Kanshi Ram is new poster boy for Congress; party to launch Dalit outreach programme with him at the centre

New Delhi: It is election season in the country and thus, it is time once again to remember the forgotten heroes. It is also the time to appropriate the Dalit icons for political benefits. The Congress seems to have taken the lead this time in Uttar Pradesh. As part of its outreach programme among the Dalits, the grand old party of India has announced a ‘Dalit Gaurav Samvad’ (Dialogue for Dalit Pride) to be launched on October 9, the death anniversary of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) founder Manyavar Kanshiram.

The party’s 45-day-long outreach programme aims to spread the beliefs and ideas of Kanshi Ram. The idea is the result of the thought process among the Congress leaders that Kanshi Ram cannot be confined to just one political party and he was more of a social reformer than a politician. He founded the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) presently presided over by Mayawati.

Dalit Gaurav Samvad

As part of its latest outreach programme, the Congress aims to learn about the top five demands of the Dalits by a survey of at least two lakh Scheduled Caste members. Those demands could then find a place in its election manifesto. Besides, it will also contact at least one lakh influential members of this community – doctors, engineers, teachers – to understand the aspirations of Dalits.

Organising ‘Ratri Chaupals’, divisional ‘Padyatras’ and forming 80 core groups of Dalits in each Lok Sabha seat to propagate Kanshi Ram’s belief will be the other highlight of the ‘Dalit Gaurav Samvad’.

A massive convention announcing the ‘Charter of Rights for the Dalits’ will be held on November 26, the concluding day. Early this year, even the Samajwadi Party marked Kanshi Ram’s birth anniversary at the party’s headquarters. The aim, however, could be just one –Dalit votes.

After taking up the cudgels on behalf of the OBCs, the Congress is now working to woo the Dalits – its core vote bank till the advent of Kanshi Ram and Mayawati in the mid-80s.

While the BSP still remains the pre-eminent party of the Dalits in Uttar Pradesh, the semi-retirement of its chief Mayawati has allowed other parties like the BJP to dent its Dalit vote bank. In the 2022 UP Assembly elections, the BJP, riding on the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had managed to gain a large chunk of Dalit votes. Now Congress wants a share of this pie. And the Samajwadi Party does not want to lag behind.

Congress and Kanshi Ram

It is a bit ironic that the leader who fought his entire life against the policy and politics of Congress is now being honoured by the party after his death. This is a clear victory for Kanshi Ram. In times to come, he may even be catapulted to the level of Dr BR Ambedkar by the various parties collectively. But Kanshi Ram would not be satisfied with that alone.

Kanshi Ram aimed to bring about social transformation through Dalit empowerment. And Unless the ‘Bahujan’ he toiled all his life for – quitting his government job and personal comforts – are empowered and becomes a political force, Kanshi Ram’s soul is unlikely to rest in peace. Mayawati was supposed to carry his struggle forward, but it seems, she got lost in the quagmire of corruption and political glamour.

“Indian democracy is nothing but grabbing poor men’s votes with the rich man’s money. It is a form of active feudalism” was how Kanshi Ram described the political architecture under the Congress when he formed various Dalit organisations to counter its ‘Brahamincal forces’.

He considered Congress as the epitome of all that was wrong with Indian politics and was always wary of the use of money in elections. Kanshi Ram believed that it would make it difficult for the Bahujans to reach the Parliament and assemblies because they were not economically empowered like the others.

Also, Kanshi Ram always complained that Bahujan Samaj had for far too long been “the giver of votes” and it was high time it became “the receiver of their votes”. And Congress is doing exactly that. It is again asking for Dalit votes. Will the Dalits oblige?

A visionary

Kanshi Ram, like Dr BR Ambedkar, was much ahead of his time and in some matters, even ahead of him. While Ambedkar fought for the rights of Dalits and untouchables all his life, Kanshi Ram was the first Indian politician to visualise all the Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes and Tribes and other minorities as one collective bloc of people he referred to as ‘Bahujans’.

He theorised that the 85 per cent Bahujans of the country are exploited by 15 per cent people and they needed to wage a collective struggle against them for their rights under the aegis of the Bahujan Samaj Party.

Meanwhile, he left no scope of confusion between the Bahujans and anti-Bahujans and called them ‘Manuvadis’ – followers of Manu Samriti, an ancient legal text advocating the caste system among other things. Kanshi Ram was singularly responsible for bringing the ‘Manuvadi’ terminology into the Indian political context.