11.06.24.UT NEWS.Chennai.by Team Sivaji.
Banda: Report filed against six policemen who cut the tongue of an innocent, tortured the youth in the name of interrogation
Banda News: The court has directed action in the case of inhuman torture of a youth in the name of revealing the robbery. In this, a report has been filed against three inspectors, one sub-inspector and two constables. These people had beaten up a youth caught on the basis of suspicion. Also cut his tongue.
In the case of cutting the tongue of a youth who was taken into custody for revealing the robbery after four years on the orders of the CJM court in Baberu of Banda district, a report has been filed against three then inspectors, one sub-inspector and two constables in Marka police station.
On 23 February 2021, the miscreants carried out the robbery incident in the house of Santosh Gautam, a resident of Majra Kusumhin Purva of Mau village of Marka police station area. To uncover the incident, the then SOG in-charge Alok Singh, Anand Singh, Baberu Kotwal Ramasare, Marka police station SI and two policemen had arrested Ashok alias Barkawa alias Kodauwa, Rajjan, Deepak, Rajwa and Sunil of the village.
They were taken to Marka police station and allegedly beaten up for three days. They were released when no evidence was found. Two days later, Marka police called Ashok alias Barkawa. He was locked in the lockup in the police station and brutally beaten up with a belt. During the assault, his tongue was cut off.
Police had left him home after getting him discharged from the hospital
This made Ashok unconscious. Marka police station in-charge had taken Ashok to the district hospital on April 9, 2021. From there, the doctors referred him to Kanpur. Ashok was brought from Kanpur on April 10 and re-admitted to the district hospital. Marka police had left him home after getting him discharged from the district hospital on April 16.
Report filed against all police personnel on court’s order
Ashok had filed a complaint in Marka police station, claiming himself innocent. He had registered the case with SP, IG Zone Prayagraj, DGP, Human Rights Commission New Delhi. After not getting justice from anywhere, he finally took refuge in CJM court. Report has been filed against all police personnel on court’s order. Marka SHO Naresh Prajapati said that report has been filed on court’s order. He himself is investigating.
The level of caste discrimination in higher education institutions is also high.
In the last ten years, the voice of equality and justice has gone far behind in the entire environment. There is a wave of making reservation, which is the path of equality, suspicious. In such a situation, equality cannot be achieved without eradicating caste discrimination and oppression in higher education institutions. In the last five years, more than 13 thousand Dalit, backward and tribal students have left their studies in IITs, IIMs and Central Universities. Whether they left their studies or were forced to leave, this needs to be seen and understood.
After independence, we certainly succeeded in establishing equality of votes, but equality at the social level remains a distant dream. In the last ten years, we have moved in the completely opposite direction. Manusmriti seems to be determining the daily routine more than the Constitution. In the midst of the spreading fire of open Dalit oppression, Modi had to say that spare my Dalit brothers. Despite that, even touching the water pot in schools leads to murder. How so much hatred and violence arose, this remains a very difficult question. In our country, we get caste discrimination in our upbringing itself. We are trained in our homes not to play with certain children, play but not to go to their homes, even if you go to their homes, not to drink water, not to eat anything. Punishment is also given for violating this training so that the crime is not committed again.
This means that in the homes of the so-called upper castes, people are taught not to pay attention to Dalits and tribals, to ignore and turn a deaf ear to them. This childhood training becomes fatal for someone when they grow up.
Then, in the middle class homes, providing separate utensils and a separate place to sit for the maid also creates a ‘separate’ culture. Separate wells, separate settlements, separate streets, separate crematoriums have been established as a system and our social system does not allow any violation of this. Walking without slippers around the houses of upper castes and not even riding a bicycle is still happening today.
Not only does there arise disputes over wearing new clothes, keeping a moustache, riding a horse in a wedding procession, but murders also take place. The strength of this social system is that it is not seen as a crime but as an honour. We can clearly see that there are strict rules and regulations to maintain this system of discrimination and to implement it in everyday life.
Seeing this happening in homes and the surrounding environment, anyone can be ready to accept this life as normal and universal. Rather, one can be ready to stand up for the maintenance of such a social system.
Silently drinking tea in a separate cup at tea shops and keeping it clean comes under the category of maintaining the system and maintaining peace. Accepting untouchability is to follow the social system and the dignity of religion. Such a peace and system in which there is discrimination, belittling, crushing the feeling of equality and presenting oppression as justice obviously gives rise to the possibility of criticism, protest and rebellion.
