justice AK Goel and Justice UU Lalit was hearing an appeal by one Dr Subhash Kashinath Mahajan who was holding the powerful position of director, technical education in Maharashtra. Kashinath was accused of offences under the SC/ST Act by his Dalit employee, a storekeeper. The question in consideration was whether the SC/ST Act had "just and fair procedure" as per Article 21 of the Constitution and whether procedural safeguards were required to prevent "misuse" of the law.

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Bizarrely enough, the SC found that "misuse" is a real concern and laid down stringent safeguards, like provisions of anticipatory bail and a preliminary enquiry before registration of any case under the SC/ST Act against an accused. 

It should be noted that the so-called "misuse" here is presumed to be done by members of the historically marginalised communities against those from privileged caste who already hold powerfu positions. These "safeguards" therefore are nothing but leeway for the accused to settle the matter either by colluding with corrupt authorities or by using fear, intimidation, power position, against the Dalit complainant.

The order defied all logic — and understandably met with massive protests from the Dalit community.

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Police try to stop people belonging to the Dalit community during a nationwide strike called by Dalit organisations. (Source: Reuters)

On April 2, 2018, thousands upon thousands across India took to the streets. BJP's own allies and MPs also raised voices against the court order. Dalit MP Savitri Bai Phule expressed fear that the BJP was trying to end reservations for Dalits.

To worsen the matter, on July 6, Justice Goel retired from the Supreme Court and the Centre immediately appointed him as the chief of the National Green Tribunal, raising suspicions that Justice Goel's order diluting the SC/ST Act was politically motivated. Post-retirement sops being seen as one of the most common forms of graft, this move didn't go down well with Dalits. 

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Following this, several more protests were scheduled for this month, in an unprecedented display of Dalit pride and assertion of their identity and rights.

Unnerved by the protests and backlash, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) went into damage control mode. On August 8, the Union Cabinet approved a Bill seeking amendments in The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act to effectively "nullify" the Supreme Court judgment.

The Dalit movement has been tamed by what the BJP otherwise likes to call "appeasement".

The present headlines sound familiar as they take us to the early 1980s when a similar Bill was passed by the Rajiv Gandhi government, nullifying the Supreme Court verdict in the case of Shah Bano involving Muslim women's right to maintenance. If Rajiv Gandhi was accused of doing 'Muslim appeasement' back then, this is the BJP's 'Dalit appeasement'.

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Away from the limelight, Shah Bano breathed her last in 1992. (Source: India Today)

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Rajiv Gandhi stands accused of 'Muslim appeasement' and denying Shah Bano her right. (Source: India Today)

Except — this is worse.

This is not just plain 'appeasement' — it is also in tune with the ritual of garlanding and worshiping the sacrificial goat before its slaughter at Goddess Kali's altar.

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The BJP desperately needs Dalit votes. Without strong Dalit support, they cannot hope to gain full majority in the 2019 general elections, and therefore, a string of wooing and appeasement is going on.

A series of events were organised around Dr Ambedkar's birth anniversary this April in which Prime Minister Narenda Modi himself commemorated the tallest Dalit leader. Even as Modi gave eloquent speeches and put garlands upon Ambedkar statues, reports of the vandalisation of Ambedkar and Periyar statues across UP, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu poured in almost on a daily basis. On a quick Google search, around 15 to 16 such incidents of destruction of Ambedkar statues could be found at the time of writing this article. These vandalisms were a direct result of an ugly revelry in Tripura, hailing the BJP's election win there.

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BR Ambedkar's bust splattered with paint. (Source: ANI)

On the contentious issue of caste-based reservations, for years, the BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) have held that the provision should be done away with. It is 'reservations' and 'affirmative action' meant to give marginalised communities a level playing field that they have always wrongly labelled as "appeasement" and "caste politics".

Yet, due to a sudden fear of losing Dalit votes, the Centre made a strong pitch in the Supreme Court for SC/ST reservations. Requesting the Supreme Court to reconsider its verdict in M Nagaraj vs Union of India case which excluded the  'creamy layer' in SC/ST reservation, the Attorney General informed the government wants 22.5 per cent reservation (15 per cent SC + 7.5 per cent ST) for SC and ST candidates in promotion in government jobs.

BJP leaders are suddenly making public statements to support reservations. Minister Nitin Gadkari tweeted:

So, not only do they suddenly support reservations, they even support caste-based reservations — conveniently forgetting that just a year ago, the  RSS's Manmohan Vaidya quoted Ambedkar as an excuse to suggest reservations should end. 

BJP's sudden Dalit love is not just a pretentious appeasement game, it is also predatory. They need to woo and appease the Dalits to come back to power, only to fulfil their dream project of a Hindu Rashtra, a society built on 5,000 years' old values and traditions, where Dalits existed only to serve the upper caste as their duty and spiritual calling.

Dalit oppression has been often passed off as a self-chosen duty or karma by RSS-BJP. On April 23, 2108, at the launch of 'Save the Constitution' campaign by the Congress party, Congress president Rahul Gandhi read out a few lines from a book Karma Yogi, written by PM Narendra Modi, which shockingly reveals the said mindset. Gandhi quoted Modi reportedly from the book:

"Has anyone experienced the spirituality of a person from Valimiki Samaj who has to remove human excreta and dirt every day? I do not believe that he accepts the task merely to fill his belly, had that been so he would not have stayed for so long in that profession, and certainly not from generation to generation. Probably sometime for happiness of God and society, he thought it is his duty and responsibility to keep the environment clean and he accepted the work and continues to do it out of his spirituality."

To say that Dalits chose manual scavenging as a profession for spirituality and are not forced into it, is mindless and insensitive. It is for the Dalit community therefore to introspect and enquire, what would be their place, role, and responsibility in 'project Hindu Rashtra'?

They must recall why Ambedkar said, "I was born a Hindu but will not die one"; Why there was a sudden spike in violence against Dalits soon after the BJP came to power, why it continues to rise and why incidents of violence against Dalits are highest in BJP-ruled states? Why the BJP's win in Tripura and the vandalisation of Amebedkar and Periyar statues across India are connected?

Before falling for the BJP's Dalit appeasement, the community must demand that the BJP and RSS come clean on their seeming intentions to amend the Constitution and make India a Hindu Rashtra. Unless the BJP gives up on this project, Dalits are a mere vote bank for them, and will never be accepted as full citizens in the Hindu Rashtra they plan to create.

If this seems like scaremongering and exaggeration, I would suggest an experiment by which the Dalit community can test exactly how much the RSS-BJP mindset has progressed and how truly accommodative they are of Ambedkar's values — on December 25, the Manusmriti Burning Day, try to organise a public event to burn the Manusmriti the way Ambedkar reportedly did. Just see if this can be organised without resistance from RSS-affiliated Hindutva groups.

Last updated: August 07, 2018 | 13:19
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