After Lok Sabha polls setback, how the BJP is trying to make an outreach to Dalit voters

Trilochan Singh was in a hurry when he was being interviewed by Scroll over the phone on October 30. A Vishwa Hindu Parishad functionary in Uttar Pradesh’s Ambedkar Nagar, Singh was in charge of distributing earthen lamps and firecrackers for Diwali in Dalit-dominated localities of the town.

This was part of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s programme to “awaken sanatan dharma” among Dalits, who make up for nearly one-fourth of the population of Ambedkar Nagar, Singh said.

In the fortnight leading up to Diwali, his organisation and other Hindutva bodies have held “dharm sammelans” or religious congregations in Dalit-dominated localities across the country at which religious leaders delivered sermons and shared meals with members of the Scheduled Caste community, Singh told Scroll. There was nothing political about this Dalit outreach programme, he insisted – it was entirely a religious affair.

Not everyone is convinced of this, though. Dhananjay Gautam, a volunteer of the National Confederation of Dalit and Adivasi Organisations in Ambedkar Nagar, told Scroll that since the Bharatiya Janata Party suffered an electoral setback earlier this year in the Lok Sabha polls in seats reserved for the Scheduled Castes, Hindutva organisations have been on overdrive to make amends.

Events such as dharm sammelans are being orchestrated by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the parent organisation of the BJP, Gautam said.

Observers who follow Dalit politics agreed that the aversion to the BJP displayed by a section of Dalits in the Lok Sabha polls has prompted the Hindutva party and the RSS to re-energise their efforts to reach out to the community.

The RSS has allocated its mass organisations the task of holding events such as dharm sammelans, these observers said. The BJP, meanwhile, is trying to attract disadvantaged communities within the Dalits by getting states it rules to implement the Supreme Court’s judgement sub-classifying the Scheduled Caste quota. This would give less advantaged sections within the community preferential access to reserved seats in public employment and educational institutions.

Politics of Dalit outreach

An example of the BJP attempting to derive political benefits from the Supreme Court judgement was evident on October 16 when the ruling alliance led by the party in Maharashtra appointed a one-member committee to submit recommendations on sub-classification of Scheduled Caste quota in the state. The decision was taken just a day before Assembly elections for the state were announced.

This was an attempt by the BJP to replicate a model that proved to be successful in Haryana, said Harish Wankhede, a professor of political science at the Jawaharlal Nehru University. In the BJP’s surprise victory in the Haryana Assembly polls in October, the party’s consolidation of Dalit votes is being credited as a major factor.

In August, days after the Supreme Court verdict allowing the sub-categorisation of the quota for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and two months before elections, the BJP government in Haryana had recommended dividing Dalits into two categories – Deprived Scheduled Castes and Other Scheduled Castes.

Even in ticket distribution, the BJP gave a slight edge to disadvantaged Dalit communities such as the Valmiki and Dhanaks over dominant groups such as the Chamars.

Seeing that this move paid off, the BJP doubled down on addressing the interests of non-dominant Dalit groups in the state. Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini took oath on October 17, which was Valmiki Jayanti – the birth anniversary of a sage-poet revered by Valmiki Dalits.

Three days after the swearing-in ceremony, Haryana became the first state to announce that it would implement sub-categorisation of the Dalit quota under which the 20% reservation pie in the state will be equally divided between Deprived Scheduled Castes and Other Scheduled Castes.

Haryana BJP leader Bishamber Singh Valmiki told Scroll that going into the elections, his party had identified disadvantaged Dalits as a group whose aspirations were not being represented.

“The Congress was only focusing on Jats and even within Dalits they did not have a Valmiki leader,” the former minister said. “Our party made it a point to give representation to backward Dalits in ticket distribution. Now we want to extend their representation in public life.”

Wankhede of Jawaharlal Nehru University said that by appointing a committee to make recommendations on sub-classification in Maharashtra, the BJP was looking to employ a similar strategy to attract non-Mahar Dalits. Of Maharashtra’s 12% Scheduled Caste population, Mahars account for about 6%, and have historically been opposed to the BJP.

“This is because Mahars are more deeply rooted in Ambedkarite politics,” Wankhede said. “While [Bhimrao] Ambedkar is an icon for other Dalit groups too, they lag behind Mahars in social mobility. The BJP’s promise of a sub-quota could be a crucial factor in how these groups vote.”

Prabhakar Nisargandh, a professor of sociology in Kolhapur, agreed. The BJP’s decision to form a sub-classification committee could help the party expand its footprint among disadvantaged Dalit groups like Matangs who have supported it in the past, he said.

Nisargandh added that the Opposition alliance has made a mistake in not clarifying its stance on sub-classification. “It is not clear what the Congress or Uddhav Sena is thinking about this,” he said. “The only prominent voice is of Prakash Ambedkar [of Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi] who has opposed sub-classification.”

‘Divided we perish’

While implementing the sub-classification verdict to attract disadvantaged Dalits is a more state-specific strategy, there is also an overarching narrative in the BJP’s outreach towards Scheduled Caste voters, observers said. The BJP wants to shed its anti-Dalit image – a perception that the Opposition successfully exploited in the Lok Sabha polls, they said.

Nisargandh pointed out that in its Maharashtra campaign, the BJP has released advertisements in which Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis of the Hindutva party can be seen bowing down to an Ambedkar statue. The ads carry the slogan “Ghar Ghar Samvidhan” – the Constitution in every household.

The ad campaign borrows from the Opposition’s strategy to make the Constitution a rallying point in their campaign against the BJP in Lok Sabha elections. Members of the Opposition used statements of BJP leaders to drive home the contention that the Hindutva party wanted to win by a large majority so that it could amend the Constitution and take away its promise of reservations for marginalised groups. This caught the BJP on the defensive.

Notably, in its Dalit outreach too, the BJP is looking to advance its core Hindutva ideology. Over the last couple of months, the party has aggressively used the slogan “Batenge toh katenge” – if we get divided, we will perish. The slogan was coined by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath during campaigning for Haryana elections. Adityanath cited the example of the recent unrest in Bangladesh, claiming that Hindus in India would be persecuted like in the neighbouring country if they are fragmented along caste lines.

The BJP is using the slogan for its Maharashtra campaign too, and the RSS has also endorsed it, claiming it is a call for Hindu unity. Mahesh Kumar, a journalist based in Haryana’s Rewari, said that during the election campaign in the state the RSS was instrumental in persuading Hindus to vote beyond caste lines.

“The call was to consolidate all non-Jat Hindus against the Congress,” Kumar said.

A veteran functionary of the RSS told Scroll, that after the Lok Sabha elections, it had become imperative for his organisation to “unite Hindus against the casteist propaganda espoused by the Opposition”. It was crucial to convince Dalits that the RSS did not oppose reservations, he said, on conditions of anonymity.

The message seems to have percolated to the rank and file as Trilochan Singh, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad member, when asked about the motive for holding religious congregations in Dalit localities, mentioned the “Batenge toh katenge” slogan.

A section of Dalit activists see this as a threat to the community’s interests. Dhananjay Gautam of the National Confederation of Dalit and Adivasi Organisations, said that the BJP was contradicting itself in backing quota sub-classification on one hand while calling for Hindu unity on the other.

“Dalits need to realise the opportunistic character of RSS and BJP,” he said. “How can there be unity when they want to create more categories in reservation?”