Dalit Women in Politics: Unless women come into politics, no support will be offered to marginalised sections, says Sujatha Surepally

If we look at our country’s politics, there has been no one from the scheduled castes who has become the Prime Minister of India till date, let alone a scheduled caste woman. Political engagement of Dalits is necessary, but more importantly, it has to include Dalit women leadership in political spaces. The  panel on "Dalit Women in Politics: Past, Present and Future" — organised by The Blue Club, a collective for providing mentorship and support to women filmmakers, and All India Dalit Mahila Adhikar Manch (AIDMAM) — was put together with the above vision in mind. More than 60 Dalit women leaders from across India participated in the conference. Firstpost will be publishing some of the important speeches from this panel. This is the third of the series of speeches . *** I am here to share my experience as a political candidate and also as a Dalit woman. About how our own people and own organisations see you when you are in politics. My journey into activism began two decades ago. I have been a part of several movements and have worked on caste, gender, land rights, rights of Adivasis, education and environment. After the formation of Telangana, I started to focus only on caste issues. ‘Honor killings’, which we refer to as caste killings, increased in Telangana. As the convenor of Bahujan Pratighatana Vedika, we work to document and upload videos on Desi Disa, a YouTube channel to sensitise people. This is done so that oppressed sections will come up and have some say. But when it comes to Telangana’s women activists, things are going in the opposite direction. Cases are being filed against us and we are being put in jail. Surprisingly, when I started working specifically on caste, I was targeted by the police and several cases were filed against me. This made me think about my role in these movements and in activism. [caption id=“attachment_6215941” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Sujatha Surepally. Image courtesy: Priyadharshini[/caption] Most of my friends and well-wishers told me to stop — I was told that even though I have been writing on various issues for decades, as an outsider to the political system there isn’t much that I can do. My friends from left-leaning organisations put me down by saying that this woman always talks only about caste and discrimination. On the flip side, my Dalit friends distanced themselves from me because of my association with the left. Finally, when I did start talking about caste and working on it, I became the target for the state as well. We were told by our own organisations, family and society that politics is not for us — ‘You can’t win, its corrupt, money, mafia, media, (now I will also add) Manuvāda, all this can’t be handled by you.’ My experience involved a lot of struggle after which we still had to go to the government and ministries with a begging bowl to seek justice. Who will be there to listen to you when it comes to caste and gender? Even if we decide to enter into politics, the question arises of which political party to choose. My friends said that there were many options (of course, not the BJP). Some parties want women like Smriti Irani and we saw what she was like at the time of Rohith Vemula. These parties only want women for the sake of token representation, as rubber stamps. On the other hand, we saw Mayawati talk about the Rohith Vemula issue too. She was the only woman who spoke up and took a stand. Except for the BSP, all parties put Dalits in their ‘cells’. There was no sign of Dalit Morchas, SC Cell, Dalit women. This is because in these parties ‘Dalit’ only means Dalit men who can dance according to their wishes. It doesn’t matter if you have completed your education, have had a long career, participated in activism — you are never a part of the General category. When it came to the Congress and other parties, I was not seen fit to contest in the General category. This put me in a very uncomfortable position. Since the BSP had approached me from the very beginning I felt comfortable to join them. Especially when I saw that other parties hardly have an ideology to speak of. They treat people like beggars by throwing some or the other programme their way. In the case of BSP, there is a strong ideology that is based on Phule, Ambedkar and Kanshi Ram’s ideas — this is the only way in which Indian society can be reformed. Once we decided to join the party, all of my fellow comrades distanced themselves saying elections are not for us. When I joined BSP I was very comfortable on a particular level, especially compared to other parties. But no matter what, people’s mindset of caste and patriarchy is constantly there. Although here there was space to put across our points, to negotiate, debate and discuss. The people within the party gave me a lot of respect. But on the ground level, the question of whether a woman can be a politician and do what men can do was something I first faced in the constituency of Chennur. This remote town of the erstwhile Adilabad district was seeing women contest in it for the first time. Many men were uncomfortable about asking for liquor or money — when we are saying no money in exchange for votes. As an academician and activist, I had conducted some amount of research to prepare the manifesto before I went into the field. This area had the highest number of widows, faced mining and displacement issues, suffered low literacy rates, did not have even a single public toilet for women, no hospitals for women, no schools or colleges nearby and very high unemployment rates. I was happy to see that after I prepared the manifesto, other parties changed their manifestos. The opposition parties were keen that I mustn’t get a ticket to run. They went to the extent of trying to stall my form on the Central level. Getting my ticket was the first struggle I faced, after which there was the