Opinion Beyond Koregaon

Koregaon-Bhima appears to have been a trigger for Dalit anger simmering over issues of self-respect and constitutional rights, jobs and livelihoods.

The Dalit mobilisation in Maharashtra could unsettle the BJP’s carefully calibrated outreach to the community while attempting to build a consolidated Hindu base. The BJP’s discomforts are a fallout of its own success. As the party expands its social base, contradictions between the interests of its “core” vote and the new sections it wants to woo and attract, are coming to the fore.

All of the BJP’s political inventiveness and its managerial skills may need to be called in to address the unfolding situation, with the Dalit unrest posing some searching questions about the ideas of nationalism and nation-building that the party upholds. In one of the readings of the current unrest, in Koregaon-Bhima, the Dalit imagination of communal pride and self-respect has clashed with Sangh Parivar notions of national pride. The party has sought to contain the fallout in Maharashtra by portraying it as a local event, the result of tensions between the Marathas and Dalits. For now, it is refusing to acknowledge it as a symptom of a larger political unrest. Indeed, the Maratha mobilisations of the past few months had a distinct anti-Dalit edge, but to view the Dalit protests, particularly in Mumbai on Wednesday, as exclusively directed against the Maratha community may be to misread them. Koregaon-Bhima appears to have been a trigger for Dalit anger simmering over issues of self-respect and constitutional rights, jobs and livelihoods. It is separate from, but also connected to the student unrest in Hyderabad Central University, the Una flogging of Dalits by gau rakshaks and tensions in Saharanpur. Each of these incidents threw up new, articulate Dalit leaders, challenging the Sangh Parivar’s homogenising vision.

Advertisement

In recent years, the BJP has been largely successful in shedding its image of a Brahmin-Bania party and has found acceptance in a cross-section of society, including the Dalits and Adivasis. It has sought to appropriate Ambedkar with the government organising Ambedkar Jayanti celebrations. The party elevated Ram Nath Kovind to the office of president. It has also reached out to politically-excluded communities among Dalits and backward castes by offering representation, forging alliances. However, the BJP’s overtures to such social groups get periodically ambushed by Sangh Parivar affiliates, who refuse to compromise with core ideological issues for electoral considerations. The BJP recognises that Dalit political assertion in Maharashtra could impact its national strategy and has been quick to condemn the violence at Koregaon-Bhima. But it may have to go in for a reassessment of its own strategy and tactic if it wants to sustain a larger social base.