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Business News/ Politics / Policy/  BJP may gain from RSS focus on untouchability
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BJP may gain from RSS focus on untouchability

Drive against caste discrimination comes ahead of elections in states where SCs, STs will play a crucial role

Political analysts said the BJP and RSS are being opportunistic in trying to win over Dalits. Photo: MintPremium
Political analysts said the BJP and RSS are being opportunistic in trying to win over Dalits. Photo: Mint

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological parent of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is planning a nationwide programme against untouchability and caste discrimination in order to be a “flawless" society.

The move is also likely to benefit the BJP in upcoming state elections.

Members of the RSS are of the opinion that discrimination against scheduled castes (SCs), scheduled tribes (STs) and other backward classes (OBCs) should be stamped out, said a senior RSS leader.

RSS leaders have decided to set up a separate department in the RSS branch in every district, which will hand-pick RSS workers who will then be sent out to villages to hold discussions on removing caste discrimination.

“The aim of this is to make the society flawless. The purpose of the dialogue process is to end differences on the basis of cremation ground, water and temples," said Manmohan Vaidya, a prachar pramukh of the RSS.

He said the RSS has been working on this issue in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and that this is the first time that the RSS is initiating a concerted dialogue on the matter across the country.

The proposal to start a national campaign to end caste discrimination in India was taken up at a three-day meeting of the RSS at its headquarters in Nagpur last month.

Some RSS members will be asked to visit the areas where they come from and find out if caste discrimination is practised anywhere there.

“Once the villages are identified, RSS members will hold discussions and debates to make the community members understand the need to end caste discrimination and untouchability. It is a slow process which will take time but it can be solved only through dialogue," Vaidya added.

The organization has already started receiving information about caste-based discrimination in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Bihar, some of the worst-affected states in terms of caste discrimination.

Alongside this, the BJP has decided to launch a nationwide programme to celebrate Ambedkar Jayanti from 14 April. This is the first time that it has asked all its district units to celebrate the occasion, held in memory of late Dalit leader B.R. Ambedkar.

The RSS move has the potential to benefit the BJP in West Bengal, Bihar, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Assam and Uttar Pradesh—states which will see assembly elections in the next two years. The communities of SCs, STs, and OBCs are likely to play a crucial role in these polls.

“Surveys to find caste differences and problems of untouchability in villages are already going on in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Even after so many years of independence, we still have places where people are not allowed to enter temples. These practices should end," Vaidya said.

The move is also likely to help the BJP establish a presence in Kerala.

During the Lok Sabha election campaign last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told a public meeting in Kochi that he too had been a “victim of untouchability" and pledged to work for the upliftment of Dalits, OBCs and tribals if elected to power.

Political analysts said the BJP and RSS are being opportunistic in trying to win over Dalits.

“I have no problem with the RSS and BJP visiting Dalit areas. But what is the intent? The intent is ghar wapsi (religious conversion or homecoming) and to promote the view that B.R. Ambedkar was not comfortable with the minority communities," said Chandrabhan Prasad, a Dalit thinker and author. “Dalits are disillusioned with the Congress, and BSP (the Dalit-based Bahujan Samaj Party) is only in Uttar Pradesh, so the BJP thinks it can win over them. I can draw a parallel: what happens to people when a group enters a train compartment and distributes free biscuits which make some people sleep? The fate of the people who go to sleep can be imagined."

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Published: 14 Apr 2015, 12:20 AM IST
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