first press conference where media members approached me with the question of ‘package’. I wasn’t familiar with the terminology of ‘package’ — every political party gives money to members of the media. If you don’t do this, they will not cover your election news. I said that I am here to show people that it is possible to run for elections without money and that I am not going to give anything. No media member covered any information relating to us, except for a few online magazines. All the major newspapers carried my interview on a large scale. But there was nothing on the constituency level. I always say that when you are a government organisation (GO) or an NGO then you are seen as a Maoist. You receive comments like, “She is always working on the left, she is a rebel, she is a radical” on the one hand and on the other, “She is casteist, talks about only Dalits.” For women who are in politics with the baggage of caste, without the ‘right’ family background it is difficult to accept that money is involved to such a large extent. On top of this, if you are an independent candidate who has a strong ideology of Marx, Phule and Ambedkar, it’s even more difficult to accept this fact about the system. Anyway, it was a wonderful experience for me to get to know so much about people, about corruption, to fight gender, caste, patriarchy and of course the media mafia. At one point the opposition parties (the RSS especially) started trolling me on social media during the elections. The current ruling party played every trick in the book to pull me down. They saw to it that my name did not appear anywhere, they spread the rumour that I had been given crores of rupees by prominent political leaders. They replaced my name with that of another man who was contesting from a different party — my photograph was replaced everywhere, a voice message to the effect was shared in multiple spaces. People who were working for you would suddenly disappear, they would stop working for you if you didn’t offer liquor or money — which is why they say it is very difficult to get votes. The other thing is that for us competing in elections is both challenging and strange. Because this is not the experience that Priyanka Gandhi, KCR’s daughter, Smriti Irani, Mamata Banerjee or Jayalalithaa face. I now understand why Mayawati is so stubborn and strong. People call her corrupt or characterless — it’s an easy way to blame women on those grounds. In a scenario where every party is offering money and liquor, all caste organisations and women’s groups also started bargaining, being a part of this and this is the really sad part. The reason behind this is the lack of political understanding — people are aware that during election time politicians will come, so they make these demands. But what about our educated circles? They are happy staying on social media debating in the comments section. They do nothing to help candidates like us who face all possible challenges from every corner, we who are putting in all our work into this. My routine dialogue with people was, ‘I am here to win elections without money or bribe, those who give money never work. If people want a true, honest and committed politician they should only send their money (if needed) to the assembly or parliament.’ My male colleagues would say, ‘Who will come to us with such a dialogue?’. It isn’t just money and media, they also used police, hired goondas, stole votes and managed EVMs. In these circumstances how can we talk about a corruption-less election system? When it comes to Dalits, it’s only Dalit men who figure — our men don’t even talk about Dalit boys, about the Rohith Vemula issue. How will they talk about Dalit women’s issues? Why is the bill for 1/3rd reservation for women pending for so long? It is perhaps the only bill that has been delayed for this long. Why are they afraid of women being in politics? We make up half of the society, so it should go according to the population and in a proportionate way. Until and unless Dalit women come into politics, no strong voice is going to come out, no strong support is going to be offered to marginalised sections. We have been fighters throughout our lives, we contribute to our economy, we are the major shareholders and this country owes us. Mayawati for us is a symbol of empowerment, she is a symbol for Dalit women. After having stood for elections, I understand how hard it is to be as a party head in this Brahmin, Hindu, patriarchal, casteist society. Is she the only corrupt politician? Don’t others also subscribe to corruption? Why are only these aspects of her covered by media? Why aren’t the programmes, reforms highlighted? Nobody talks about Jayalalithaa and corruption, nobody talks about Mamata Banerjee and corruption, but how come when it comes to Mayawati, that’s all they talk about? As per the logic of the ‘Good Women’ character syndrome, Mayawati can’t be a politician. She should take care of her home, perform karva chauth, and praise Modi. If you don’t do all this, you are bad. In most of my interviews and talks, I say, ‘Let us be bad, more bad so that people start looking at us, discussing us. So that it creates some awareness.’ Only then can we compete and be empowered. I wish that more women come from downtrodden sections, from oppressed sections. Only then can more cleansing of the system happen, only then can new blood come. Only then can new thoughts and ideology change society. We need to create such an environment. All this is not possible without 1/3rd reservation for women, it is not possible for any party. Political parties keep talking about ‘women’s agenda’. But what really is women’s agenda? There is no clarity on this. This is why we the working women must demand political empowerment. (Speech transcribed by Shruti Ravi) Professor Sujatha Surepally teaches Sociology at Satavahana University in Karimnagar. She was the BSP candidate from Chennur Constituency in the 2018 Telangana Legislative Assembly Elections.