In such a social system, the system of discrimination and untouchability in our higher educational institutions will also be made ‘high’. The way our villages and countryside are behaving, the same way our higher institutions are also behaving. Our Parliamentary Committee has reported that Dalit, OBC and Adivasi students are never allowed to fulfil their quota in IITs, IIMs and Central Universities.
Even those who score well in theory are failed in practicals. Nearly 98% of professors and more than 90% of assistant professors in institutions of higher education belong to the so-called upper class. How much do these people, who have gone through rigorous training in their homes and society, understand real justice?
Despite being a very small part of the population, their huge majority must be boosting their morale. That is why even though the number of Dalit, OBC and Adivasis studying in these institutions may be less than the desired number, their number is nearly 56% among those who commit suicide.
The data of our government itself shows that more than 11 thousand posts of teachers are vacant. Out of 45 Central Universities, only 33 had 1,097 posts of teachers in SC/ST category to be filled but only 212 were filled. Out of 33 universities, 18 had no teachers from this category
Not a single post has been filled. This happening and continuing to happen will only add to the despair and desperation of this section of the population which sees its rights being lost every day and in comparison, it will also highlight the arrogance and arrogance of the so-called upper castes.
We have normalised caste discrimination and oppression by institutionalising it. A committee study on AIIMS revealed that Dalit, backward and tribal students are repeatedly failed without any reason.
This country lost a shining star like Rohith Vemula due to this institutional casteism and oppression. Modi Raj is now being called electoral dictatorship but Rohith Vemula was the first martyr against the strangulation of democracy.
Rohit Vemula’s fight was for his rights but the department, vice chancellor, local BJP leader and even the country’s education minister were involved in harassing him and pushing him towards suicide. There was a demand to make Rohith Vemula Act against this harassment and humiliation in educational institutions. But today the file of Rohith Vemula case has been closed. Due to the everyday discrimination and humiliation in the highest institutions, more than 13 thousand students are forced to give up their dream of a better life and the passion to do something for the country.
Payal Tadvi, who was preparing to become a doctor in Mumbai, told in her suicide note how discrimination, humiliation and harassment crosses all limits. Her fellow students are included in it, teachers and administration who ignored her complaint are also included in it.
She wrote that she was not allowed to do what she had the right to learn and work for, she was not allowed to go to the labor room, when other students were learning in the labor room, Payal had to stand outside. She was given the work to be done by the clerk and there was no one to listen to her complaints. It is in these circumstances that students choose life over a better life, leave education and return.
The suicide of B.Tech students Anil Kumar and Ayush Ashna in IIT, the capital of the country, had once shaken the capital. The students there also expressed concern about the environment that pushes them towards suicide. But the teachers and students from the so-called upper caste background have no idea of ??the pressures that these students have to go through.
The existence of such situations in our higher education institutions shows that education is still not working to transform lives. The life behavior that is happening in our uneducated or less educated societies is being repeated in higher education institutions as well.
The Rohith Vemula Act that emerged after Rohith Vemula’s martyrdom has not been implemented anywhere. There is a law against ragging and it is being implemented too, but the institutions are still silent and careless against ‘caste ragging’. Vipin Veetil, a Dalit teacher of IIT Madras, also had to leave the institute due to caste discrimination. We are not creating any justice-giving system.
While dedicating the Constitution to the country, Ambedkar had said that we have certainly achieved political equality, but social equality is a complex battle and without social equality, political equality will also not survive. Today we are at this crossroads. In the last ten years, the voice of equality and justice has gone far behind in the entire environment. There is a wave of making the reservation, which is the path of equality, questionable.
In such a situation, equality and justice cannot be achieved without eradicating caste discrimination and oppression in institutions of higher education. Obviously, the so-called upper caste class will not take this task in its hands. For this, the deprived sections will have to take the lead. (Naresh Prerna is a poet and playwright.)
Narnaul fire havoc: Fuel and one Suhaag Bhandar of 40 Dalit families burnt to ashes, 11 thousand volt line damaged
In Haryana’s Narnaul, fuel, manure and trees kept by 40 families were burnt to ashes due to fire in garbage dumping pits late on Sunday night. The fire was so terrible that 3-4 fire brigade vehicles controlled the fire after about 3 hours of hard work.
