Conversion will not help, says Bangaru

Former BJP president Bangaru Laxman, joining issue with UP Chief Minister Mayawati for her threat to convert to Buddhism, today said that co...

Former BJP president Bangaru Laxman, joining issue with UP Chief Minister Mayawati for her threat to convert to Buddhism, today said that conversion was no panacea for the problems of Dalits.

Laxman, the first Dalit president of the BJP, told The Indian Express that the Dalits, instead of adopting an escapist approach, should fight for their due in Hindu society. He said: 8216;8216;For me, neither pity nor an escape would do Na dainyam, na palaynam. I would not give up my faith. I would rather strive for an honourable place within the Hindu society.8217;8217;

He said he would suggest to Mayawati to launch a crash programme to make every Dalit of UP a literate. 8216;8216;Once a Dalit is educated, he would not settle down for anything short of what is due to him.8217;8217; He said that he fully agreed with Mayawati when she talked of Dalits still not being allowed into temples. 8216;8216;This practice, even though alien to big cities, is still continuing in the countryside,8217;8217; he said. However, he pointed out, if conversion could put an end to it, untouchability would have been eliminated long ago.

8216;8216;The clashes between neo-Buddhists and upper caste people in Maharashtra over the renaming of Marathwada University in the 1970s and 8217;80s were only treated as caste violence. No one described them as communal trouble.8217;8217;

Laxman said Dalits, after conversion to Christianity, had to make do with separate churches or at least suffer segregation all over South India.

He said Dalits were not only a part of society but had also made an immense contribution to its rich cultural heritage. 8216;8216;Who would have known of Ram but for Valmiki? What would be our literary, cultural and folk traditions like without Ramkatha? We are inseparable from Ram. Therefore, we have Jagjivan Rams, Ram Vilas Paswans and Chand Rams. We are the real inheritors of these traditions. Why should we give them up?8217;8217;