The Uttar Pradesh assembly election is more than a year away, but the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Congress, and the Bahujan Samaj Party are already jostling for Dalit attention in Parliament.
The BJP got the ball rolling by setting aside the first two days of the winter session of Parliament to reaffirm its commitment to the Constitution as part of the celebrations to mark Dalit icon BR Ambedkar’s 125th birth anniversary.
The discussion provided an opportunity for the BJP to appropriate Ambedkar’s legacy and underline its commitment to work for the betterment of Dalits, a constituency it lost during the Bihar assembly elections after Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat raised questions about continuing with the policy of reservations.
The debate also allowed Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reassure the scheduled castes that his government does not plan to tinker with the country’s reservation policy.
Congress strategy
The Congress has also played the Dalit card in the winter session of Parliament, raising a storm over Union minister of state VK Singh’s controversial remarks on the death on two Dalit children in a Haryana village.
In October, two Dalit children were killed in an attack in Faridabad. Singh had said that the central government could not be held responsible “if someone stones a dog”.
The Congress had last week disrupted proceedings and staged a walkout in the Lok Sabha, demanding an apology and resignation of the former army chief for his “anti-Dalit remarks”. On Monday, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi led a protest of party MPs outside Parliament to reiterate the demand.
Rahul Gandhi had initially flagged the topic during his intervention in the debate on the Constitution. "He [Singh] directly challenged the Constitution by equating Dalit children with dogs. How does the prime minister allow him to continue as a minister?" Gandhi had said.
This was a calculated remark. Convinced that the Congress has to win back the scheduled castes, Rahul Gandhi is spearheading the party’s Dalit agenda. He has addressed several Dalit conventions and has taken the lead in the celebrations planned by the Congress to commemorate BR Ambedkar’s 125th birth anniversary. Gandhi has also promised to activate the party’s scheduled caste cells and is now focusing on identifying and grooming young Dalit leaders across the country. A series of Dalit conclaves are to be held in different states in the coming weeks. The sessions are expected to generate inputs for the party’s first Dalit-specific manifesto.
Not only was the Congress the first to bring up VK Singh’s remarks in Parliament, but it also raised another Dalit-related issue in the ongoing session. Rajya Sabha member and former Union minister Kumari Selja, a Dalit, said that she was asked about her caste at a temple in Dwarka two years ago, when Narendra Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat. Her remarks triggered an uproar in Parliament as the BJP disputed Selja’s statement.
The issue rocked the House again two days later when Leader of the House Arun Jaitley read out Selja’s comments about a “very good darshan” from the visitor’s book at the temple. Union power minister Piyush Goyal added fuel to the fire when he described Selja’s statement as “manufactured”.
With the Opposition joining ranks to demand an apology from Jaitley and Goyal, the ministers were eventually forced to withdraw their remarks when Selja clarified that she was not referring to the main Dwarka temple but another shine there.
Reclaiming space
Upstaged by the BJP and the Congress on issues close to Dalits, the Bahujan Samaj Party has tried to reassert itself amid fears that its core constituency is being poached by its political rivals.
BSP president Mayawati had been lying low since her party failed to win a single seat in last year’s Lok Sabha elections. However, she stirred into action last week, directing BSP MPs in the Rajya Sabha to raise a storm over VK Singh's controversial remarks. BSP members stalled proceedings in the Upper House on Friday, storming into the well and ensuring that no business could be transacted.
The Congress joined the BSP protest, with Ghulam Nabi Azad, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, pressing for Singh's resignation and removal from Parliament.
Mayawati’s decision to revive the issue had taken both the government and the other Opposition parties by surprise as the topic had been addressed earlier. The treasury benches were unprepared for the BSP’s sudden onslaught as the party had not given any notice about raising the issue.
Mayawati can ill-afford to be seen playing second fiddle to other political parties when it comes to Dalits – the community constitutes the party’s main support base and defines its identity. More importantly, the BSP chief has her eye on the 2017 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. After a promising show in last month’s panchayat elections, the BSP believes it is has a good chance of dethroning a wobbling Samajwadi Party. But before entering the electoral arena, the battle for the Dalit vote will first have to be fought in Parliament.