Mandi Ateli/Narnaul: In village Ganiyar, fuel, manure and trees kept by 40 families were burnt to ashes due to fire in garbage dumping pits late on Sunday night. The fire was so terrible that 3-4 fire brigade vehicles controlled the fire after about 3 hours of hard work. Although the fire brigade was informed about the fire by the village sarpanch Sunita and Rajendra Prasad at 12 midnight, but the fire brigade reached one and a half hours after the information was given, by then the fire had caused a lot of damage. The fire also caused Suhaag Bhandar, a kiosk, to burn to ashes, which had goods worth lakhs of rupees.
11000 volt line damaged due to fire
The fire in the garbage was so fierce that the 11000 volt line passing over the fuel also got damaged. Due to this, there was a power crisis in villages like Ganiyar, Bajad, Ateli, Begpur etc. The village Sarpanch and the people of the colony demanded compensation from the district administration for the loss. The village Sarpanch Sunita Devi said that due to unknown reasons, the fuel of the families of SC colony caught fire around 12 o’clock on Sunday night. She immediately informed the helpline and fire brigade about this, but the fire brigade vehicle arrived one and a half hours after giving the information. By then the fire had taken a terrible form.
The delay by the fire department caused more damage
The Sarpanch said that the fire department center is located in Ateli. Despite this, it took one and a half hours to cover a distance of 10 km. Due to the fire, the fuel of many families was burnt to ashes. All of them are BPL families and cook food by collecting fuel, sticks, wood etc. Therefore, the district administration should provide free cooking gas to the affected families for one year, so that their loss can be compensated.
Dalit girl molested, brother who protested shot in the head: Noorjahan arrested near mosque
“Dalit girl molested, brother who protested shot in the head: Noorjahan arrested near mosque; Ashfaq, Iqbal, Salamat, Rustam also arrested”, OpIndia, June 10, 2024
“A Dalit youth has been murdered in Pratapgarh district of Uttar Pradesh. The name of the deceased is Vikas. Ashfaq, Iqbal, Salamat, Rustam and Noorjahan have been accused of the murder. On Thursday (June 6, 2024), Vikas’s body was found lying under a bridge near the village. He was shot in the head. A day earlier on June 5, Ashfaq, Iqbal and Salamat had molested Vikas’s sister. Vikas had then protested against it. The police have arrested Ashfaq, Iqbal, Salamat and Noorjahan. Raids are being conducted in search of Rustam.
This incident is from Antu police station area of ??Pratapgarh district. Kamlesh Kumar, who belongs to the Dalit community, has lodged a complaint with the police on June 6 (Thursday). In the complaint, he told that on June 5, his daughter had gone out to defecate. During this time, Ashfaq, Iqbal and Salamat stopped the girl and started molesting her. When the girl protested, the three accused started abusing the victim with casteist slurs. Just then the girl’s brother Vikas reached there. When Vikas also protested against the molestation of his sister, Ashfaq, Iqbal and Salamat threatened to kill him too.
According to the complainant, his son Vikas had gone missing from that day itself. The family members searched a lot but could not find anything. The next day, through the villagers, Kamlesh came to know that a dead body was lying under the bridge near the bypass. When Kamlesh went there and saw, the body was that of Vikas. Vikas was shot in the head. Vikas’s father alleged that his son was murdered by Ashfaq, Iqbal, Salamat and Rustam together. The police registered a case and started investigation….”
Karnataka Cong leader takes dig at NDA for not inducting from state any BCs/Dalit MP in cabinet
BENGALURU: Karnataka home minister and senior Congress leader G Parameshwara on Monday took a dig at the NDA government for not inducting any MP from backward classes and Dalit communities from the state into the Union council of ministers. He said it was evident that these communities have been “neglected” in the government formation exercise.
“It looks like they (BJP/NDA) don’t want backward classes and Dalit communities. There are several people from such communities who have got elected in the state from that party,” Parameshwara told reporters here.
“They could have considered them, but it is left to their discretion. But it is evident that these communities have been neglected,” the former president of the party’s state unit said.
Five members of Parliament from Karnataka were part of the council of ministers of the NDA government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, sworn in on Sunday.
