After a round of fiery speeches in Bengaluru on 29 January 2018, Dalit activist-turned-politician, Jignesh Mevani announced he would shift focus from Gujarat to challenge the BJP in poll-bound Karnataka.
This, he announced, to loud cheers from the audience that had assembled to commemorate slain journalist Gauri Lankesh’s birth anniversary. He told the Dalit community to “not give even 20 votes to the BJP” in the upcoming assembly election and assured them that “in order to create a united front against Hindutva forces,” it was “acceptable to be ideologically impure.”
Jignesh Mevani won Gujarat’s Vadgam election as an independent with outside support from the Congress. He’s now expected to campaign across Karnataka in April for three weeks.
But will his campaign impact the Karnataka poll or have resonance with the Dalit movement in the state? Dalit leaders and political analysts say the impact would be minimal.
First Appearance
Karnataka saw the first glimpses of this young Dalit leader in October 2016, when he participated in the “Chalo Udupi” rally on the invitation of Gauri Lankesh. Then leader of the Una Dalit Atyachar Ladhai Samiti, he spoke about how Dalit uprising in the Gujarat, a BJP bastion.
“During his visit, there was a lot of curiosity. But, no one saw him as a leader for the Dalit youth in state,” said one of the Dalit activists who was part of the rally, on condition of anonymity.
“Even though he has become a politician, after his struggles for the Dalit movement, he is still not a charismatic figure in our state. Also, the Karnataka Dalit movement is too complex for Jignesh to campaign for just three weeks and make an impact,” she added.
Ideological Impurity a Problem
For Hariram, Karnataka convenor of the Bahujan Vidyarthi Sangha (BVS), Mevani’s lack of clarity in his ideology is a reason for not rallying behind him. “There was a hope that Jignesh would bring a new thought process to the Dalit movement, but instead he is falling of the Communist and Congress vote bank politics trap,” said Hariram.
The decision to support to the Congress in order to defeat the BJP is fundamentally wrong. “The Sangh Parivar is a common enemy, but so is the Congress. The difference is that the Congress attacked us after giving anesthesia, while the BJP has removed the anesthesia and continued the attack. So we want an alternate narrative,” he said.
‘Talk to Dalits in Karnataka First’
Mavalli Shankar, president of the Dalit Sangharsh Samiti (Ambedkarvad) is perplexed that Mevani made a call for Dalits in the state to unite, without meeting the Dalit organisations in the state.
He made the announcement to unite the Dalits during a function organised by some Left-wing organisations. There are Dalit organisations that have been working for Dalits cause for years, but none of them were met.Mavalli Shankar
According to him, without an effort from Mevani to understand the history and nuances of the Dalit movement in the state, rallying forces against Hindutva forces will be impossible.
Unlike Hariram, Shankar was in favour of the grand alliance of progressive organisations. “Even though scattered, there is a movement which is working towards the Dalit cause. We are already opposing the fascists forces through our movement and it is our priority as well. So, if he believes in the same, he should talk to us first,” said Shankar.
‘Jignesh Mevani Is a Trojan Horse’
Post the Rohith Vemula movement, every political party has realised the power of Dalits and is desperate to woo this segment.
Mevani is being used by the Congress party and upper-caste/elite Left leaders such as Kanhaiya Kumar, Shehla Rashid, Kavita Krishnan and Umar Khalid to gain access to Dalits, said Sudipto Mondal, a journalist who has extensively covered the Dalit movement and is currently authoring a book on Rohit Vemula.
The only reason Mevani is in the news is because his patrons in the Congress and the Left have good contacts in the media, he says.
They need Mewani because these leaders and their parties enjoy absolutely no credibility in the anti-caste struggle and are seen by many Dalit intellectuals as inheritors of caste privilege.Sudipto Mondal, Journalist
Adding that Mewani is to Congress and the Left, what Ramnath Kovind is to the BJP, he said: “Kovind and Mevani neither have any mass base nor are they Ambedkarites. And that suits their patrons perfectly because a radical Ambedkarite with a mass base is a threat to every upper-caste leader, irrespective of their ideology.”
How Much Can An Outsider Relate to Dalits’ Issues in Karnataka?
Talking about Karnataka politics, Dr Sandeep Shastri, a political scientist and Pro Vice Chancellor of Jain University, said that a large chunk of the Dalit vote bank has been with the Congress party. He also added the Congress, which is trying to consolidate the anti-BJP, and leaders like Mevani are a part of the process.
To what extent Dalits in Karnataka will relate to Mevani is another question.
The Dalit community in Karnataka has issues that are specific to them. How much somebody who is from another state and who doesn’t speak the language, will be able to relate and resonate with the Dalits in the state is something that needs to be looked at.Dr Sandeep Shastri
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