Pracharak at SC-ST panel helm to push Dalit cause

He insists that his political identity is a platform to which he owes his growth but he would do nothing to fail the Dalits. ‘‘There are certain things that go beyond the political identity of a person,’’ he says. ‘‘The party is after all a platform. It is not everything,’’ he says.

He says that he is indebted to the RSS and the VHP. ‘‘When I say that I am being honest. If I am able to serve Dalits and tribals, if I have a forum today, is it not because of my party,’’ he asks. However, the pracharak in him is ever on the vigil to defend corrections in history books and history, teaching of astrology, and theories like the Hindus never ate beef.

And the only way the lot of Dalits can be served is by creating a casteless society, he says. The pracharak takes over again. ‘‘Vedic society had no caste system,’’ he says. ‘‘At the Kumbh Mela there are no separate bathing ghats for different castes,’’ he adds.

This again reminds him of double standards regarding teaching astrology in universities. ‘‘When I was lecturing in European institutions on Hinduism, academics showed keen interest in astrology. But here where everyone goes to an astrologer to known his future, there are protests when it comes to teaching it,’’ he says.

‘‘Haven’t history books distorted the truth about Shudras by equating them with the slaves of the West. But in India Shudras have been kings and and have taken part in the freedom struggle,’’ he says. He then goes on to insist that Hindus never ate beef and is surprised when told that Vivekandanda has referred to beef eating habits among Hindus. But he keeps a discreet silence on saffronisation and mass conversions of Dalits.