What has Mayawati done except build her statues, BJP asks dalits in UP

In poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, where political pundits are predicting Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party will make a comeback, the BJP is making a systematic effort to create a dent in the BSP’s support base and project itself as the protector of dalit interests while highlighting the BSP supremo’s “flaws”. While upper castes are the BJP’s core votebank, dalits are numerically a strong votebank in UP.

The BJP’s strategy to woo dalits includes dalit outreach events and associating with dalit identity. The Narendra Modi government’s initiatives to commemorate dalit icon B.R. Ambedkar’s legacy are part of this strategy. The ongoing “Dhamma Chetna Yatra” by Buddhist monks, in which they talk about Buddhism, Ambedkar and the government’s initiatives for the community, is also part of this strategy. Dalits or Scheduled Castes comprise around 21 per cent of the total population in UP, where Assembly elections are due early next year.

But on a larger scale, the BJP has actively tasked its dalit leaders in the state to reach out to dalit intellectuals and highlight the “flaws” of the BSP and the style of functioning of its supremo, Mayawati. These sessions are being held till the district level and the party feels that its electoral prospects could increase if its “good work” for the community is promoted by the community members themselves. The BJP claims these sessions are also being attended by dalit intellectuals, who were earlier the BSP’s ardent supporters, but have been left “disillusioned” by the way Ms Mayawati had “compromised BSP’s ideology for political gains”.

“The BSP is not the same political party which Kanshi Ram had envisaged. It is now synonymous with rampant corruption. Can you think of any dalit leader who has been promoted by Mayawati other than herself In the name of social engineering, she has promoted every other caste in the party but dalits. What did she do when the BSP was in power, did she do anything to promote Ambedkar’s ideology No, all she did was to install her statues alongside Kanshi Ram’s. How are her statues going to benefit dalits ” said one of the founding members of the BSP, Ramesh Kumar Ratan, who is now part of the saffron party and actively involved in this exercise.

The BJP also holds “Samrasta” (social harmony) events, but it was left embarrassed when its former SC morcha chief Sanjay Paswan criticised party chief Amit Shah’s “Samrasta snan” with dalit sadhus at Ujjain and his “Samrastra bhoj” with a dalit family in Varanasi as “mere tokenism”.

In these “intellectuals discourses”, the BJP also highlights the Modi government’s initiatives for the community like the Mudra scheme, the boost for Dalit Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (DICCI) and making B.R. Ambedkar the “world’s legacy”. In dalit-dominated areas of the state, the BJP is putting up these questions before community intellectuals, including scientists, former bureaucrats, lawyers, doctors, professors, among others. The BSP’s recent decision to support the Congress during the Uttarakhand floor test and Rajya Sabha biennial polls are also highlighted by the BJP in these sessions.

“The Congress tried its best to trouble Babasaheb (B.R. Ambedkar)... never awarded him the Bharat Ratna, which he deserved. And Mayawati decided to support the Congress. She calls herself ‘dalit ki beti’ but she in fact is ‘daulat ki beti’. She has dishonoured (BSP founder) Kanshi Ram’s legacy,” said Mr Ratan, vice-president of the party’s SC morcha.

During these discourses, BJP leaders also try to “clarify misconceptions” against the saffron party by putting up “facts”. Often, they are asked questions about the Rohith Vemula controversy and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s remarks against reservations, which the BJP leaders label as controversies created by the Opposition for political gains.