Forgotten in Gujarat politics, Dalits find an audience in Rahul Gandhi

Sanand is an automobile hub where trained Dalits are able to get employment but continue to experience social ostracisation in various forms including not getting accommodation on rent.

Dalit activist Martin Macwan pointed out at the event, “In 90% of villages in Gujarat, Dalits are barred from entering temples. In 54% of the villages they experience discrimination in cooking and serving of mid day meals. In 64% of the villages the elected panches and sarpanches have to sit in separate chairs and have to drink water from separate tumblers.”

Pointing out that the political class has done nothing to address these issues, he posed an uncomfortable question to Rahul asking why the Congress is quiet on these issues. He also aired the dilemma of the Dalits regarding whether reservation or separate electorates would address their concerns because even 89 of Dalit MPs have failed to deliver anything for the community.

Referring to the Supreme Court judgment on compensation of Rs 10 lakh for manhole workers who have died while doing their jobs, he pointed that none of the 154 manhole workers in Gujarat have been paid any compensation till now.

Rahul played up to the gallery accepting the national flag and saying, “Even if I had just an inch of space and this flag was 15 km long and weighed 50,000 kg, I would have taken it. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief minister and prime minister (Vijay Rupani and Narendra Modi) have no space for the national flag, have no consideration for your blood and sweat. But they have all the space available for five to ten top industrialists of the country.”

He hit out at Modi’s Gujarat Model of Modi underlining successive BJP governments in the state have played into the hands of industrialists by privatising education and healthcare. “They are trying to replicate what they did here across India,” he said.

He further pointed, “When you ask me what the Congress has done for the Dalits, I was in Hyderabad when Rohith Vemula died and I was here when the Una episode happened. Gujarat is changing and Modi, Rupani and Amit Shah (BJP's national president) cannot stop it.”

He also raised the issue of Amit Shah's son Jay Shah having allegedly accumulated huge wealth when the traders were reeling under the impact of demonetisation and the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). He said the people of Gujarat wanted  to know how this was done. 

Further attacking Modi, Rahul said that the prime minister did not want the winter session of the Parliament till the Gujarat polls because he did not want issues like Jay Shah's wealth accumulation and the Rafale fighter planes deal being raised there.

Social activist Gagan Sethi had also raised the issue of Muslims feeling unsafe in the state at the event. Without naming the community, Rahul said that the Congress would ensure an atmosphere of peace and inclusive development when it came to power.

The Dalits have been up against the BJP over the last few years over the continuing atrocities against them in the state. However, their mobilisation had started with the protests against the Una flogging episode. But at the same time the Dalits continue to been divided among themselves. Perhaps this was the reason why Jignesh Mevani who has emerged as a Dalit youth leader was not visible at the programme in Sanand while the youth leader of Other Backward Castes (OBC) Alpesh Thakore had accompanied Rahul there. While Alpesh had recently joined the Congress, Jignesh has not. However, Jignesh has been saying that the Dalits will not vote for the BJP this time.