What Dalit activists think about BSP’s decline

PTI

The decline of the Bahujan Samaj Party(BSP) will affect the social mobility of dalits and reduce their political assertion in society, say many dalit activists who work on ground, while others feel that the community is trying to break free of votebank politics and caste compulsions.

Poonam Baudh, an advocate who heads the Savitribai Phule Mahila adhikar manch that was at the forefront of protests during Hathras rape, said having an independent party that spoke about the rights of the Dalit community was a big boost for activists on ground.

According to her the BSP’s presence not only increased the social mobility of Dalits but encouraged them to speak against everyday casteist slurs, discrimination in schools and government institutions, harassment and rape of Dalit women, social boycott, non-payment of wages and lapses in filing FIRs against caste-based violence.

“Over the years, we saw many Dalits shift from the BSP and go to other parties. Some even accepted hindutva, but their emotional connect remained with the BSP that gave us the confidence. It is our party afterall. In UP, Dalits can proudly move around in bikes as Kanshiram, Babasaheb or Mayawati‘s followers. Now the fight for justice will have to be done on different terms,” she said.

In its worst performance, the BSP has shrunk to just one seat in the 403-member House in the state. Party supremo Mayawati who was at helm in UP four times between 1995 and 2012. has said that fear among many Dalits of the SP coming to power and the Muslims voting collectively for the SP were reasons for her party’s poor performance in the polls. In the 2017 assembly elections the party had won 19 seats and had a vote share of 22.3 percent which has now come down to a little over 12 percent.

Avtar Singh who runs the Lucknow-based Ambedkar Shiksha Samiti said the Dalit community now is facing the worst of economic crisis and what matters to is more is the availability of free ration, gas, monetary help that formed the core of BJP‘s campaign.

“The growing lack of awareness in the dalit community about their own leaders, history and resistance is particularly evident. I am very proud to say that I have been a disciple of Babasaheb for 50 years but many youngsters in the community don’t understand the value of it anymore. Practical life and livelihood issues have taken over concerns such as identity and social empowerment.”

Harsh Rawat,a Pasi activist from Rae-Bareli based Bhartiya Samanvaya Sangthan Lakshay said the struggle for Dalits was never meant to be easy. “The resistance will go on in different forms. Today for instance we decide we will ensure the idol of Kanshiram is built in every village with a dalit population..We will eat a roti less but the movement will go on. People like Kanshiram have done enough for the society to know about what the bahujan can do when they want. He had already prepared us for a day like this.”

Other experts are however certain that the BSP’s decline will have less or no impact on ground for Dait politics.

Baldev Choudhary of Akhil Bharatiya Dalit Vikas Parishad that has highlighted many Dalit issues in the past said legal and administrative help in pursuit of justice was the most important part of crimes against Dalits. “It helped a lot to have the BSP’s presence in the village, but over the years, the community was only getting more and more delusional with Mayawati and her ways of working, particularly ignoring the needs of her loyal voters and committed workers. Security is the most important for Dalits and the BJP government under Yogi Adityanath has helped with that. In the winter months, we got ration and gas and this has really helped many Dalit households.”

Renowned Dalit activist and former General Secretary of the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights Paul Diwakar said it was actually a good sign that the Dalits were exercising their choice, without being bound by expectations of caste narratives.

“I think the young Dalits did not vote for the BSP. That the BSP has lost voteshare doesn’t mean the Dalits have lost. The community is just saying it cannot be taken for granted which is a good sign. Also there are many factors that one considers before voting and Dalits cannot be isolated from present-day realities.”

(Catch all the Business News, Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on The Economic Times.)

Download The Economic Times News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.

ETPrime stories of the day