An Open Letter of an AAM AADMI – Dalit Vote Bank of Punjab
December 19, 2016
Dear Voters of Punjab,
In the run up to the forthcoming elections in Punjab
scheduled for early next year, all political parties are busy in wooing the dalit
vote bank with more than 32% vote share. Some constituencies in
It is a matter of regret that in spite of the fact that
Punjab has the biggest size of population of SCs as compared to the other
states of India, SCs still don’t have much share, space and say in the
corridors of power. Why it is so? It is the question which should engage dalit
intelligentsia and the political leaders of all hues. Dalits are the spiritual
followers of the great Guru, Guru Ravidass who said “प्राधीन्ता पाप है; जान लियो रे मीत, रविदास दास प्राधीन से कौन करे है प्रीत।“ Dalits are the followers of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and Babu Kanshi
Ram politically in the contemporary times. Both these dalit icons pleaded and
demanded, for the socially and economically weaker sections of the society, a share
in political and administrative power structures of the country. But dalits are
still standing far away from these hollowed outfits as equal partners. The off
the cuff answer to these important questions is that dalits are a divided lot
in Punjab both religiously and politically. They are searching for their
religious and communal identity as Hindus, Sikhs, and Buddhists, Christians in
a broader sense and as Ad-dharmis, Ravidasia Sikhs, Mazhabi Sikhs, Valmikis,
and Kabirpanthis etc. in a somewhat confined sense resulting in further divide.
After the relentless struggle of Dr. Ambedkar in the 1930s culminated in the shape
of the Communal Award of the British Prime Minister Ramsey MacDonald and Poona
Pact between Mahatma Gandhi and Ambedkar in 1932 and finally in the
constitution of India with enabling provisions for empowerment of dalits
including political reservation in the parliament, the state legislatures and
other structures up to the grass roots i.e. panchayats. Dr. Ambedkar was defeated and cheated by the
wily Hindu leaders headed by Mahatma Gandhi under the garb of nationalism and to
save the life of the great Mahatma who undertook fast unto death against the
Communal Award in 1932. Under the Poona Pact, dalits were made to lose Separate
Electorate offered by the Communal Award by the British government and an alternate
of political Reservation was given. Reservation has become a much maligned
concept. Political reservation has not worked to the real advantage of the dalits.
It has divided dalit community into various vested political agenda. It has
created yes-men. Babu Kanshi Ram called them Chamchas (stooges) in his book on
contemporary dalit politics “Chamcha Age”. The Congress party, the Akali Dal
and also the BJP have taken advantage of the situation and have deliberately
divided them under one pretext or the other. The religious or spiritual deras
of dalits have succumbed to temptations of gunmen, beaconed cars, escort jeeps
and other fringe benefits and knowingly or otherwise helped the political
vested interests in further dividing the community. Dalits need to address the
situation and find answers; if they want to have their due share in the polity
and society otherwise their demographic advantage will continue to be negated
by the vested interests.
It is felt, of late, the dalit intelligentsia and the
educated youth have started realizing these ground realities. They are
increasingly becoming aware and alive of their fate and have started asserting
themselves. Obviously, it will affect the emerging political scenario.
Political parties are also increasingly trying to grasp the situation to
attract the dalit vote bank to their advantage.
The ruling alliance of Akali Dal and BJP are yet to come out
with their election manifestos. But it is a common knowledge that these parties
will try their best to woo dalits to garner their votes by hook or crook. The
so called Blue Card holders are mostly dalits. The government is all set to
throw away the freebies like Dal Atta schemes, free electricity, and free
water, providing bicycles and cooking gas connections to the venerable sections
of the society. They are not really interested in bettering the condition of
dalits by empowering them by making good arrangements for their education,
training and employment. The ongoing problem of post matric scholarships to
dalit students cries for attention but nobody is serious. The question of
surplus (nazul) land and share of dalits in its allotment is never addressed
with sincerity. Both the Akalis and BJP are falling on each other to own Dr.
Ambedkar to please dalit communities. Many proposals and programmes to
recognize and honour the dalit icons have been undertaken with an eye on the
elections and these will be forgotten, as usual, after the elections. The
Khuralgarh project in Hoshiarpur to honour Guru Ravidass was inaugurated with
great fanfare. But there is no time frame and no budget. It will remain on the drawing
board for long. MoS Vijay Sampla of BJP announced a college to be opened at
Bootan Mandi in Jalandhar to honour Dr. Ambedkar soon after he was appointed as
the President of Punjab BJP. The land said to be earmarked for the project now
has been auctioned to set up a vegetable market. These parties are simply
befooling the gullible dalits. Punjab SC Commission, a statutory body, headed
by a BJP nominee Rajesh Bagha, is toothless. Chairman Rajesh Bagha has alleged
openly in the media that he and other commissioners are being treated shabbily
by the government not only in the matter of payment of salaries and perks but
also otherwise as compared to other such statutory authorities. The allegedly
tainted SC Akali leaders namely Sarwan Singh Phillour and Avinash Chander have
been denied tickets by the Akali Dal but the likes of Bikram Singh Majithia who
is also involved in the same kind of allegations and investigations is calling
the shots. This is the treatment SCs get at the hands of their political masters.
Dalits need to see through the situation and assert themselves for their due
space in the system.
The AAP has come out with a much flaunted Dalit Manifesto. I
also contributed to the AAP’s Punjab Dialogue to consider some of the issues of
interest and concern to dalits of Punjab. I am sorry to say that the said
manifesto could not impress dalits. I wrote about this in detail in my blog and
e-mailed to the AAP leadership. As I said earlier that dalit vote bank has the
potential to do or undo. The Akali-BJP combine could come to power last time
only because of the fact that they were able to wean away dalits from the
Congress Party and win more seats in Doaba and elsewhere. I would not
बड़ा शोर सुनते थे पहलू में दिल का ;
मगर जो चीरा तो इक क़तरा खून न निकला !
Though most dalits are economically poor, apart from their
social backwardness, yet the Left parties could not make any inroads to their
constituency. It is a subject of study. My personal feeling is that the
communist leaders of yore in Punjab were all well to do Jatt Sikhs or elite
Hindus. They could not embrace dalits in the caste ridden society.
The so called party of dalits, the BSP has done much harm to
negate the demographic advantage of dalits in Punjab. They could not mobilize
dalits as they did in UP. BSP, knowing or otherwise, tended to support the
traditional parties by acting as dummies or spoilers. The dalit deras have
played a negative role by dividing the community into divisive streams. Most of
them don’t have any political Think Tanks who could advise them to handle the
political situation and safe guard the political interests of their innocent
and faithful followers. With this, one can safely say that dalits have harmed
themselves in this tedious process. Unfortunately, no silver lining is in
sight. I am certain that nobody would do anything. Dalits will have to do it
themselves. Will we wait for another Ambedkar or Kanshi Ram to appear? I
conclude with this question to be addressed by the dalit intelligentsia,
spiritual leaders and the educated youth. Let me quote yet another couplet to
say my mind:
जिस खेत से दहिनका को मयस्सर नहीं रोज़ी;
उस खेत के गोशे गंदम को जला डालो !
With regards,
Yours truly,
(Ramesh Chander)
Postscript:
तू पहले बात फिर बात का अंदाज़ पैदा कर;
फिर तुझे दुनिया में कोई नज़र अंदाज़ कर नहीं सकता!
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