'Mosquitoes bite us at Dalit homes': Motormouth ministers ambush BJP's outreach plan yet again

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s dinner-with-Dalits outreach programme has turned out to be more of an embarrassment for the party in Uttar Pradesh than a successful voter outreach programme. The latest in the series of gaffes was a comment by Anupma Jaiswal, the basic education minister in Uttar Pradesh Cabinet, as she boasted about dining with Dalits while ‘ braving mosquito bites  the whole night.’

The minister said: “This is the first time that a government has come which is working for the people and not for a particular caste or religion. We are reaching out to them (Dalits) to tell them about their rights and the government’s schemes. Ministers are dining with Dalits in their homes,” she said.

However, she went on to add: “The ministers are visiting villages to ensure the benefits of government schemes reached the needy. They have to face mosquito bites the whole night, still they visit the villages and feel happy about it,” she said.

More recently, Union minister Uma Bharti was in the midst of a similar controversy after she skipped a meal with Dalits during an event, but later apologised for the same.

Bharti skipped a meal with Dalits during an event organised near Dadri village on 1 May, saying she was not Lord Rama who would purify people by having food with them.

Later, the BJP leader apologised, saying she was not aware that she was supposed to have food with them.

“I don’t go to the houses of Dalits to have meals, though I support this trait (breaking bread with the people of scheduled caste category),” said the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister, while addressing a function in the village. She said that instead, she invites Dalits to her home to have food.

“I am not Lord Rama that if I sit with them, they will be purified… Instead, if they come to our home and sit in our kitchen, we will be sanctified,” Bharti said.

She added that she believes that when she serves food to Dalits on her dining table, “her place… utensils will attain purity.”

“Come to Delhi… my nephew’s wife would prepare food for you, I will serve a meal to you, my nephew will collect your plate after you finish eating and wash them,” she said. “I invite you to my place but I can’t have a meal with you because I have already taken it… I love you all. I am with you, always,” she had said.

Earlier, another UP minister Rajendra Pratap Singh had embarrassed the state government when he said that Yogi Adityanath dining with Dalits is like ‘ Lord Rama blessing Shabari .’ “The way Lord Ram blessed Shabari by eating her berries, BJP leaders too are blessing Dalits by going to their homes,” the minister had said. Singh was addressing a chaupal at Gadhmau village in Badagaon Block of Jhansi district.

On Monday, UP BJP minister Suresh Rana stirred up a controversy after reports surfaced that he essentially gatecrashed a Dalit’s house to dine with him and the food offered was prepared by a caterer.

The Dalit man, speaking to  The Indian Express , said that he was sleeping when someone banged at his door and told him that a minister wanted to dine with him. Since his family was not at home, and he wasn’t expecting the minister, there was no food prepared at his home. The food and the cutlery were brought from outside, he said.

“For a minute, I could not understand what was happening. I did not even have food with them. He (Rana) wouldn’t even have known who the owner of the house is. The leaders left after having dinner, which was cooked by some caterer,” he said. The incident took place in Aligarh’s Lohagadh on Monday night.

Meanwhile, Rana denied the controversy surrounding his visit. He said a community dinner was planned at the village, but it was he who expressed the wish to dine with a Dalit family at the last minute. He said that the food was prepared by the villagers in the village and clarified that he even had breakfast with a Dalit family the next morning.

“I am throwing an open challenge to them to prove that even a single grain of food came from outside. In fact, all food items were cooked in the village and by the villagers.

“The programme was organised by the local MLA (Anoop Valmiki) and the village pradhan. As per the plan, a breakfast was planned with a Dalit family the next morning, but I had expressed a desire that instead of having dinner at the community centre, I will have it at the house of a Dalit,” he told PTI. 

Attacking the Congress, Rana said in an interview, “I want to convey one thing to the leaders of the Congress that the Dalit tourism undertaken by them is not a tradition of the BJP. If they spend a night at the community centre, then they will realise the drive of the BJP. We do not take 7-star facilities along with ourselves during pravaas (night halts). In fact, we make pravaas in the existing facilities of the villages.” He blamed Opposition parties for the “unnecessary controversy”,  Dalit tourism is their culture, not ours,” he said.

Meanwhile, the ruling party’s Dalit, OBC outreach programme has been facing criticism from opposition Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and some BJP leaders, including MP Udit Raj.  Yesterday, Raj had said the Dalit outreach programme would not bring any electoral gains to the party, rather it would make Dalits feel “inferior”.

“Having nightstay and food at houses of Dalits neither empowers the Dalit families nor benefits the politicians, Rahul Gandhi is a live example of it. Instead of pretending through night stay and eating food, it would be better if politicians come forward for food, clothes, houses, employment and treatment of needy dalits” Raj said in a tweet.

The minister’s bizarre statements were criticised by another party MP Savitri Bai Phule, who termed such show off tactics, an insult to the Bahujan Samaj.

“I disagree with the trend of politicians going to Dalits’ homes. The father of our Constitution Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar was against caste system so those who follow him should not use caste for political purposes. Why only Dalit bhojs (meals) are hyped in the media and not similar events at places belonging to any other caste?” an angry Phoole asked while speaking to PTI.

“The way media reports are showing that food, utensils and waiters are outsourced…It is an insult to Dalits. It is a mockery of Dalits,” she said.

Raising more questions, the saffron-robed parliamentarian asked why even after decades of independence she was referred to as a ‘Dalit MP’. “The president is termed as Dalit president. Had Dr Ambedkar’s Constitution been followed in letter and spirit, the situation would have been different,” she asserted.

She said if anyone wanted to enhance the honour of Dalits, they should have meals cooked by them and in their utensils.

With Lok Sabha elections due next year, Adityanath has instructed party leaders to spend maximum time in Dalit villages in the wake of massive country-wide protests that was launched by the community recently.

With inputs from agencies