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Ranjona Banerji: Will it be development or Hindutva, BJP?

Updated on: 03 August,2016 07:35 AM IST  | 
Ranjona Banerji |

The BJP seems divided on how to deal with Dalits, with its promise of development for all on one hand, and its Hindu base on the other

Ranjona Banerji: Will it be development or Hindutva, BJP?

“Dirty Dalits who eat or handle cow meat are giving other Dalits a bad name. I commend those who beat up the Dalits in Gujarat. They have been taught a valuable lesson.” This is Raja Singh, a BJP MLA from Hyderabad who runs a cow protection squad in Telangana. The fact that he says this as news of Dalit anger is pouring in from all over India — when Dalits have gathered in protest as never before in Gujarat, when Dalits did not show up for BJP president Amit Shah’s Let’s be Nice to Dalits rally in Uttar Pradesh — lays bare the BJP’s core beliefs when it comes to Dalits and discrimination.


Dalits gather in protest in Ahmedabad on July 31. Thousands took a pledge not to skin cattle to protest the recent beating of Dalit youths by so-called Gau Rakshaks in Una. Pic/AFP
Dalits gather in protest in Ahmedabad on July 31. Thousands took a pledge not to skin cattle to protest the recent beating of Dalit youths by so-called Gau Rakshaks in Una. Pic/AFP


A senior BJP leader in Telangana trots out the usual line — Raja Singh was speaking in his personal capacity and the party has distanced itself from him. To what extent is yet to be seen, although Udit Raj, one of the BJP’s most prominent Dalit faces, has asked for Singh to be expelled.


A local BJP leader in Uttar Pradesh has just been expelled for calling former UP chief minister Mayawati a prostitute, following parliamentary outrage.

From a political point of view, the BJP seems divided about how to deal with Dalits. The party’s base has always been caste Hindus. But in its campaign in the 2014 general elections, Narendra Modi’s promise of “development for everyone together”, enthused many Dalits and Muslims to vote for the BJP, leading to a dramatic victory.

Since then, Development BJP has been at loggerheads with Hindutva BJP. Because no matter what senior BJP leaders and very occasionally, as gently as possible, the prime minister himself, have said in mild reproof, the party’s workers and its affiliates have continued with their Hindu majoritarian statements and policies.

Various state governments that implemented cow protection laws — to keep Hindu vegetarians happy — failed to look at its implications. Farmers, who own most cows, are not used to looking after them after a certain age. Laughably inadequate provisions have been made to house and care for aging cattle. The traditional system had Dalits and Muslims working as butchers, tanners and so on. They would do the dirty work with animal carcasses that caste Hindus would not. Inevitably, cow protection became an excuse to attack Dalits and Muslims.

There is an absurd belief that people who have been forced by society and tradition to do miserable jobs like cleaning human excreta and skinning dead cows, do it through some divine notion of sacrifice and glory. This adds insult to injury. Not only are you forcing someone to do a job no one else wants to do, you are then giving it some spiritual bent for your own benefit. As Dr BR Ambedkar has put it, quite politely, what started as a privilege (carrying a dead cow) became an obligation. No wonder, and about time, Dalits across India are refusing to touch animal carcasses. Let those who think others find spiritual satisfaction in cleaning excreta or skinning animals do the job themselves.

The upshot of the massive Dalit anger in Gujarat after the Una incident, coupled with the Patel protests, is that the hand-picked (by the prime minister no less) chief minister of the state, Anandiben Patel, has had to resign. The BJP had been fairly successful in wooing Dalits in Gujarat by promising them the glories of inclusion in the Hindu system — though not as Brahmins, one assumes. But increasing attacks on Dalits and the existing ingrained prejudices against them seems to have stemmed that tide for now.

It remains to be seen whether there is a political price to pay. The usual response in India by any political party to mistakes it has made is to blame another party or to blame history. How will this work with a community who are being targeted in the here and now? And if it is history which is to blame, there is the argument made by Dr Ambdekar to consider: that “Untouchables” were made untouchable by Brahmins because they ate beef.

And he also brings up that primal problem: “Unfortunately beef-eating, instead of being treated as a purely secular matter, was made a matter of religion.”

The Raja Singhs of the BJP, however, remain unrepentant. They are necessary to a party that must keep its loyal supporters happy.

Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist. You can follow her on twitter @ranjona

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