The Congress needs to back up its Dalit welfare rhetoric with real action....
Written by The Indian Express
2 min read
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After a Jat mob set fire to a Dalit settlement in Mirchpur,in Hisar district,killing a polio-stricken girl and her father among others,Haryanas dysfunctional politics has drawn national attention. Rahul Gandhis sudden visit to the victims families,and his assurance that the Congress president would keep tabs on the state governments handling of the affair,is clear reproof to the Congress administration in the state. It is also an acknowledgment that such narrow caste exploiting politics cant coexist with the partys plans to draw Dalits under its social umbrella.
Haryana is among the states with a larger concentration of SC populations,at almost 20 per cent. In recent years,caste identities have become sharper and more aggressive,encouraged by a political class that feeds on these divisions. In the last few years,Dalit assertion has been accompanied by convulsions of inter-caste violence in Gohana,in Mohamedpur,in Kila Jafargarh,now in Mirchpur. These old hatreds just need an excuse to burst into flame and as in Mirchpur,there is no answer to the Dalit villagers anguish,their fear at staying on in the same area. Let down by the police,they are insecure and disillusioned with the state.
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And the Congress has been only too complicit in this arrangement. Its state government strains mightily to look away from the social intimidation and rough justice practised by Haryanas khap panchayats. Its only real intervention,in fact,has been to claim that prosecuting khaps would be a rash and destabilising step. With a state government that cant square up to its responsibility towards Haryanas Dalits,the Congresss fine-sounding words about Dalit welfare seem empty. If the partys plans for a grand social coalition are to work out,it needs to reach out and reassure Haryanas vulnerable Dalits that these incidents will be met with swift punishment. If the Congress wants to reclaim the grand social coalition in north India,sustain its hold over Haryana,it must articulate a brave and inclusive alternative to the petty math of playing caste tensions against each other.
