Abandoning Hinduism won't help Dalits

As suspected, a section of the media created quite a spectacle when Rohith Vemula's mother and brother embraced Buddhism on the day of 125th birth anniversary of national icon and towering Dalit leader Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar.

Rohith's suicide was tragic as it abruptly ended the life of a bright and promising student. Yet, a clutch of political parties, led by the Congress and the Left, and backed by some of their loyal friends in the media continue to fan the fire of hatred and are conveniently using the young student's suicide for their short term political gains.

In the three months since Rohith died, there have been several other instances of atrocities on Dalits across the country, but the Congress has turned a blind eye to those incidents. For the grand old party that is fighting a battle for survival with a shrinking supporter base, exploiting the unfortunate incident at Hyderabad University is nothing but clutching at straws to stay afloat.

The Congress believes that by persistently blaming the BJP government at the Centre, it will achieve twin objectives - one, take away BJP's dalit support base, which voted en masse for the party during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and will again play a crucial role in Uttar Pradesh elections due early next year and two, stitch events at Hyderabad, Delhi's JNU and Srinagar's NIT to drive a wedge between BJP and students, who had again voted in large numbers for the party.

Sadly, the Congress is now playing a dirty game that is only driven by its quest to discredit the BJP by hook or by crook and create a window of opportunity to come back to South Block by the time elections are held in 2019. Two years into power, the BJP government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has gone about in a systematic manner to repair the economy, create job opportunities and hardsell India as a prominent investment destination on the global stage.

Importantly, there is no major charge of any scandal or corruption against the government. Clearly, this is frustrating the Congress and forcing it to stoop lower every single day and ignite passions over regrettable, yet isolated incidents. However, these machinations and political subterfuge are grave for national interest.

Even as the spectrum of Opposition often accuses the BJP of dividing the society in the name of religion because the party has steadfastly refused to indulge in minority appeasement, it conveniently forgets that the politics of dividing the society over caste is far more dangerous. Given that the majority community of Hindus makes up for nearly 80 per cent of the country's population, engineering more splits, creating schisms and encouraging conversions in an already divided society could prove detrimental for the social fabric and unity of the nation in the coming years.

The bitter truth is that Dalits in India have been at the bottom of the social pyramid for centuries. Even though they make up 17 per cent of the country's population as per 2011 census, Dalits still face persecution, exploitation and even death and are denied access to basic rights like safe drinking water. The problem is more acute in villages, which are still seeped in the crass mentality of untouchability and act in accordance with caste hierarchy.

That said, there has been a steady improvement in the stature and living conditions of Dalits over the decades as they have been given several opportunities to rise through the stranglehold of casteism. The policy of reservation, introduced by Babasaheb Ambedkar, has gradually facilitated the entry of a big chunk of Dalits into the mainstream. Today, Dalits are working as doctors, engineers, teachers, IAS officers and have even become successful entrepreneurs. There is also Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry that bears testament to their vision and skills. Further, the Stand Up India initiative, as part of Start Up India campaign, is aiming to create 2.5 lakh Dalit entrepreneurs.

It doesn't come as a surprise then that Chirag Paswan, Lok Sabha member from Bihar and son of a prominent Dalit leader, Ram Vilas Paswan recently exhorted prosperous Dalits to voluntarily stop availing quotas and reservation so that the needy among the community can avail those benefits. Similarly, former Bihar CM and Dalit leader Jitan Ram Manjhi has announced that he and his family members would henceforth not take reservation benefits and contest next parliamentary and assembly elections from unreserved constituencies.

This social upliftment has been possible due to the reservation policy, which is available only for Dalits and backwards within the Hindu society. When parties like Congress and Left tacitly support religious conversion of Dalits, they fail to notice that they are depriving them of reservation benefits. Hence, religious conversion has never been nor can be a lasting solution to the caste tangle.

More than three decades ago, a large number of Dalits had converted to Islam in Tamil Nadu's Meenakshipuram. While the Dalits did not benefit in any manner, they also lost out on the benefits of reservation. It must be pointed here that since most followers of other religions in India had Hindu ancestors, casteism is also prevalent in these segments of the society in varying degree.

Thus, religious conversion is surely not the panacea to caste ills.

It is unfortunate that when media and pseudo secular political parties showcase religious conversion of Rohith Vemula's family, they do not realize that they are indulging in an immoral act of splitting up the nation for their selfish and ulterior motives. The need of the hour is not to rub salt on the wounds and add to the misery of a mother, who has lost a son, for political capital but to provide a healing touch to Dalits of our nation.

They are inferior to none and it is the responsibility of every true Indian to bring them into the national mainstream. That is only when we will be able to create a casteless India, an India of Babasaheb's dream!