Atrocities on Dalits must be tackled through inclusiveness and enforcement of law, not votebank politics

Tuesday’s Union Home ministry advisory, asking states to have zero tolerance for self-proclaimed ‘cow protection’ vigilante groups, is a belated but commendable step in the right direction. In urging states to protect subaltern groups and minorities from unscrupulous ‘gau rakshaks’ and their ringmasters who use an emotive issue to achieve their criminal and political ends, the advisory addresses a deep-rooted social prejudice that Dalits, above all, have routinely and historically been subjected to. It’s a start, but that’s not all. [caption id=“attachment_2902290” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Prime Minister Narendra Modi. AP[/caption] The Central government advisory tries to separate a sociological problem — which has law and order implications — from its blatant and enduring politicization. This in turn has led to a strange situation where every political party woos Dalits but the oppression and violence against them continues unabated. As the Congress, pioneers of the ‘Minority Project’, successfully ghettoised Muslims into a fear psychosis and reaped rich electoral dividends (a model now followed by nearly all ‘secular’ parties), studies and committee reports have proved how ground realities stayed the same for Muslims even almost seven decades into Independence. This should tell us how little political parties care for the groups and communities that they represent, because economic and social empowerment for that community invariably have a detrimental effect in votebank politics. Before I elaborate on this, let’s take a detailed look at what the government advisory says. The MHA advisory, while making a caveat on cow slaughter prohibition laws, advised firm action against law-breakers. “In States where slaughter of cows is prohibited by law, such slaughtering would be in violation of law, and an offence. However, that does not entitle any individual or group of persons to take action on their own to prevent the alleged slaughter or punish the alleged wrong doers.” Quoting Mahatma Gandhi on cows being the symbol for the “helpless and weak”, and mentioning Directive Principles of State Policy that provide for the preservation of cows, the advisory stresses on Article 48 of the Constitution. But the urge to employ law and order was unequivocal and absolute. “Recently some incidents have been reported where certain persons or groups have taken law into their own hands in the name of protecting cows and have committed crimes… This is not an acceptable situation. The states are enjoined upon, and expected, to ensure that any person who takes law into his/ her own hands is dealt with promptly, and punished as per law. There should be no tolerance at all for such persons and full majesty of law must come to bear on them, without exception. “Any person, or persons, doing so have to be dealt with strictly under the relevant laws, and brought to justice in the quickest possible fashion, for the strictest punishment ,” it read. Now combine the advisory with the Prime Minister’s recent statements where he categorically and unambiguously warned “fake gau rakshaks” who “have a problem with the country’s unity and only want to destroy society” from the long arm of law, and you get a picture of how the Modi government is trying to separate a law and order issue from a social prejudice. While the advisory focuses on implementation of law and order, Modi’s message focused on the social impact of caste-based discrimination and the need for respecting the “Dalit brothers and sisters”. In this, he also received support from RSS. It could well be that the BJP is wary of Dalit backlash and is trying desperately to cut losses ahead of crucial Assembly polls. Accusations can also be made against the PM for not speaking out sooner but regardless of the motive, there is nothing wrong in trying to address a social evil. Untangling the knotty conflations is a much-needed step. Not the least because blurring the line between blatant acts of criminality, deep-rooted social prejudice and the emotive issue of cow among Hindus is the modus operandi of parties who sense a huge political opportunity in fanning up the flames. Exploiting Dalit anger is of course a legitimate political ploy but it does little to address the historical, traditional and cultural discrimination Dalits have faced.   The issues faced by Dalits and the politics around it are two completely different things. The latter, if anything, obstructs a remedy for the former.   The issues faced by Dalits and the politics around it are two completely different things. The latter, if anything, obstructs a remedy for the former. The point to understand, regardless of what a section of the media peddles and parties such as the Congress, SP or the BSP claim, is that discrimination against Dalits did not start on 16 May, 2014, the day Narendra Modi came to power. Neither are atrocities against Dalits related to only those states where the BJP is in power. While Una in Gujarat has gained our attention, reports have poured in from non-BJP ruled states of Dalits being subjected to violence and discrimination. In UP, a Dalit man and his daughter were beaten up for drawing water from a handpump at an ashram in Sambhal district, just two days after Modi’s appeal. The 13-year-old girl who was working in the fields went to drink water from a handpump installed outside the Dunda Ashram in Gunnor area when she was beaten up. Later, when her father raised the issue, he too was thrashed allegedly by the priest and his aides. Once again in UP, a state where scheduled castes and tribes form 20 percent of the population, Dalits have refused to dispose of carcasses after two of their community members were beaten up by ‘cow vigilantes’ on suspicion of cow slaughter on 28 July in Takrohi area of Indiranagar. Once again in Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party government led by Akhilesh Yadav suspended all 14 policemen in Kanpur. A murder case was also filed against one of them after a young Dalit man was found dead in custody. And on Monday, A mob of “gau rakshaks” allegedly beat up two Dalits in Andhra Pradesh’s East Godavari district after they skinned a cow which had died due to electrocution. The brothers were allegedly tied to a coconut tree, stripped and thrashed for skinning a dead cow at Janakipeta in Amalapuram town of Andhra Pradesh. According to police , after the cow died following electrocution, its owner engaged the brothers for skinning the animal. On getting to know of the skinning, the cow vigilantes went to the place and beat up the duo, suspecting that they had killed the animal. In many of these cases, vigilantism have tried to capitalize on a vacuum in governance. Strict implementation of law and order may deter these self-styled breaker of laws and that is exactly why the Home Ministry advisory is important. But to see these atrocities only through the prism of criminality is, of course, wrong by miles. All these incidents are also a reflection of the growing resentment among the upper castes at having to increasingly share social and political privileges with Dalits. As sociologist Dipankar Gupta pointed out in an India Today report: “When oppressed classes start asserting themselves, backlashes happen. In the US, the lynching of Blacks started in the later part of 19th century when they began asserting their rights. The same is happening with Dalits as they are increasingly participating in the social and political process,” he says, pointing to how a 90 percent increase in Dalit literacy between 2001 and 2011 has given them a bigger voice, supported by the gradual penetration into traditional and social media. Tied to this is the political arithmetic. The BJP doubled its Dalit vote share to 24 percent in 2014 from 12 per cent in 2009. It won all 17 Lok Sabha seats in UP that year and a total of 40 out of 84 seats reserved for SCs and STs. The BJP also won 41 of the 70 reserved constituencies in all the states where it has formed a government since 2014. This ability to swing electoral fortunes made Dalits a lucrative community for parties to purse. Though Dalits have historically never voted in blocks, non-BJP forces are confident that a mobilization of Dalit anger against it will swell their electoral tide. This, sadly, remains the intrinsic calculus of Indian polity. Sanghmitra Acharya, director of the Indian Institute of Dalit Studies, Delhi, tells India Today: “Political parties don’t see these as problems. They want to keep deprivation among Dalits an issue which they can exploit for electoral benefits.” Modi’s message and the advisory, may trigger a strategic shift in the Dalit debate where the focus is on better implementation of law and order and greater stress on social inclusiveness. His political rivals are already nervous about such a shift happening. That should tell the PM that he must continue in his path towards social egalitarianism.