Bhim Army activist killed: The problems with BJP’s brand of Dalit outreach
Sachin Walia was the brother of Bhim Army district president Kamal Walia.
A year after Maharana Pratap Jayanti celebrations in Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur district saw violent clashes between Dalits and Rajputs, blood was spilled again, on May 9 this year. Sachin Walia, the 24-year-old brother of Bhim Army district president Kamal Walia, died of bullet injuries in Ramnagar, in the same district.
सहारनपुर में शहीद साथी Sachin Walia को समाज की अंतिम विदाई। जय भीम@abhisar_sharma @AliSohrab007 @Shehla_Rashid @UmarKhalidJNU pic.twitter.com/hkJt55IdMB
— BUNTY CHHOKAR (@ChhokarBunty) May 10, 2018
People flocked in thousands to pay tribute to Sachin Walia.Dalit boy was murdered yesterday. Rajput gangs are suspected behind the murder. The murder took place on the eve of birthday Maharana Pratap.दलितों पे अत्याचार, जुल्म, दमन अब नहीं सहेंगे- अब नहीं सहेंगे!! #SCSTAct pic.twitter.com/8Oo7xCUqcA
— Bahujan4India (@Bahujan4India) May 10, 2018
This happened on the first anniversary of a Dalit-Thakur clash whose repercussions are still being felt, when tension had been building up in the area as the Rajput king Maharana Pratap’s jayanti approached, and Saharanpur was already under heavy police deployment.
The death, and the way it has so far been handled, shows why Dalits in UP are finding it so difficult to trust the system, and how that heightens the risk of flare-ups. Ramnagar is tense, with residents protesting and the Rapid Action Force (RAF) deployed.
The responsibility for this lies at the door of the government, which has failed to reassure Dalits of justice so far, and through its acts of apparent omission and commission, has placed the state perennially on the edge of violence.
The Bhim Army has been a symbol of Dalit assertion, of a traditionally disadvantaged section rising up to demand its due in no uncertain terms. The BJP government’s response has been to unleash the might of the state against them on one hand – the outfit’s chief Chandrashekhar Azad ‘Ravan’ has been in jail for almost a year now, booked under the stringent National Securities Act – and on the other, to try deeply condescending “outreach methods”, such as breaking bread at Dalit homes.
The message the government seems to be sending is this – while Dalits are welcome in the virat Hindu parivar as long as they stay within the space delineated by the benevolent upper castes, any attempt to rise up will be struck down, swiftly and surely.
While this fits in with the Hindutva worldview, no democratic government can function like this.
Charges of state patronage
The way Sachin Walia’s death has been handled so far is the latest episode in the Thakur-Dalit clash where the administration’s role has been less than ideal. While Walia’s neighbours and family allege he was shot dead by Rajputs, some reports have quoted police officers as saying he “accidentally set off his own gun while cleaning it”.
There have also been reports that before the police could arrive, local residents were already cleaning the blood stains on the street.
The NSA against Ravan was extended on May 2, which means he cannot apply for bail or avail of legal representation. The Act was first invoked against him a day after the Aallahabad high court granted him bail in November 2017, terming the charges slapped against him in the Shabbirpur clashes “politically motivated”.
The Rajputs who were arrested are out on bail. If the police seem benign towards them, the patronage is flowing right from the top. The local BJP MLA, Brijesh Singh, had defended their role in the violence.
Just a month before that, in April itself, the Ambedkar Jayanti clash in Sadak Doodhli, also in Saharanpur, saw the active involvement of the area’s BJP MP Raghav Lakhanpal and MLA Kunwar Brijesh.
The Thakur chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, did not once condemn the clashes or assure the Dalits of their grievances being heard. Instead, a few weeks later, he shared food with Dalits in his home town, Gorakhpur.
Why is the government failing
It is this condescension that the Bhim Army has refused to swallow. 'Ravan' first poked upper castes in the eye when he put up a board, proclaiming “The Great Chamar” in his village. His choice of title, 'Ravan', is ambitious and provocative in a state where Ram has long been a political rallying point for Hindutva forces. His Bhim pathshalas have been teaching students about Dalit icons like Valmiki and Babasaheb Ambedkar. His slogan has been: Mere saath kaho – Hum iss desh ke shasak hain (Repeat after me, we are the rulers of this country).
In a state where Dalit bridegrooms are still prevented by upper castes from riding horses, Ravan’s swift rise to popularity has a lot to do with this aggressive assertion of Dalit pride.
There are political reasons for the BJP to not like Ravan’s growing stature. While lower castes voted for the BJP in large numbers in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Ravan’s caste, the Jatavs, have so far not gravitated towards it.
On May 28, the Kairana Lok Sabha seat in UP goes to bypolls. The opposition has united against the BJP, necessitating the consolidation of upper caste votes if the saffron party has to win.
However, more than that, it is the Manuvadis’ apparent inability to accept Dalits as equals – betrayed by BJP leaders’ remarks such as “purifying” Dalits by eating with them – that makes it impossible for them to swallow “uppity” Jatavas like Ravan.
In states like Uttar Pradesh, where lower castes are up against millennia of unequal power structures socially, their strongest ally is the law of the land, the Ambedkar-drafted Constitution. On the day that Dalits in Saharanpur were protesting Sachin Walia’s murder, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at a poll rally in Karnataka, was accusing the Congress of using “all its power” to defeat Ambedkar when he contested a Lok Sabha election in 1952.
Perhaps a better way to show his appreciation for Babasaheb would be to make sure that the law acts impartially and continues to protect Dalits’ rights.