Opinion Mayawati’s moment

The BJP’s censure of its UP vice-president, Dayashankar Singh, for his abominable remarks against BSP supremo Mayawati was immediate: Singh was removed from the party post first, then the organisation, and party leaders expressed regret in Parliament and promised action. However, the BSP has refused to let the issue die down. Encouraged by the cross-party condemnation of Singh and expressions of solidarity, Mayawati referred to the personal insult as another in the long history of atrocities against the Dalits in the country as she spoke in Parliament on Thursday. She also pointedly said that the Congress and the BJP, which have held office at the Centre mostly since independence, express solidarity with the Dalits but rarely take remedial action to prevent violence against the community. She presented herself as the representative political face of the Dalit community, which knew its history, had found agency and was unwilling to be patronised by the non-Dalit, national political parties.

The events of Wednesday has galvanised the BSP, which was reeling under defections and allegations that the party was betraying its mandate by selling assembly and Lok Sabha seats to the highest bidder. It has also further damaged the BJP’s laboured strategy to achieve a Hindu consolidation by reaching out to various castes. This was of particular significance for the BJP in the background of the upcoming assembly election in UP, where the Dalits, who constitute nearly 20 per cent of the population, are a potent political force. The Rohith Vemula episode and the ongoing Dalit unrest in Gujarat had already exposed the contradictions in the BJP’s Dalit outreach, with its ideological fetishes like cow protection squaring against the cultural and occupational concerns of the Dalits. The BJP will need to recalibrate its political strategy, abandon divisive agendas and become more culturally accommodative and inclusive if it has to build appeal beyond its core ideological constituency. The exclusivist mobilisations of its fraternal organisations can only sharpen faultlines in the society; these are unlikely to help the party to broadbase its electoral appeal.

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Watch Video: The Implications Of Dayashankar’s Remarks On Mayawati That Left The BJP Red-Faced

 

Mayawati also foregrounded the question of Dalit political agency when she turned the verbal attack on her to an issue of Dalit self-respect. Her speech in Parliament encompassed a broad spectrum of Dalit concerns, ranging from physical safety to adequate representation in judiciary and reservation in promotions in government jobs. The BSP chief was outlining the Dalit political agenda and her party’s intent to pursue it as the sole representational formation. With the Congress and the BJP at her heels to win over the Dalits, Mayawati needed to consolidate her support base. The verbal abuse by Dayashankar Singh provided her an issue to rally around troops.