BJP’s Dalit dilemma

Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi with other INDIA bloc members during a protest in Parliament premises demanding the resignation of Home Minister Amit Shah for his remarks related to B.R. Ambedkar, in New Delhi on December 19, 2024.

Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi with other INDIA bloc members during a protest in Parliament premises demanding the resignation of Home Minister Amit Shah for his remarks related to B.R. Ambedkar, in New Delhi on December 19, 2024. | Photo Credit: Arun Sharma/PTI

What’s in a name? A lot, especially if it is “Ambedkar,” as Union Home Minister Amit Shah discovered the hard way in the just-concluded winter session of Parliament. The showdown between the BJP and the Congress over Shah’s sarcastic comment on Ambedkar in Parliament has opened up multiple debates since December 18. What stands out in the entire episode is the BJP’s discomfort in handling controversies that stem from Dalit issues.

When Shah told opposition members, “It has become the new fashion to keep saying ‘Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar’. If they uttered God’s name as many times they would reach heaven,” neither he nor his party anticipated the nationwide controversy it would ignite.

With the comments, Shah ventured into what has historically been a challenging territory for the saffron party. The opposition, still smarting from the Assembly election setbacks in Haryana and Maharashtra, quickly seized the opportunity. They organised protests with the slogan “Babasaheb Ka Apmaan Nahin Sahega Hindustan [India will not tolerate the insult to Babasaheb]” and burnt the Home Minister’s posters in State capitals across the country.

A day later, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge decided to escalate the issue by filing a privilege notice against Shah. Kharge argued that the Home Minister’s remarks insulted the architect of the Constitution and showed contempt for the House. Nishikant Dubey of the BJP responded by filing a privilege notice against Rahul Gandhi, accusing him of showing a “criminally edited” version of Shah’s speech.

But the most dramatic moments unfolded outside the House. Tensions peaked when a physical altercation broke out at Makar Dwar, Parliament’s main entrance, between BJP and Congress members. The scuffle left two BJP MPs, Pratap Chandra Sarangi and Mukesh Rajput, injured and the BJP accusing Rahul Gandhi of instigating the violence. Police cases were filed against Rahul Gandhi. The Congress also made assault charges against BJP MPs, and alleged that the latter had hurt Kharge. BJP leaders shared photographs of the injured Sarangi and Rajput, insisting that “pictures don’t lie”, but refused to share security camera footage that, Congress members said, would clearly show what had taken place.

Staying on Ambedkar, the opposition MPs protested with placards featuring the Dalit icon’s photo, accusing the BJP of insulting Dalits. They sought to revive their “Constitution under threat” narrative, which had lost momentum during the Maharashtra, Haryana, and Jharkhand Assembly elections but had led to the INDIA bloc’s success in the Lok Sabha election, where the BJP lost its single-party majority.

Thanks to Shah, the latest controversy around Ambedkar, which began during a debate marking 75 years of the Constitution, has given a shot in the arm to the Opposition, particularly the Congress, which has been steadily losing its ability to keep the INDIA bloc allies united. The party has now got its mojo and momentum back. In the same debate, Rahul Gandhi compared the Constitution with the Manusmriti, holding up both texts and quoted V.D. Savarkar to suggest that the BJP valued the Manusmriti more than the Constitution.

This is not the first time the Dalit challenge has confronted the Modi government. In April 2018, nationwide Dalit protests erupted after the Supreme Court modified the SC/ST Act. The demonstrations, which resulted in over a dozen deaths and widespread shutdowns, compelled Modi’s Cabinet to restore the Act’s original provisions through legislation, overriding the court’s judgment. At the time too, with the 2019 Lok Sabha election looming, the opposition had seized on the issue.

There are other examples: the flogging of Dalit youths in Una, Gujarat, in 2016; the Bhima Koregaon violence in Pune in 2018; the 2016 suicide of Rohith Vemula at Hyderabad University, and more. In 2018, when Yogi Adityanath’s Uttar Pradesh government moved to add “Ramji” to B.R. Ambedkar’s name in official records, it set off widespread protests. Even the BJP MP Udit Raj opposed the change, warning it could lead to controversy. The BJP defended the use of Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar’s full name, but the move was met with suspicion, as “B.R. Ambedkar” is the standard in official documents.

This raises a larger question: Why is the BJP consistently uncomfortable with Dalit issues? The party has many Dalit MPs, has made inroads into the Bahujan Samaj Party’s Dalit vote base in Uttar Pradesh, and appointed Ram Nath Kovind, a Dalit, as President—examples it frequently displays as proof of its commitment to Dalit empowerment. Yet, it continues to face a trust deficit. India’s Dalits, who represent 17 per cent of the population, form a voting bloc too significant to ignore. It seems like high time the BJP found a permanent fix to its Dalit dilemma. Clearly, the Band-Aid solutions aren’t working and the political costs are growing.

Courtesy: The Hindu

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