Twenty-five years ago one could not have even imagined that one day a party of the penurious,illiterate,rural and socially excluded would independently organise itself first to capture political power in the most populated state of the country and then dream of the prime ministers post. One should congratulate BSP and Mayawati for igniting this aspiration among so many individuals hailing from marginalised communities. Can any other established political outfit sell such a dream to Dalits? We know for sure that the Congress cannot sell the dream that one day a Dalit can become PM of India,when it could not even consider making a Dalit the chief minister in Uttar Pradesh — even when Dalits comprise 23 per cent of the population and voted en masse for the Congress,which remained in power for almost four decades. Then how can we imagine that the Congress will make a Dalit from its own party a prime minister or even support a Dalit leader of any other party for the same post?
The Congress has already declared its prime ministerial candidate. A person who never knew how an election for village pradhan is contested,and could not win a Lok Sabha election,became PM by nomination to Rajya Sabha. The Congress and other mainstream political parties have restricted Dalits to SC/ST cells. Although Dalits are numerically dominant,they cannot become the mainstream and hence cannot be considered for the top job. The parties in the Centre and state take their votes but never give them their due share in the government or in the party. The Dalit leaders will not be found in key decision making or influential positions in the organisational structure or in the government. As soon as the Dalit leader gains some prominence he is sidelined or denied tickets. Jagjivan Ram,Buta Singh,Bangaru Laxman etc. are few glaring examples. The way Sushil Kumar Shinde was shunted out from the chief ministers post after the 2004 Maharashtra elections exemplifies the use of Dalit votes by other political parties. That is why today the Congress does not have a leader of mass following either in the state nor at the Centre. They have virtually given the Bahujan Samaj Party a walkover in Dalit constituencies,at least in UP.
Yet,the Congress leadership still thinks that they can win over Dalits and their votes just by visiting their huts and having a meal with them. It should realise that now Indian democracy is ripening and moving from representative democracy to a participatory one. Today Dalits want to represent themselves both as village pradhan,and as prime minister. And so,they are committed to self-representation.
The writer is associate professor at the Department of Sociology,JNU