Nirmala Sitharaman (representing Rajya Sabha) and Pralhad Joshi of the BJP and JD(S)’ H D Kumaraswamy were sworn in as cabinet ministers, while BJP’s Shobha Karandlaje was inducted as minister of state along with V Somanna.
While Sitharaman and Joshi are Brahmins, Kumaraswamy and Karandlaje are from the dominant Vokkaliga community. Somanna hails from another dominant community in the state — Lingayats.
The NDA got 19 out of 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, with BJP winning 17 and JD(S) two. The ruling Congress in the state has won nine seats.
Congratulating the five MPs who have become ministers, Parameshwara said there are several state issues pending for resolution before the central government, like GST share and irrigation projects requiring its nod.
“I’m confident that as the representatives of the state they will take them up on priority and try to resolve them,” he said, adding that in case they fail, it is a set back to them and their party. “We will wait and watch….if our issues are not resolved, naturally we will have to blame them.”
On whether there were discussions in the ruling Congress in the state about appointing more deputy CMs on the basis of communities, Parameshwara said: “There is no such thing, no such discussions have happened. Just because someone speaks it cannot be a party issue.”
Whatever the party leadership decides is final, he said, adding, if they feel there is a need for such a move, they will decide.
D K Shivakumar from the Vokkaliga community is the only deputy CM in the Siddaramaiah-led cabinet now.
Tamil Nadu’s VCK Is Finally Coming Into Its Own as a Political Force
Jun 10, 2024
It would be right to echo Congress leader and Raebareli MP Rahul Gandhi in asserting that it was the farmers, poor and Dalits who have saved the Constitution by rejecting Modi. This is not, in other words, a victory of the Dravidian model alone. Indeed, for political observers who have been keenly following Tamil Nadu politics, the role of Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi’s (VCK’s) charismatic leader, Thirumavalavan, is no less of a contribution in thwarting the efforts of BJP to gain a foothold in the state.
Thirumavalavan emerged as the vanguard in the fight to quell Hindutva’s expansionist ideas in the state, not only in the Lok Sabha election but even in other elections in the past. In previous elections, when the DMK and its main leaders were soft-pedalling their stance, for fear of a purge through central agencies, it was Thirumavalavan and the VCK (formerly known as Dalit Panthers of India) that rhetorically and symbolically took on Hindutva politics and highlighted concerns about the BJP’s majoritarian politics.
He organised massive conferences prior to both the elections focusing on ‘saving democracy’ and anti-sanatan and anti-Manusmriti ideas, which laid the platform for a strong ideological campaign against sanatan dharma this time. While it is to DMK leader Udhayanidhi Stalin’s credit that he too raised his voice against it and drew ire at a national level, it is little surprise that Thirumavalavan has remained the primary target for the state level BJP functionaries.
Despite not getting the number of seats it desired in each poll, the VCK has emerged as the DMK’s most trusted ally. Party leaders rhetorically state that the ideological bonding and commitment to ideals of social justice shared by VCK and DMK bring them closer. However, like Udhayanidhi’s attack on sanatan dharma followed VCK campaigns, the onus to raise the flag for social justice falls on the smaller party. Despite the rhetoric, the current DMK regime has seen casteist atrocities continue, such as in Vengaivayal, where faecal material was dissolved in the drinking water tank meant for Dalits. Extrajudicial killings of Dalits have not abated, and they the community continues to face honour killings, custodial deaths and denial of entry in temples. In many such instances, VCK have been left to protest alone.
This has led many critics to argue that the VCK has become a cog in the wheels of the DMK. There were widespread criticisms from Dalit writers and intellectuals against VCK on its inability to negotiate with DMK or put pressure on it to act against the atrocities committed against Dalits. The party was also criticised for being forced to compromise on seat sharing and accepting only two seats despite a decade of loyalty. The VCK ultimately had to compromise, for a larger cause of defeating the Hindu right, despite that fact that it has outperformed Congress in recent elections.
The one change from 2019 was that the VCK insisted on contesting with their own symbol. In 2019, while Thirumavalavan used the common ‘pot symbol’, D. Ravikumar contested with the DMK’s rising sun, indicating that the party was denied formal recognition. This is one of the difficulties facing smaller parties that lack the resources to field multiple candidates and bankroll major campaigns. Over the past two decades, the party has been allocated various electoral symbols and had to publicise them to the electorate in the weeks running up to each election. Now, by securing two MPs with their own symbol and securing 8.1% of the vote-share in the state, the VCK will add much needed strength to its politics by gaining recognition as a state party. This will afford them the chance to have a permanent symbol, which is crucial for leverage in electoral politics.
