New Dalit Leaders Focusing On Issue-Based Politics Rather Than The Caste Issue
· Free Press Journal
The advent of a new personality in India’s political landscape, Abhijit Dipke, a 24-year-old Dalit belonging to the Mahar sub-caste, the same as Dalit messiah and architect of the Constitution Babasaheb Ambedkar, from Aurangabad in Marathwada, now studying in Boston, provides a new twist to Dalit politics in the country. Ironically, in a country where Dalits, particularly politicians and groups, wear their caste identity on their sleeves, his Dalit background was revealed almost accidentally in an interview when he was asked whether he supported reservations for scheduled castes and tribes. The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder startled his interviewer by casually mentioning that he himself was a Dalit and the only reason why his father could become the lone engineer from their village was through the reservation policy.
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However, as the fame of Dipke and his CJP grew in leaps and bounds with every passing day, he pointedly refrained from Dalit politics, choosing instead to emphasise the woes and anger of unemployed youth at being insulted as cockroaches by the country’s Chief Justice, Surya Kant. Soon, he focused on the dual scandal in Indian education with the shocking nationwide paper leak for the NEET-UG medical entrance exam, followed by appalling digital security lapses and grading controversies in the CBSE board examinations, jeopardising the future of millions of students. Sensing a receptive audience among the youth in the country, Dipke, who happened to be Dalit, demanded accountability in the concrete shape of the immediate sacking of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
Yet, this decision not to project himself as a Dalit leader has not made the CJP founder and Gen Z idol play down his Dalit identity. In fact, when he landed in Delhi airport to attend his first rally at Jantar Mantar, he flaunted a book on Baba Saheb Ambedkar while his followers, too, waved copies of the Constitution, regarded by Dalits as their holy book. At the rally, Ambedkarite groups professing radical Dalit politics were present in large numbers, hailing their messiah and raising the slogan of “Jai Bheem”.
It remains to be seen how Dipke plans to lead his youthful following, which cuts across the caste spectrum. So far, his followers have shown little interest in issues concerning social justice or minority rights. Although he did speak out against the BJP government’s ploy of distracting public attention from real problems by harping on fake Hindu-Muslim issues, the CJP has not directly condemned or commented on human rights violations against the minorities and lower castes. Dipke also seems to be aware that his fan club remains confined to the educated urban middle classes, who are mainly agitated about education and employment that directly concern them.
Meanwhile, Chandrasekhar Azad, another young Dalit leader but quite different in background and political style than the Cockroach Janata Party chief, indirectly welcomed the latter by sending a large contingent of his Azad Samaj Party cadre to the Jantar Mantar rally. Right now, touring the entire state of Uttar Pradesh to prepare for the upcoming assembly polls, Azad, in an interview, described the rally as a spontaneous protest of young people being let down by the ruling party’s policies. He felt that the authorities in Delhi were forced to give permission for the rally since they feared that even a larger crowd would reach Parliament.
Unlike Dipke, who, sitting in Boston, became a celebrity overnight on social media, Azad had to struggle on the ground for more than a decade when he started the Bhim Army—a unique outfit located in western Uttar Pradesh to fight against atrocities by local Thakur landlords on Dalit villages in the countryside and simultaneously run hundreds of schools for marginalised lower-caste children banished from government educational institutions. Belonging to the Jatav sub-caste, dominant among Dalits in Uttar Pradesh and the same as that of BSP supremo Mayawati, the young leader has over the past decade also acquired support from the Muslim minority in the region, particularly after his spectacular appearance carrying a copy of the Constitution in front of the Jama Masjid, showing solidarity with members of the community protesting against the Citizens Amendment Act, for which he was jailed for more than a month.
Significantly, Azad has been, in recent months, trying to widen his appeal from just Dalits and Muslims in a belated realisation that victim identity politics based on caste and community has lost its earlier appeal. Speaking to the media last week, just the day after the CJP’s Jantar Mantar rally, he declared, “Young people are unable to find employment and their futures are being affected by the frequent paper leaks in competitive exams. Repeated paper leaks demoralise students and force many young people to work as labourers.”
It is possible that the two young Dalit leaders, Dipke and Azad, despite the vast differences in their orientation, could work in parallel paths but complement each other in creating an upsurge in the youth with a grievance against the establishment for letting down their generation on their right to proper education and gainful employment. This would be an important change from the identity politics that has dominated the Indian political scenario to a more issue-based approach to a vast aggrieved populace not just confined to students but also including their parents and the middle class and working-class masses in rural and urban areas.
Meanwhile, Behenji and her vastly shrunken former behemoth BSP appear to be moving backwards in history in marked contrast to the forward-looking younger Dalit leaders who have emerged to replace her. In the mistaken notion that she can recreate the historic Dalit-Brahmin alliance that brought her to power two decades ago with a full majority, Mayawati has proclaimed that her party is on a comeback trail to its former glory. Stung by the success of Azad winning his own constituency in Nagina in the last 2024 Lok Sabha polls while the BSP won none, she is in no mood to adapt to the changing times in Dalit politics.
The writer is a senior journalist.