The word Dalit, for politicians,
signifies a human tragedy to exploit at whim.
Their sizeable population
translates into a formidable amount of votes. That settles their fate – they
are tethered to their numbers. And they have no choice but to be wooed by
political parties. Whether they like it or not.
If the Dalit does not come to
the politician, the politician will go to the Dalit. The Dalit is left with a
Hobson‘s choice!
The wooing is done at two
levels.
At the idolatory level, each
party has conveniently gone against its own legacy and appropriated Ambedkar,
considered for political purposes the Dalit Messiah.
At the individual level, each
party has even breached the privacy of a Dalit home, for a photo-op of a leader
sharing a meal with a Dalit family.
The Dalit in today's India as it is has restricted space outside his or her home. The tragedy is the Dalit is not secure within the four walls of his or her home either.
The Dalit in today's India as it is has restricted space outside his or her home. The tragedy is the Dalit is not secure within the four walls of his or her home either.
Rahul Gandhi notched up for
himself a unique record: The politician who took off on the Dalit
home-visiting-spree has an enviable record of having visited the maximum Dalit
homes -- uninvited of course – nearly every year since 2008.
His visits serve the singular
purpose of filling photo albums, because nothing was supposed to come out of
the visits other than to show the Nehru-Gandhi princeling dabbling easily with
the lowest of the lowly and even sharing their food.
The Dalit home is now on the
must-visit list of any and every politician.
Amit Shah is one who takes these
visits seriously, whether in UP before the last assembly elections, in West
Bengal, the latest in Telangana. His colleagues are not far behind, like for
instance BS Yeddyruppa in Karnataka. Nitin Gadkari too.
It is the insolence that stands
out during and after the visits. The visits are planned in advance. The unlucky
Dalit family told in advance to be ready with food. In one case, the family
asked to be excused because it did not have the money to buy rice for the VIP
guest. Nothing doing, get it from somewhere, the family was told. The leaders
somehow manage to shake hands with the Dalit family members, talk about the
weather and their problems, promise to set things right, all the while ensuring
the cameras are whirring, and then leave. Never to look at that family again.
Of late, the visits are followed by rumors that the leaders actually ate stuff
bought from a hotel. There is no evidence provided. The rumors spread primarily
to insinuate that the leaders still practice untouchability. True or false, it
points to the mindset in India about Dalits, going to their homes, eating their
food, touching and interacting with them. Such are the humiliating and
demeaning circumstances under which these visits occur and are covered by the
media.
The ultimate abuse of the Dalits
goes beyond all this. Even as these visits are planned and executed, the routine
persecution and oppression of Dalits continues. Uninterrupted. Ironical. The
suicide of a Dalit youth Rohith Vemula and the consequent national unrest did
not in any way deter the visits. Political wooing of Dalits did not stop a mob
of lynchers torturing Dalit youth in Una in Gujarat on the false pretext of
protecting cows. In Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, the Thakurs literally provoked
a riot as they competed with the Dalits in taking out processions under various
pretexts. The riots were – and are -- bloody and violent, but the VIP visits to
Dalit homes, this time in Telangana, came about without raising any sense of
irony.
Other tales of Dalit oppression
have become too “routine” over the centuries to merit separate mention.
Aren’t the Dalits caught in a
cleft stick? They face problems when they leave their homes. They face homes
when they are inside their homes. They get it both ways. The carrot and the
stick.
There seems no end to this road.
