Why Punjab’s Dalit vote bank is not party-bound

Vishav Bharti

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 30

Dalits constitute 31.9 per cent of Punjab’s population — the most anywhere in the country — but why a truly representative political entity has been unable to find feet in the state is a case study for political scientists.

In post-Independence Punjab, mainly the Congress and the Left (CPI and CPM) competed to appropriate the large Dalit vote bank, before the Bahujan Samaj Party entered the scene in 1992.

“The Congress and Communists have a competing support base with BSP. The BSP used the Dalit cause as political capital for the first time in 1992,” recalls Dr Pramod Kumar, Director, Institute for Development and Communication.

However, despite championing the economic issues of Dalits, the Communists could not win them over as a dedicated vote bank because of their poor understanding of Dalit sociology. A fact underscored by Dr Joginder Dayal, a member of CPI's national council: “Though we made great sacrifices for Dalit issues in 1960s and 1970s, we couldn’t win them over completely. Because our struggle remained only against economic oppression, we ignored social oppression completely, which was very deep-rooted. That is why BSP snatched away the base from us in no time.”

The BSP emerged from Punjab as its founder Kanshi Ram hailed from Ropar, but despite a sound start, the party never managed to hold its own in the state. From a 16 per cent vote share in the 1992 Assembly election, the party has been on a downward spiral. In 2017, the share was just 1.5 per cent — largely attributed to the emergence of AAP.

Rashpal Raju, state president of BSP, gives his own spin: “The Dalits wanted BSP to contest in alliance with other parties, which couldn’t happen for many years. So we kept on losing our base.”

Dr Pramod Kumar feels one key reason behind BSP’s decline has been its inability to “appropriate the regional culture and economic specifications of Punjab”.

“The purity pollution and Manuwad that constitute the BSP’s main ideological plank don’t find expression in the socio-cultural domain of Punjab. The uncertain religious allegiance of the Dalits made them easy prey to parties in the state,” he says.

On why a strong Dalit party has not emerged on Punjab’s electoral scene, Dr Amanpreet Gill, Assistant Professor, Guru Teg Bahadur Khalsa College, Delhi University, says, “First, there are a lot of divisions among Dalits. They have their own caste hierarchy. Second, their population is scattered, which prevents them from becoming a political force. Third, their commitment to mainstream parties remains strong.”

Dr Kumar finds the answer in the long socio-economic history of the region and reformist movements. “Punjab has been known for its liberal ritualistic, religious practices in relation to caste. Both Sikhism and Arya Samaj liberated the Dalits from stringent purity pollution-based behavioural patterns. This can be termed the regionalisation of caste.”