Dalit Politics at Crossroads: AIISCA's Conference to Chart New Course Post-2024 Elections

Nagpur- The All India Independent Scheduled Castes Association (AIISCA) is organizing a one-day conference on July 21 in Nagpur to discuss the direction and future of Dalit politics. This comes in the wake of the 2024 general elections, which were primarily fought around the discourse of social justice.

The results highlighted the significant issues faced by Dalit-led political parties and raised concerns about the sustainability and effectiveness of independent Ambedkarite Dalit politics.

The 2024 elections marked a watershed moment for Dalit politics, as the discourse on social justice took center stage across the political spectrum. Dr. Rahul Sonpimple, Founder President of AIISCA, highlights the pivotal role played by these issues in shaping electoral outcomes.

The results underscored both the potential and challenges facing Dalit-led political entities, with traditional parties like the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) facing setbacks in their electoral performance.

In an elaborate statement, Sonpimple explained the issues and raised pertinent questions that need to be addressed by Ambedkarites collectively. He wrote:

The End of Independent Ambedkarite Dalit Politics?

The 2024 general elections in India were primarily fought around the discourse of social justice. The opposition coalition led by the Congress (INDIA alliance) campaigned on the narrative that if the BJP came to power with a full majority, they would change the constitution and end reservations for Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), and Other Backward Classes (OBC).

Conversely, the ruling BJP-led coalition (NDA) attempted to corner opposition parties by instilling fear that the INDIA alliance would give SC, ST, and OBC reservations to Muslims. Prime Minister Modi, speaking at a rally in the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh Lok Sabha constituency in Haryana, recently cited a decision by the Calcutta High Court that canceled five lakh OBC certificates. He claimed that reservations for OBCs were being given to infiltrators, meaning Muslims.

Issues like underrepresentation of SC, ST, and OBC in government jobs, education, private sector employment, mainstream media, the need for a caste census, implementation of reservations, and the protection of Babasaheb's constitution have been central to Ambedkarite Dalit Bahujan discourse and the political parties led by Scheduled Castes and their supporters.

In these elections, these social justice-related issues became a major part of the opposition's campaign and were able to challenge Prime Minister Modi's extensive campaign successfully. However, it is even more surprising that parties like the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) led by Behen Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh and the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) led by Advocate Prakash Ambedkar in Maharashtra, whose politics traditionally revolved around the discourse of social justice and issues, completely failed in these elections.

They failed to win even a single seat, and their vote percentage also fell significantly.

The resurgence of the opposition led by Congress and their better performance compared to previous elections has once again inspired the so-called progressive or liberal upper-caste intellectuals to imagine a strong anti-BJP-RSS political mobilization. However, they are ignoring the threat of the collapse of independent politics for the most marginalized people in India.

In this context, one could argue that the election results are a fair outcome of democratic electoral competition, but the moral question arising from the collapse of independent politics for Dalits and other marginalized communities' parties should not be overlooked.

The question is, can we celebrate a strong opposition without the presence of independent Dalit politics? And we want to ask, what is moral in our democracy?

However, this does not exempt the political perspective and leadership decisions of independent Dalit-led parties, which have resulted in the complete collapse of independent Dalit politics in the electoral field.

Specifically, as mentioned above, when we know that the discourse of social justice in electoral politics in India has resulted from long-standing political activism, from the Scheduled Castes Federation (SCF) to the Indian Republican Party (RPI), from the Dalit Panthers to BAMCEF (BAMCEF), and from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA).

So why were Dalit-led parties like the BSP and VBA hesitant to make the discourse of social justice their main agenda during the election campaign? Their hesitation in raising social justice issues seems to have created distrust among their core vote bank and supporters.

As a result, their core vote bank, primarily Dalits in UP and Maharashtra (who proved to be the biggest game-changers in influencing the total victory numbers of the BJP), shifted to those other opposition parties that successfully centered their political campaign around the discourse of social justice.

Along with taking the Dalit vote bank lightly, both VBA and BSP have no engagement with grassroots Ambedkarite social movement organizations that work for the welfare of the community with very few resources and support, and most importantly, build an ideological base. We also know that unlike other upper-caste political parties that fight elections with the help of media, mafia, and money, Dalit-led parties lack resources and primarily rely on community support and voluntary activism by local workers.

However, we have also seen poor coordination between community-based organizations and Dalit-led parties. It is important to note that for the ruling BJP, there are many socio-cultural Hindutva ideological organizations, the most important being the RSS (RSS), which also exists as a social organization.

Before entering the election, the Congress formed a large chain of progressive social movement organizations under the banner of the Bharat Jodo campaign, which actively campaigned on the ground for the Congress and its alliance. Moreover, this election also sent a strong message that not only charismatic leaders but also issues related to everyday life matter.

Unfortunately, even after such a long journey, Dalit politics still revolves around excessive celebration of the leader's charisma. There is very little space for organizational leadership in contemporary Dalit politics and discourse. The lack of strong local (second-tier) leadership further worsens the position of Dalit-led political parties.

As we know, after Babasaheb Ambedkar, Dalit politics has experienced both the rise and fall of leadership in national politics. Kanshiram Sahib emphasized building a cadre-based movement. However, current Dalit-led parties not only lack an internal democratic structure but also do not give importance to building a cadre at the grassroots level.

As a social movement organization (AIISCA), we believe that while independent Dalit politics and leadership have weakened in national politics, the grassroots Dalit movement has strengthened and continues through various non-party and non-electoral local organizations and groups that envision new Dalit politics and leadership.

We believe that the 2024 elections have once again highlighted the importance of the discourse of social justice and proved that elections can be fought and won by keeping social justice issues at the forefront. In this context, there is hope for a new beginning for Dalit political parties.

AIISCA believes that Ambedkarite Dalit parties must prioritize some key critical tasks to regain their natural vote bank:

1. Dalit-led parties should stop taking the Dalit vote lightly.

2. They should build second-tier leadership and grassroots leadership.

3. They should coordinate well with Dalit social movement organizations.

4. They should give importance to internal democratic party structures.

5. They should become a cadre-based political movement.

In this context, to discuss the direction and future of Dalit politics, the All India Independent Scheduled Castes Association (AIISCA) is going to organize a one-day conference on July 21, 2024, in Nagpur.