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- Sheela Bhatt’s Column Dalit Votes Are Now The Last Hope Of The Congress Party
11 days ago
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Sheela Bhatt Senior Journalist
Nehru’s great-grandson Rahul Gandhi has now started wearing blue T-shirts, which is an important political move. Blue color is the identity of the Ambedkarite movement among the Indian Dalits. If Rahul, the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, finds Ambedkar more useful for his politics than Gandhi-Nehru, then it shows how brilliantly Ambedkar has stood the test of time. Most importantly, Dalits have started getting the political importance they have deserved for centuries.
The controversy that started after Amit Shah’s speech in the Rajya Sabha on 17 December is giving many reminders and lessons to the contemporary politics of India. Even though Shah had not used any derogatory words and was not criticizing Ambedkar at all, the opposition’s ‘interpretation’ of his statement made him the target of attack from the Congress. Even what has not been said can be given the shape of a controversy by giving it a political interpretation for one’s own interests.
BJP had lagged behind with a clear majority in the Lok Sabha elections. A major reason for BJP’s poor performance on many seats in UP was the migration of Dalit votes away from it. Then BJP had alleged that some Dalits were trapped in the false propaganda of Congress and SP that if BJP gets a huge majority then it will change the Constitution and end reservation.
This rumor caused huge loss to BJP. The strength of Dalit votes was visible. Congress has now cleverly raised this issue to press this sore spot of BJP. The rise of BJP since 2014 was mainly because it was successful in shedding the tag of ‘Brahmin-Baniya’ party. As the party’s general secretary, Amit Shah had devised a strategy in UP in 2014, which helped the BJP get OBC and to some extent Dalit votes.
However, the BJP’s relationship with Dalits is still evolving and has had its ups and downs in different states and constituencies. BJP is getting non-Jatav Dalit votes to some extent. But still it did not get as much success in this as it did in attracting non-Yadav OBC votes in its favor, especially in UP.
Shah’s statement was blown out of proportion because the opposition knows that if Dalits join BJP with full force, Hindutva politics will become so strong that BJP will not have to look back for decades. Congress faced problems even after its defeat in Haryana and Maharashtra, where Dalits returned to the BJP fold after voting against it in the Lok Sabha.
There is a reason why Dalit votes have gained strategic importance in Indian politics. Opposition politics against BJP works wonders when the votes of Muslims, Dalits and the candidate’s own caste are mobilized against the BJP candidate.
The panacea for Hindutva votes is to unite Muslim-Dalit votes. Dalit votes are the last hope for Congress. Neo-Buddhist Dalits may be tempted to vote against the Hindutva BJP.
From the perspective of history, we may be surprised to see that after seven decades Ambedkar has left Nehru and many other stalwarts of the freedom movement behind in achieving divine aura among the Dalits.
In the current political discourse, there are more critics of Gandhi and Nehru than of Ambedkar. Today it is difficult to name even a single leader who speaks against Ambedkarite ideology. The idea of identity of Ambedkar and Dalits has also now become one.
Mainly in the politics of Congress era, Ambedkar was limited to the role of Dalit-hero. The confidence, security and pride that Ambedkar’s legacy brings to Dalits cannot be compared with any other contemporary leader.
This is why when Congress attacked Amit Shah over Ambedkar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on Facebook to defend Shah. BJP is not ready to give even an inch of space to Congress on the issue of Ambedkar.
Indian politics revolves around caste, religion and poverty. Critics of the BJP think that the party’s success is due to Hindutva, but the Ambedkar controversy proves that caste politics is not backward yet. (These are the author’s own views)