Also read: How the VCK Emerged as More Than ‘Just a Dalit Party’ in the Tamil Nadu Elections
The VCK may remain a minor party, but they now have a solid platform on which to face the upcoming Assembly elections. If they are still part of the DMK alliance, it will be important to see how they negotiate the seat-sharing process. This is of importance as the failure to grow out of DMK’s shadows will result in VCK being dubbed as a party that cannot sustain itself without the political patronage of its Dravidian ally. However, influence cannot be measured in the number of seats alone. In spear-heading the strong ideological campaign against Hindutva, VCK has lived up to its claim of representing the interests of Dalits, minorities and other marginalised sections.
Though VCK remains Dalit-led, compared to Puthiya Tamilagam or Tamizhaga Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam, and its leaders, Dr. K. Krishnasamy and John Pandian, VCK represents a wider section of the marginalised in a way that harks back to social activist and politician E. Periyar. Whilst the VCK used to be described as a caste-based party, it has always described itself as anti-caste and its growth and development over the years reflects this.
However, caste politics in Tamil Nadu has not disappeared. In the recent elections, the BJP allied with the openly casteist Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), expecting the PMK to perform strongly against VCK. It was no surprise that the PMK was politically routed. The party’s divisive and caste-oriented political approach seems to have lost its steam even among the Vanniyars.
The PMK’s founder-leader, S. Ramadoss, sought to accuse an entire community of upwardly mobile Dalits of engaging in staged romantic and marriage relationships targeting upper and dominant castes. This exclusionary rhetoric created an anti-Dalit psyche in the state, fuelling large-scale anti-Dalit violence in Dharmapuri district where three villages were ransacked and burnt down. Despite the heinous nature of the attacks, no major condemnations came from either civil society groups or major political parties.
It was left to the Dalit parties, organisations and the Left to challenge it. It was here that Thirumavalavan showcased his maturity as a leader. Instead of resorting to violent measures and language in return, he believed in democratic methods and guided his party and cadres to politically nullify the PMK. While VCK has been able to grow politically and become a force to reckon with, the PMK has fallen flat.
In sum, the Panthers are finally coming into their own as a political force. Despite remaining a minor party in terms of seats won, it would be remiss to overlook their impact in state politics. In standing by the DMK, despite having their demands for more seats denied time and again, they have shown the importance of strong-alliances. In consistently raising their voices and hosting rallies on federalism, democracy and language policies, they have highlighted how an ideologically coherent and combative campaign can challenge the BJP’s electoral juggernaut.
In doubling down on critiques of the Manusmriti, they have shown how one can remain steadfast in the face of social media outcries. By continually raising their voices against caste atrocities, they keep alive the dream of a caste-free future. Finally, as they approach 25 years of electoral competition, the Panthers have secured the state recognition they have long sought. As Thol Thirumavalavan put it to reporters following the election results: “From 1999, we have been working to get recognition. This is a South Indian party, a movement which speaks of Ambedkarite ideology. By getting the support of people and state recognition, we are being recognised as a party and a movement for everyone.”
Karthikeyan Damodaran teaches at the National Law School of India University.
400-paar, strategic mistakes, social justice plank: Why BJP tally dipped in reserved seats
The Congress has increased its tally from seven to 32 while the BJP’s has reduced from 77 to 55.
The BJP lost 19 SC seats which it held across Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Haryana, Karnataka, Bihar, Punjab and West Bengal. Additionally, it lost 10 ST seats across Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Rajasthan and West Bengal. The Congress captured 12 of these SC seats and seven of these ST seats from the BJP.
Other parties also contributed to the BJP’s losses on reserved seats: the Samajwadi Party (SP) took five SC seats in Uttar Pradesh; the Trinamool Congress (TMC) won in Coochbehar; the Bharat Adivasi Party, a new entrant, secured Banswara; Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) won in Dumka; and the Nationalist Congress Party-Sharad Pawar (NCP-SP) took Dindori.
Significant defeats for the BJP included Jharkhand’s Khunti, where Congress candidate Kali Charan Munda defeated former CM and Union tribal affairs minister Arjun Munda by nearly 1.5 lakh votes; Rajasthan’s Banswara, where the Bharat Adivasi Party won by almost 2.5 lakh votes; and Karnataka’s Chamarajanagar, where the BJP lost to the Congress by over 1.88 lakh votes.
