AIISCA
Statement on the Defeat of Ambedkarite Dalit Parties in the 2024 General Elections
Alongside economic injustice, unemployment, and the conventional Hindu-Muslim binary, the 2024 general elections were primarily fought around the ‘Social Justice’ narrative. The opposition alliance (INDIA alliance) led by Congress campaigned on the narrative that “if the BJP came to power with a brute majority, it would change the Constitution” and end reservations for SC, ST, and OBCs. Conversely, the ruling alliance (NDA) led by BJP tried to corner opposition parties by instilling fear that the INDIA alliance would extend SC, ST, and OBC reservations to Muslims. Prime Minister Modi, while speaking at a rally in Haryana’s Bhiwani-Mahendragarh Lok Sabha constituency, referred to a recent West Bengal High Court verdict cancelling five lakh OBC certificates, claiming that the reservation meant for the OBCs was being distributed to the “intruders,” i.e., Muslims.
Issues like SC, ST, and OBC poor representation in government jobs, education, private sector employment, and mainstream media; the need for a caste census; implementation of reservations; and protecting Babasaheb’s Constitution have been central to Ambedkarite Dalit Bahujan discourse and Scheduled Castes-led political parties and their supporters. Notably, these issues concerning social justice became the primary part of the opposition’s narrative to increase its seats and successfully counter the massive campaign of Prime Minister Modi. However, what is even more surprising is that parties like BSP in U.P. led by Bahen Mayawati and VBA in Maharashtra led by Advocate Prakash Ambedkar, whose politics have traditionally revolved around the social justice discourse and related issues, were completely wiped out in these elections. They failed to win even a single seat, and their vote percentage decreased drastically.
It is not surprising that the re-emergence of the Congress-led Opposition and its much better performance compared to the last elections have fueled the so-called progressive or liberal upper-caste intelligentsia to once again imagine strong anti-BJP-RSS political mobilization. What they fail to realize is the danger posed by the decline of autonomous politics of the most marginalized in India. While one might argue that the election results are a fair outcome of democratic electoral contestations, one should not disregard the ‘ethical’ question that arises for parliamentary democracy with the decline of autonomous politics of Dalits and other marginalized sections’ parties. The question is, ‘Can we celebrate a strong opposition without any presence of autonomous Dalit politics?’ And in a Deweyan sense, we can ask, ‘What is ‘ethical’ in our democracy?’
This, however, does not exempt autonomous Dalit-led parties from scrutiny regarding their political approaches and leadership decisions, which have resulted in the complete demise of autonomous Dalit politics in the electoral arena. Particularly, when we know that the ‘social justice’ discourse in electoral politics in India is the outcome of long-standing political activism from the Scheduled Castes Federation (SCF) to the Republican Party of India, from Dalit Panther to BAMCEF, and from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to the recent Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA), the reluctant political campaigns around the social justice narrative by Dalit-led parties such as BSP and VBA seem to have produced distrust in their respective core vote banks and traditional supporters. As a result, their core vote bank, mostly Dalits in significant numbers both in U.P. and Maharashtra (which proved to be the biggest game changers in disrupting the ruling BJP’s total winning tally), shifted to other opposition parties who successfully made the social justice narrative central to their political campaign.
Along with taking the Dalit vote bank for granted, both VBA and BSP also seem to have lost connection with the grassroots Ambedkarite social movement organizations that, without much resources and support, work for the welfare of the community and, most importantly, produce a vibrant ideological base. Unlike other upper-caste-led political parties that fight elections with the help of media, mafia, and money, the Dalit-led parties lack resources and majorly rely on community support and voluntary activism from local activists. However, we have observed poor coordination between community-based organizations and Dalit-led parties. It is important to note that while for the ruling BJP there exist a number of socio-cultural Hindutva ideological organizations, including the RSS as a most important social organization, Congress, before entering elections, created a huge umbrella of progressive social movement organizations under the banner of the ‘Bharat Jodo Abhiyan,’ who actively campaigned for Congress and its alliance on the ground.
This election also sent a strong message that it’s not only charismatic leaders but also issues concerning everyday life that matter. Sadly, even after such a long-standing journey, Dalit politics still revolve around excessive celebration of a leader’s charisma. There exists little or no space in contemporary Dalit politics and discourse for the need for organizational leadership. The lack of strong local (second-rank) leadership also seems to have worsened the situation of the Dalit-led political parties. As we know, post-Ambedkar, Dalit politics has witnessed both the emergence and decline of leadership in national politics. Kanshi Ram Sahab emphasized building a cadre-based movement. However, present Dalit-led parties not only lack an internal democratic structure but also place no importance on building a cadre at the grassroots.
We (AIISCA), as a social movement organization, believe that while autonomous Dalit politics and leadership have receded in national politics, the Dalit movement at the grassroots has grown strong and continues through various non-party and non-electoral local organizations and groups that imagine and demand a new form of Dalit politics and leadership. We believe that as the 2024 elections once again marked the strong re-emergence of the social justice discourse and proved that elections can be fought and won by putting social justice issues at the forefront, there is hope for a new beginning for Dalit political parties.
AIISCA believes a few key but important tasks should be prioritized by Ambedkarite Dalit parties to regain their natural vote base:
- Dalit-led parties should stop taking the Dalit vote for granted.
- They should create secondary and grassroots leadership.
- They should build well-coordinated efforts with Dalit social movement organizations.
- They should give importance to an internal democratic party structure.
- They should build a cadre-based political movement.
It is in this context that, in order to decide the directions and discuss the future of Dalit politics, AIISCA is going to hold a one-day conference in Nagpur on 21st July, 2024.
Jai Bhim!
~ Dr. Rahul Sonpimple,
Founder President of All India Independent Scheduled Castes Association (AIISCA).
Phone Number – 9974410379
Email id: aiisca1957@gmail.com,
Our website – https://aiisca.org
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