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Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, AUG 11: Arun Shourie, who earned the wrath of the Ambedkarites for allegedly deriding B R Ambedkar in his book, Worshipping False Gods, might have changed his views before joining the BJP, says new BJP president, Bangaru Laxman, an Ambedkarite himself.
Union Minister of State for Disinvestment, Shourie, was heckled by Republic Party of India (RPI) activists at a function in Mumbai, last week. A RPI MP, R S Gavai, had recently alleged in the Rajya Sabha that Shourie had been rewarded with a Cabinet-berth by the BJP because of his anti-Dalit views.
Bangaru, however, feels otherwise. “A number of leaders, who used to oppose the BJP tooth and nail, have been included in the Cabinet after they changed their views. Shourie, in any case, wrote the book much before he joined the BJP or was included in the Cabinet,” he told The Indian Express today.
Ambedkar himself authored the Constitution giving freedom of speech to people, so Shourie’s book should not be recalled again and again. “In any case, his book is not going to dent the towering personality of Babasaheb Ambedkar,” Bangaru said.
The new BJP chief claims to wean the Dalits away from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), a necessary pre-requisite for winning the crucial UP Assembly elections, due next year.
Aggressive Ambedkarism might have brought some success to the BSP and the RPI but Dalits would not be fooled for long. “See what happened to Dalit Panthers, which had also championed the cause of the Scheduled Castes, it is toeing the line of some other party (Nationalist Congress). The same fate awaits the BSP and the RPI,” Bangaru said.
No party, banking exclusively on Dalits’ support, could come to power on its own. At the most, it can act as a pressure group. “This is probably why the BSP is already diluting its ideological base by inducting people of other castes. They have started adoring the same tilak, tarazu and talwar (upper castes), whom they used to threaten with beating with shoes,” he asserted.
The BJP chief accused the RPI and the BSP of using the Dalits as a vote-bank, the same way as other parties use Muslims only as vote-bank, without working for their welfare.
Bangaru felt the implementation of the present reservation policy was faulty as it had benefitted only two per cent of the Dalits as many castes figuring in the list of Scheduled Castes had not received any benefits, so far.
“Non-implementation of quota was never made into an issue. Flouting quota policy should have been made a cognisable offence, the same way as practicising untouchability had been made,.” he said.
The BJP would ensure that benefits of reservation were distributed equally among the Dalits and it would provide adequate support to them in education. “There is a need to spend more on education, literacy campaign and creation of awareness among the Dalits about their rights,” Bangaru felt.
What would he do to change the BJP’s image of an anti-Dalit party? Bangaru accuses BJP’s political opponents and the media of giving the party a false name. The BJP, at its first national council at Cochin in 1980, had passed a resolution supporting the reservation policy. Similarly, the party, at its Agra conclave in 1988, had adopted a policy-document on the problems of SC/STs. “No other party has passed a formal resolution to this effect, so far,” he said.
Bangaru claimed only the BJP had implemented the Dalit agenda on the national level. “Tell me who had made Mayawati the first Dalit chief minister of UP, not once but twice? Only the BJP. Our Government is still implementing the BSP’s Dalit agenda. We really care for Dalits and they are soon going to realise this,” he said.
As a final evidence of his party’s pro-Dalit credentials, Bangaru quoted Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s speech, made at the party’s convention at Mumbai in 1990, vowing not to enter the temple which was forbidden for Dalits.