In the 2019 elections, the BJP had increased its tally from 71 to 77 reserved seats. The Congress, which had won only seven such seats in 2019, has increased its count to 32 reserved constituencies in 2024, including the 19 it wrested from the BJP.
The BJP experienced its greatest losses in Uttar Pradesh, where it lost six SC and ST seats – one to the Congress and five to the Samajwadi Party. The SP, which had no SC seats in Uttar Pradesh in 2019, won seven this year, including two that were held by BSP and Robertsganj, which was represented by Apna Dal-Soneylal.
The BSP also lost its only other SC seat in Uttar Pradesh, Nagina, to the Azad Samaj Party’s Chandrashekhar Azad, who won by a margin of over 1.5 lakh votes.
Of the 55 reserved seats the BJP won this year, 25 were ST seats (down from 32 in 2019), and 30 were SC segments (down from 45 in 2019).
The BJP made gains in ST seats in West Bengal (Alipurduar), Chhattisgarh (Bastar), and Odisha (Nabarangpur and Keonjhar), and in SC seats in Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur and Bhadrak – all previously held by the BJD. Additionally, the BJP retained all its SC and ST seats in Madhya Pradesh, with Union social justice minister Virendra Kumar winning the Tikamgarh seat by over 4 lakh votes.
Of the 55 reserved seats the BJP won this year, 25 were ST seats (down from 32 in 2019), and 30 were SC segments (down from 45 in 2019).
The bigwigs who lost
The BJP’s NDA partners like the Janata Dal (United), the Lok Janshakti Party and the Hindustani Awam Morcha emerged victorious in five of the state’s six reserved seats. Only one was won by the Congress.
Among NDA bigwigs who lost such seats were BJP ministers Arjun Munda, Kaushal Kishore, Nisith Pramanik and Bharati Pravin Pawar. Union minister Arjun Ram Meghwal won, as did NDA allies Chirag Paswan and former Bihar CM Jitan Ram Manjhi.
In Bihar’s Sasaram, held previously by a BJP MP, Congress’s Manoj Kumar emerged victorious. Similarly, in Haryana’s Sirsa, Kumari Selja of the Congress defeated the BJP’s Ashok Tanwar.
Jharkhand saw Nalin Soren of the JMM win the Dumka (ST) seat from the BJP, while in Khunti (ST), Arjun Munda lost to Congress’s Kali Charan Munda.
In Telangana, the governing Congress won four – three SC and one ST – seats of the total five. Karnataka saw the BJP lose the Gulbarga (SC) seat to the Congress; the state has five reserved seats – three for SCs and two for STs. In Maharashtra too, the Congress dislodged BJP MPs in six of the nine reserved seats. In Rajasthan, the Congress wrested multiple SC and ST seats from the BJP.
In Uttar Pradesh, Union minister Kaushal Kishore lost his Mohanlalganj (SC) seat to the SP. And in West Bengal, Union minister Nisith Pramanik lost the Cooch Behar (SC) seat to the TMC.
The INDIA bloc’s narrative that an overwhelmingly BJP-majority government poses a threat to the Constitution resonated strongly with voters.
Satish Prakash, a Dalit rights activist and physics professor at Meerut College.
400-paar, strategic mistakes
Experts suggested that the BJP’s “400-paar” rhetoric might have triggered such losses in reserved seats across the country. They opined that the BJP’s decline in reserved constituencies in the north and its fractured mandate in the reserved seats in the south was influenced by a combination of strategic missteps, effective opposition messaging and socio-political dynamics unique to different regions of India.
“The INDIA bloc’s narrative that an overwhelmingly BJP-majority government poses a threat to the Constitution resonated strongly with voters,” said Satish Prakash, a Dalit rights activist and physics professor at Meerut College. “Concerns echoed through Dalit settlements about potential changes to the statute crafted by Baba Saheb (BR Ambedkar) and the risks to the protections it enshrines for them. These fears, fueled by statements from the BJP itself, prompted voters to become vigilant and determined to safeguard the Constitution. This played a significant role in the election outcome.”
