Escape velocity for Dalits? Rahul, think DICCI, not Jupiter

Man about town Rahul Gandhi’s speech writers didn’t do justice to his Hinglish speech on Dalit empowerment on Tuesday when he attacked the Dalit icon Mayawati and offered lessons on Jupiter and its escape velocity.

Had the Congress’s prime minister-in-waiting been briefed well, he would have attacked Mayawati (political necessity) and would also have spoken of the empowering policies of the UPA government that a section of the Dalits themselves speak of.

Away from the limelight of Dalit politics and leaders such as Mayawati, Ram Vilas Paswan, Ramdas Athavale and others is Dalit businessman Milind Kamble who’s been speaking a different language of empowerment for his underprivileged community. Not the language of caste politics and reservations but that of liberalisation and urbanisation as the real emancipators of Dalits in India today.

Kamble, as a self-made businessman (Fortune Group) with a turnover of Rs 80 crore in the construction industry is the founder-president of the Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DICCI) that was established in 2005. He, along with fellow Dalit entrepreneur Kalpana Saroj were honoured with the Padma Shri on Republic Day this year.

“Markets,” says Kamble, “are bigger than Marx and Manu” and is firm in his conviction that the caste system will lose its relevance in the liberating environment of economic reforms and urbanisation with new opportunities for employment and entrepreneurship.

The fledgling DICCI has received support not just from industry leaders such as Ratan Tata, Adi Godrej, Anu Aga (who serves as an advisor) and others, but also from the UPA government. In June, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sbei) cleared DICCI’s proposal for a Rs 500 crore venture capital fund for small and medium Dalit enterprises.

It was about decade ago that the Pune-based Kamble began noticing that the thali in the poorest of Dalit households in the city was beginning to look better than before. “There was more to eat and many more items on the plate. Dalits were eating better than what their previous generations did,” Kamble said with a glint in his eye during an interview with this writer. “They used to eat coarse grain (millets) before but were now eating rice and wheat, just like people from upper castes. Their plates looked better than before,” he said. This was later confirmed through a survey of Dalit households.

Kamble speaks of how caste ceases to matter in an urban environment in sharp contrast to rural India. And therefore he and fellow activist and writer Chandra Bhan Prasad hold that Dalits should embrace the liberating environment of towns and cities and not remain trapped in the stifling constraints of their villages.

Deeply inspired by Babasaheb Ambedkar, Kamble holds that Dalits must now move beyond caste-based reservations and the foundation for affirmative action created by Ambedkar. He presents the vision of “Black capitalism” of America which has an influential voice of its own.

“Become job givers and not job seekers” is his clarion call to the Dalit youth who he says should not continue to look at themselves as victims and suffer for want of jobs and employment.

Kamble has pointed out to the government and to his community that there are more than 1.5 lakh registered micro, small and medium enterprises in the country. There’s a sizeable number of big businessmen too, with the biggest Dalit enterprise, SteelMont, having a global presence and a turnover of more than Rs 2,000 crore. There are Dalits today successfully running restaurants, eateries and hospitals and the caste factor does not seem to bother anyone.

Kamble represents a progressive section of the Dalit community that has been able to convince members of the Planning Commission to their perspective. Rahul Gandhi needn’t have gone as far as Jupiter in search of Dalit emancipation.