AFTER years of alienating Dalits, the Shiv Sena now hopes to woo them with a yatra that is cutting across the state, and the community. In this case, a large section of Dalits who chose not to convert to Buddhism under the leadership of Dr B.R. Ambedkar.
The three-week yatra that began at Nashik in north Maharashtra on October 24 will move through some 37 cities creating awareness among Hindu Dalits about the rights guaranteed to them in the Constitution. The effort is to bring them into the Sena, by convincing them that they have not received the benefits accorded to Dalits, a community which has been monopolised by a small section.
The Asmita yatra comes four months after 11 Dalits were killed in police firing in Mumbai. The nationwide outrage and simmering discontent in the community has cost the ruling Sena-BJP's image heavily among Dalits who constitute a sizeable votebank. Dalit groups in the state may be deeply divided on a host of issues but incidents like the July firing are enough to bring them together. The government has done little to repair wounds—those injured in the firing have not yet been paid compensation. And this, critics say of the Sena yatra, is an effort to mitigate the Dalit backlash, by dividing the backwards on religious lines as well.
If the Sena is trying to woo Dalits by creating an awareness about their constitutional rights, the Republican Party of India (RPI) will keep them within the fold by educating them about the Sena, says former minister and RPI leader Ramdas Athavale. Though they do not have to do much because of the setback the ruling parties have received after the July firing, Athavale says RPI workers will move around the state in December, enlightening the people about the Sena-BJP's anti-Dalit policies. "Those non-Ambedkarites who have gone with them will realise what they are. Around ten to 15 per cent of Dalits went to them. This number marginally increased—5 to 6 per cent—after they came to power in 1995. This position will change," says Athavale.
When the Sena was set up in the '60s, it attracted Dalits and minority groups to its struggle for the rights of the natives of Maharashtra. Then the alienation began when anti-Dalit attitudes were spawned within the party and gained sway as Sena chief Bal Thackeray took a stand against reservation and made critical references to Ambedkar in his speeches. "In the days when I was a shakha pramukh there were a number of Dalits in the Sena. The cause was to fight for the Marathi-speaking people. Then he (Thackeray) started alienating Dalits and Muslims by speaking and acting against them," says opposition leader Chhagan Bhujbal.
An OBC leader, Bhujbal reached the top rungs of the Sena, but quit in the early '90s protesting against Thackeray's "anti-Mandal" stand. Bhujbal says the anti-Dalit attitude is deeply rooted in the Sena. "In the Sena, the top positions are held by the upper castes. The major decisions are also made by them. In my case I got a top position because I took the Sena to the villages, but when it came to major decisions they used to keep me aside. "
The Sena is trying to recover lost ground and neutralise hostilities that have increased since July. Then, there is also the factor that no party has really been able to cash in on the Dalit votebank on account of deep divisions and a plethora of leaders among them. The Sena strategy is targeted at attracting who they claim form the largest section: Dalit-Hindus. "We are telling them that that there are facilities in government which they can avail of. These facilities have not percolated to them—only a small section has received education and enjoyed the advantages," says Arvind Sawant, a Sena leader.
The Sena will bring in an element of its old son-of-the-soil propaganda in an effort to woo Dalits. They will be propagating the claim that in many instances jobs reserved for scheduled castes and tribes belonging to Maharashtra have actually gone to backwards from other states. Says Sawant: "The rule is that these jobs should go to natives of Maharashtra. But it has been undone and their are many outsiders in reserved jobs. This has to be corrected."
The Sena's Asmita yatra, which will end in Mumbai in mid-November, was flagged off by Thackeray's son Uddhav. At the launch of the yatra, amid all the talk that flowers have replaced the bloodshed of Ambedkar's times, lay a fresh bunch of strategies that aim at making newer and deeper divisions among the Dalits using the two familiar Sena platforms: Hindutva and the not-so-recent struggle for sons-of-the-soil.
