BJP MP calls her party’s bluff on Dalit outreach

Shahira Naim

In recent weeks, a 38-year-old first-time Dalit BJP MP from Bahraich, Sadhvi Savitiri Bai Phule, has caused embarrassment to the BJP, criticising her own party’s stand on the so-called Dalit agenda. She has called the party’s bluff on its Dalit outreach programme. Under the Gram Swaraj Abhiyan, the BJP has asked its MPs and ministers to eat alongside Dalits in their homes.

“The 5-star food and services offered to these BJP ministers in the houses of Dalits is an insult to the Dalit community. The food is procured from outside and served by others. Only the venue is a Dalit house. If you really want to honour the Dalits, reach their homes unannounced and share their meals, even if it is roti and salt,” the fiery Sadhvi remarked. 

She was referring to UP minister Suresh Rana, an accused in the Muzaffarnagar riots, ordering food prepared by cooks at a nearby medical centre during his visit to the house of a Dalit, Rajnish Kumar, in Lohgarh, Aligarh district, on April 30. 

“If politicians eat at a Dalit’s house in a bid to annihilate the caste system, it adds to the Dalit self-esteem. But if netas partake of food in Dalits homes only to appear on social media pages, then it’s an insult to the community,” she told the media in Bahraich recently. “While there is a contest to share meals with Dalits  and hold chaupals in their bastis, no one is ready to speak about their rights which are under attack as never before,” she alleged.

The miserable track record of CM Yogi Adityanath’s  government in this regard is once again under the lens. A year safer the Shabbirpur violence, Bhim army founder Chandrashekhar Azad ‘Ravana’, arrested under the NSA for protesting against the caste violence, remains behind bars despite the efforts of activists. 

On May 5, 2017, in this nondescript village that falls in the jurisdiction of Badhgaon police station in Saharanpur, 55 Dalit households were ransacked and burnt, Dalit women molested and their cattle attacked. At least a dozen Dalits were seriously injured. The trouble began after Shabbirpur Dalits objected to raucous music being played at a procession organised by the Rajputs in memory of their king Maharana Pratap. 

Incidentally, the procession was to culminate at Simlana village where minister Suresh Rana,  Deoband MLA Brijesh Singh and Haryana minister Shyam Singh Rana were present. 

 The status report of the attack on Dalit families by Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative and the National Dalit Movement for Justice (NCDHR) on May 19 “exposed” the state government’s double standards in bringing justice to the aggrieved. The family of Rajput youth Sumit, who reportedly died of suffocation while setting Dalit houses ablaze in Shabbirpur, received a compensation of Rs 20 lakh soon after. But Dalit survivors, who had sought Rs 8.25 lakh as relief, received only Rs 25,000 each. Eleven were paid Rs 50,000 each. Only one survivor received Rs 4.12 lakh.

 Post Shabbirpur violence, nine criminal cases were registered and seven Dalits and seven Rajputs arrested — two from each side under the NSA. In all three cases filed by the Rajputs, charge-sheets have been filed. But in the four cases filed by the Dalits, no charge-sheet has been filed till date. Also, 19 criminal cases against 34 Bhim Army members, mostly students, were lodged days after the violence.