Why Dalit atrocities in Gujarat coming to limelight is becoming BJP's shame
The continuous stream of atrocities on Dalits coming to limelight is fast turning into the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Gujarat government's shame. After Gujarat is marketed as a model state by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP National President Amit Shah. One recalls the time when after Modi's ascent from Gujarat chief minister to Indian prime minister was followed by teams of bureaucrats from Delhi and subsequently from others states that the BJP won to go and study the much promoted 'Gujarat Model'.
The question that continues to rankle the minds of ordinary rational citizens is that why is it that Dalits in Gujarat have to ride a horse in their marriage procession under police protection ? Why is it that they are thrashed for using the suffix 'Sinh' to their name ? Why are they assaulted for for wearing a 'Mojdi' (a pointed footwear associated with royalty)? Why are they targeted for supporting a moustache? Why are they beaten up for watching an upper caste Garba ?
These are issues that go far beyond the routine debate on the issue of job reservation. One does not have to go far into the remote interiors to come across such instances. They galore right under the nose of the state government in districts of Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad and Mehsana.
After a video going viral on 14 June of a youth from Valmiki community being beaten up brutally for being well dressed and claiming to be from the upper caste Darbar community has followed the instance of a Dalit riding a horse back under police protection for his marriage ceremony.
According to reports the police have booked 10 people from upper castes for threatening Prashant Solanki for riding a horse for his wedding procession at a village in Gandhinagar district on Sunday.
Prashant had reportedly arrived by car at Parsa village of of Mansa taluka and was scheduled to cover the last mile to the wedding venue on a horseback in accordance with the prevalent tradition.
However, before he arrived, some upper caste persons spotted a youth waiting with a decorated horse. When they came to know that the decorated horse was meant for the wedding procession of a Dalit they threatened the boy making him flee in panic.
Reports say that later, the village sarpanch arranged another horse for the Dalit youth but the celebratory mood had changed as the procession now went under police protection, following threats from people coming from upper castes. Besides the ceremonies got delayed by as many as four hours.
It is common knowledge in villages where feudal mindset continues to prevail that a large number of influential Darbars still believe in being above others in social hierarchy considering themselves to be royal descendants. The idea of well-dressed Dalits riding horses and sporting moustaches is still not palatable to a large number of them. Hence, resent the idea of Dalits sporting heavy moustache, dressing well and riding horses during wedding processions.
“It is not that there has been a sudden splurge in atrocities. The thing that has changed is that these instances are now getting highlighted instantly in the form of videos and reports going viral on social media. Earlier these instances were suppressed at the village level itself. There was no media reportage and hence no reaction from the government. The emphasis was on striking a compromise at the village level,” points out a Dalit and Right to Information (RTI) activist based at Gandhinagar.
He added that at the same time despite registration of cases, the matter gets diluted in courts and quite often the accused get bail easily. “There have been occasions that the accused have come out on bail only to threaten the victim once again. An interesting aspect of the phenomenon is that at present the Dalit MLAs from the ruling party are in a corner. On one side the BJP leadership is pressuring them to contain the Dalit anger and on the other the community is accusing them of failing to take up the cause of the community,” he added.
“The matter of concern here is that there is no effective political leadership among the Dalits. They have been elected on reserved seats with the support of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal activists to fill in the blanks.
“They just act as stamp pads of the Hindutva organizations who set the political agenda for them. It is a matter of research why they come out with political narrative on religion and not caste after they are elected,” points out Maulik Shrimali, a Dalit activist from Nadiad.
He says that despite the political reservation, Dalits are never treated as an ally in governance and there is no effective participation from them in the ruling dispensation.
The Dalits are particularly peeved over the political leadership in the government keeping mum on the increasing number of atrocities coming to light. “Minister of state for home Pradipsinh Jadeja has not come out with any statement on this issue. Perhaps he does not want to say anything against his own Darbar community which is his core voter base.
“The government has instead been fielding police and administrative officials to address the agitated Dalits. Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has not bothered to visit the family of any of the victims of the caste atrocities,” pointed the Dalit activist based in Gandhinagar.
“We have been hearing of Rupani convening emergency meetings to address the plight of cows and lions but he has shown no emergency when it comes to the continuing assault on Dalits. We do not oppose his concern for cows, but he should have some sensitivity towards Dalits also who are human beings,” Shrimali said.
“The growing number of instances coming to light also show the hollowness of the ruling class. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had given a statement saying that kill me but not my Dalit brothers but he has been unable to stop the atrocities even in his home district of Mehsana,” he added.
The Dalits account for just seven per cent of the voting population in Gujarat and are further helpless on account of being widely scattered. But instances of atrocities on them send across a strong message against the BJP in other states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar where their presence is considerable. The BJP cannot afford such instances coming to light regularly in the poll year.
The RSS through its frontal organisations like Samajik Samrasta Manch and Sewa Bharti is trying to send the message of inclusion to the Dalits. These organizations recently honoured the students from Scheduled Castes who had cleared the central and state administrative services exams where the speakers propagated the ideals of cultural nationalism. How the BJP contains the political fall out of cases of atrocities hitting headlines however remains to be seen.
