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| Safe distance |
Narendra Modi and his India
love Vanvasis, not Adivasis. The reason is that they believe India belongs to
the upper caste Hindus, not anybody else, not even the original inhabitants of
the land, the Adivasis. The problem with Modi’s Hindutva is precisely this
exclusionism. It believes India belongs to a particular group of Hindus. Not
all Hindus, let alone the non-Hindus.
Draupadi
Murmu’s nomination as the next President of India is only an eyewash. She is
going to be a decorative piece of the Dalits, a museum item chosen by Narendra
Modi whose love for Vanvasis became too clear in the 2018 Bhima
Koregaon case and the subsequent arrests.
The annual
celebration of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon is a celebration of the Dalits.
Modi’s India does not like any celebrations by any organisation other than those
associated with the right wing, the Sangh. In the new history that is being
written by Modi and his ‘scholars’, only upper caste Hindus will be on the pedestals.
Draupadi Murmu is only a museum piece in that history meant to keep the low
caste Indians where they will always remain. Low.
Modi is
basically an RSS man. His heart still belongs to that organisation which has
never allowed a low caste member to rise to any position of eminence. The RSS
is largely a Brahmin organisation. Every chief of that organisation has been a
Brahmin with the singular exception of Rajendra Singh, a Kshatriya.
Forget about
the chief, “there is very little participation by Dalits and Adivasis even in
the top national level organisational units such as the All India
Representatives Assembly (Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha) or the All India
Working Committee (Akhil Bharatiya Karyakari Mandal),” as a former RSS member
writes [I
could not be Hindu, Bhanwar Meghwanshi].
The RSS still
maintains untouchability unofficially but meticulously. But it wants to keep
the Dalits and ‘Vanvasis’ with it for the sake of retaining political power.
Organisations like Bajrang Dal became the answer to the question of how to carry
these undesirable elements along.
“The RSS
spawned the Bajrang Dal precisely to reach out to these plebeians, who did not
mix easily with the upper-caste-dominated ethos of the RSS,” writes Christophe
Jaffrelot in Modi’s India. Jaffrelot quotes the irrepressible Sanghi,
Subramanian Swamy, who said that Bajrang Dal was formed to avoid “mixing apples
and oranges.” In Swamy’s words, “The RSS may be Brahmin-dominated at the
leadership level, but its front organizations like the Bajrang Dal are mostly the
Hindu proletariats.”
Jaffrelot’s
book enlightens readers with the plain truth that most of the Bajrang Dal members
are unemployed youngsters who are “involved in semilegal activities, such as
gambling and especially lotteries.” Its first leader, Vinay Katiyar, said, “Might
is the only law I understand. Nothing else matters to me.” The RSS has used the
Bajrang Dal to create riot after riot in the country. The Dal hates all non-Hindus,
particularly Muslims and Christians. This organisation played a key role in the
demolition of the Babri Masjid. Jaffrelot writes, “It was as if the RSS had
outsourced violence to the Bajrang Dal.” The low caste Hindus are meant only to
be the foot soldiers of the RSS.
Draupadi Murmu will be the pie in the sky of the Indian Dalits. A real pie. And yet not real. Like Modi’s Vanvasi Kalyan Yojana metamorphosing into Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana. You belong to the forest either way. You don’t belong to Modi’s India.
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| A page from Meghwanshi's book |
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