The BJP got the ball rolling by setting aside the first two days of the winter session of Parliament to reaffirm its commitment to the Constitution as part of the celebrations to mark Dalit icon BR Ambedkar’s 125th birth anniversary.
The discussion provided an opportunity for the BJP to appropriate Ambedkar’s legacy and underline its commitment to work for the betterment of Dalits, a constituency it lost during the Bihar assembly elections after Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat raised questions about continuing with the policy of reservations.
The debate also allowed Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reassure the scheduled castes that his government does not plan to tinker with the country’s reservation policy.
Congress strategy
The Congress has also played the Dalit card in the winter session of Parliament, raising a storm over Union minister of state VK Singh’s controversial remarks on the death on two Dalit children in a Haryana village.
In October, two Dalit children were killed in an attack in Faridabad. Singh had said that the central government could not be held responsible “if someone stones a dog”.
The Congress had last week disrupted proceedings and staged a walkout in the Lok Sabha, demanding an apology and resignation of the former army chief for his “anti-Dalit remarks”. On Monday, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi led a protest of party MPs outside Parliament to reiterate the demand.
Rahul Gandhi had initially flagged the topic during his intervention in the debate on the Constitution. "He [Singh] directly challenged the Constitution by equating Dalit children with dogs. How does the prime minister allow him to continue as a minister?" Gandhi had said.
This was a calculated remark. Convinced that the Congress has to win back the scheduled castes, Rahul Gandhi is spearheading the party’s Dalit agenda. He has addressed several Dalit conventions and has taken the lead in the celebrations planned by the Congress to commemorate BR Ambedkar’s 125th birth anniversary. Gandhi has also promised to activate the party’s scheduled caste cells and is now focusing on identifying and grooming young Dalit leaders across the country. A series of Dalit conclaves are to be held in different states in the coming weeks. The sessions are expected to generate inputs for the party’s first Dalit-specific manifesto.
Not only was the Congress the first to bring up VK Singh’s remarks in Parliament, but it also raised another Dalit-related issue in the ongoing session. Rajya Sabha member and former Union minister Kumari Selja, a Dalit, said that she was asked about her caste at a temple in Dwarka two years ago, when Narendra Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat. Her remarks triggered an uproar in Parliament as the BJP disputed Selja’s statement.
The issue rocked the House again two days later when Leader of the House Arun Jaitley read out Selja’s comments about a “very good darshan” from the visitor’s book at the temple. Union power minister Piyush Goyal added fuel to the fire when he described Selja’s statement as “manufactured”.
With the Opposition joining ranks to demand an apology from Jaitley and Goyal, the ministers were eventually forced to withdraw their remarks when Selja clarified that she was not referring to the main Dwarka temple but another shine there.
Reclaiming space
Upstaged by the BJP and the Congress on issues close to Dalits, the Bahujan Samaj Party has tried to reassert itself amid fears that its core constituency is being poached by its political rivals.
BSP president Mayawati had been lying low since her party failed to win a single seat in last year’s Lok Sabha elections. However, she stirred into action last week, directing BSP MPs in the Rajya Sabha to raise a storm over VK Singh's controversial remarks. BSP members stalled proceedings in the Upper House on Friday, storming into the well and ensuring that no business could be transacted.
The Congress joined the BSP protest, with Ghulam Nabi Azad, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, pressing for Singh's resignation and removal from Parliament.
Mayawati’s decision to revive the issue had taken both the government and the other Opposition parties by surprise as the topic had been addressed earlier. The treasury benches were unprepared for the BSP’s sudden onslaught as the party had not given any notice about raising the issue.
Mayawati can ill-afford to be seen playing second fiddle to other political parties when it comes to Dalits – the community constitutes the party’s main support base and defines its identity. More importantly, the BSP chief has her eye on the 2017 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. After a promising show in last month’s panchayat elections, the BSP believes it is has a good chance of dethroning a wobbling Samajwadi Party. But before entering the electoral arena, the battle for the Dalit vote will first have to be fought in Parliament.
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