He said allegations about a tacit alliance between the BSP and BJP led many Dalits to shift their support to the opposition alliance, believing it to be a more reliable defender of their interests. “As a result, numerous voters distanced themselves from the BSP, traditionally a stronghold for the community, feeling it was no longer capable of effectively challenging the BJP. For SCs and STs, reservation is not just policy – it’s survival as it paved the way for their political, economic, social, and educational advancement. Therefore, protecting it is sacred to them.”
Prakash criticised both the Congress-led INDIA alliance and the BJP, stating that both parties have historically sought to deprive Dalits and tribals of their constitutional rights. He pointed out that previous Congress policies under Prime Minister Narsimha Rao promoted privatisation, which narrowed spaces for Dalits in employment and education, as reservation policies do not apply in the private sector. He alleged that the SP is equally anti-Dalit, citing incidents during Akhilesh Yadav’s tenure that opposed the reservation bill and reversed pro-Dalit decisions made by previous governments.
“Mayawati government’s decision to rename Lucknow’s King George College as Sahuji Maharaj Medical was withdrawn by the SP government in the state. Manyawar Kanshi Ram Medical College in Saharanpur was changed to Shaikh-ul-Hind Maulana Mahmood Hasan Medical College during the Akhilesh regime. One lakh Dalit officers in the state were demoted by retrospectively implementing a Supreme Court order,” he alleged.
Asked about Mayawati’s silence on several issues of people’s concerns, he said, “Dalits are principled, socialists, rational and argumentative. They don’t indulge in actions of politics, which can potentially harm other sections of society. SP leaders provoked UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath during protests against the contentious CAA and proposed NRC, but who bore the brunt? It was Muslims, who faced brutal police crackdown and bullets.”
Professor Badri Narayan of Jawaharlal Nehru University said the “key to reserved constituencies is held by OBCs (Other Backward Castes)”. He said the SP-Congress alliance in UP won the majority of seats as a majority of OBCs voted in their favour.
Meanwhile, Sushil Pandey, a professor at the Baba Saheb Ambedkar Central University in Lucknow and author of Caste and Politics in Democracy, highlighted voter dissatisfaction with the BJP’s candidate selection and the opposition's strong messaging on social justice.
The SCs here have not directly suffered so much if compared to Muslims. There are several Dalit castes, such as Lumbanis, in the region who are not untouchables.
Vithal Das Pyage, a retired college principal from Karnataka,
Senior journalist Hrishikesh Bahadur Desai of The Hindu echoed Prakash’s views, adding that influential groups in various states can sway the votes in favour of their preferred candidates. He said the Jains in Rajasthan and Gujarat, Gounders in Tamil Nadu, Lingayats in Karnataka, Marathas in Maharashtra and Reddys in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are in smaller numbers but have the power of influencing other communities.
“In the caste system, the unprivileged communities always want themselves to be seen with privileged communities as those who at the bottom intend to ride to the middle and those who are in the middle want to move up,” he said.
Desai also noted that the BJP’s influence in south India is limited as voting is largely influenced by culture rather than caste. “The Dravidians cannot be defeated by Hindutva,” he said.
“The situation of Dalits and tribals in the south is not as bad as in north India. The state has 101 Scheduled Castes, but only six communities are beneficiaries of reservation. Similarly, there are 52 ST communities, but only one of them has benefitted from quota. Dalits here don’t want confrontational politics as they have to live in the same society. They adjust to the situation,” he said.
Vithal Das Pyage, a retired college principal from Karnataka, said Dalits in south India, except Karnataka, have not experienced the BJP government and how it treats the Scheduled Castes in north India. “The SCs here have not directly suffered so much if compared to Muslims. There are several Dalit castes, such as Lumbanis, in the region who are not untouchables. Most of them are well off and subscribe to the saffron party’s ideology. They have also been given their due representation.”
Senior journalist Akshaya Mishra from Odisha said the BJP’s best ever performance in the state is in fact “a loss to the BJD (Biju Janata Dal), and not a victory of the saffron party”. “Despite welfare schemes and infrastructural development, the BJD lost miserably because its government was run by bureaucrats who are not liked by electorates. The party’s reliance on an outsider, VK Pandian, also contributed significantly to the loss.”
As part of a special series for Newslaundry, Mooknayak had earlier reported on the election campaign in several reserved constituencies, such as Gaya, Bahraich, Bharatpur, Kutch, and the rise and fall of the BSP.
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