Brother May Faze Behenji

Dalits in Saharanpur are angry, parti­cularly at the state바카라�s BJP regime, which they allege is 바카라�rigged바카라� by forward-caste Rajputs, or Thakurs as they are known in the Hindi belt. Will the anger gently fizzle out into a passing phenomenon like the one that began from Una in Gujarat last year? Will it be coopted into BSP leader Mayawati바카라�s political machine or will it unfold as a new movement?

The fury was evident in Saharanpur바카라�s district hospital. There, Dalits thronged in hundreds, especially after a youth from their community died on May 23 from stab wounds. Locals say it바카라�s Thakurs who ended the life of 24-year-old Ashish Meghraj and assaulted 14 fellow Dalits, locals say. 바카라�Around 10 of us were returning from a rally by Behenji (Mayawati) in Shabbirpur village in a car,바카라� says teena­ger Mukesh, at the hospital바카라�s emergency ward, with a bandaged arm. 바카라�A little ahead, around 15 men, with faces covered, stopped our vehicle. They attacked us with knives. A police vehicle I flagged down refused to take us to the hospital.바카라�

Trouble appears to have begun when Dalits in Shabbirpur village, 30 km from Saharanpur, were denied permission to erect a statue of their icon, B.R. Ambedkar, within the premises of a temple of Ravidas (considered a spiritual leader of Dalits). On May 5, Thakurs from a neighbouring village led a procession to a sta­tue of their hero Maharana Pratap, and were stopped by Dalits for going past the same shrine. This led to a violent clash, claiming the life of a Thakur youth and injuring members of both communities.

At this, Chandrashekhar and his two-year-old Bheem Army Ekta Mission mobilised the Dalits in Saharanpur. The administration disbanded a call for a May 9 mahapanchayat, further fuelling the Dalit anger. The Thakurs unleashed a slew of hate videos on social media. Within days, the UP administration filed 40-plus cases under the Prevention of Atrocities against Scheduled Castes Act.

바카라�But instead of the Thakur youth, they have arrested Shubham Karnwal, who posted on Facebook about the atrocities on Dalits,바카라� alleges Vivek Bharti of a Saharanpur-based Dalit social group. 바카라�It is because they are being briefed and led by the Rajput-dominated administration.바카라� It isn바카라�t the first such instance, he claims. 바카라�Recently, ink was smeared on an Amb­edkar poster. Following the May 5 incident, Thakurs were given compensation, while 52 houses of Dalits were burnt down in Shabbirpur. The village now has police barricades and even rations were not allowed to go through.바카라�

Other local Dalit leaders such as Rahul Bharti, a youth leader of the Akhil Bharatiya Chamar Mahasabha, feel the sudden exercise of Thakur domination has to do with the high number of UP바카라�s MPs and legislators from that community. The CM, Yogi, is himself a Rajput. 바카라�They want Dalit youth, who are used to chanting 바카라�Jai Bheem바카라�, to chant 바카라�Jai Sri Ram바카라�,바카라� says Rahul Bharti. 바카라�This is not the inclusive model that was sold before the (recent) UP election.바카라�

Local BSP leader Chanderjeet Singh Nikku, a lawyer, says Saharanpur has been made a 바카라�political laboratory바카라� for an experiment that will be scaled further up before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. 바카라�Before the (last) assembly election, Adityanath delivered some speeches. They are beco­ming a ground reality now,바카라� he says. 바카라�The administration has taken cue from the political leadership. Senior police officials don바카라�t turn up to control crowds.바카라�

On May 21, Chandrashekhar and his blue-capped members of the two-year-old Bheem Army, converged at Jantar Mantar in thousands. Dalits from other districts of UP also joined in. Today, the agitation바카라�s leaders, incl­uding Chandrasek­har, are on the run. The ostensible reason is that the agitation바카라�s leadership did not seek permissions to arrive in Delhi. Also, there are charges filed by the Saharanpur administration.

The failure or success of Chandrasekhar바카라�s agitation is but a small que­stion within the larger issue of Dalit social and political identity바카라�in UP and beyond. 바카라�If a Yadav becomes UP chief minister, it often seems as if all the Yadavs of that state are empowered,바카라� says Vivek Kumar, who teaches political science at JNU, Delhi. 바카라�If it바카라�s a Rajput who has become the CM, it seems to the Dalit that every Rajput has become a CM. For, the state, after so many years, cannot give the Dalits protection.바카라�

According to him, Chandrasekhar바카라�s arrival on the scene is in fact a reflection of the tremendous anger of the Dalits and even stronger sense of alienation, which have built up over the last decade of political exclusion combined with atrocities and violation of their rights. 바카라�Beca­use these are young people who have tasted democracy under several years of BSP rule, they are conscious of their rights as citizens. That is why they protes­ted, louder than ever,바카라� says Kumar.

It바카라�s also a fact that the young Dalits바카라� agitation has been able to force ex-CM Mayawati out into Saharanpur. Until the Jantar Mantar event, she had sent a BSP delegation and issued a statement, but had not cared to personally survey the events even as two lives were lost in the rioting. Will this agitation unfold independe­ntly or meld within the larger BSP framework? The questi­ons have relevance to the BJP as well, for the party ruling the state had lat­ely crowed about having weaned the Dalits from the 1984- founded BSP.

Says Kumar: Of the 151 MPs north India sends, of the state and central SC/ST commissions, of the police, bureaucracy, leaders in power, there is not one institution or individual whom the Dalit commun­ity can rely on. 바카라�Even the fourth estate is letting them down, while Mayawati is unable to speak to the youth in their new vocabulary of empowerment. That is why they came out in numbers to agitate without any leadership to speak of.바카라�

Mayawati바카라�s latest poll defeat has added to the anger among her constituents. They are seeking out fresher avenues for justice, feeling the party that was the mainstay of Dalit politics since the late 1980s can no longer prov­ide a new generation of educated, social media-savvy Dalits. 바카라�What happe­ned in Delhi is like a trial balloon,바카라� says Meerut-based Dalit ideologue Satish Prakash. 바카라�Chandrasekhar mobilised thousands. How­ever, the significance of the gathering is that it is an attempt to gauge the actual potential and intensity of a Dalit movement in the region and in the country.바카라�

And yet, Chandrasekhar is only a new star on the otherwise vacant horizon for the Dalits. The young have chosen to step out and demand justice, but the larger political current is not entirely in their favour. However, a movement has to have interests that are more durable바카라�beyond elections, says Satish Deshpa­nde, who teaches sociology at Delhi University. 바카라�Most parties try to inculcate a movement while movements strive for a share in the state. This is the tension we are witnessing in events like Saharanpur. This has spread across the country, not just in UP,바카라� he adds.

By Ushinor Majumdar in Saharanpur and Pragya Singh in Delhi