NEW DELHI: Drawing inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi, who was the first political leader to launch a full-scale war against untouchability practiced against Dalits for over centuries in India, All-India Congress Committee (AICC) General-Secretary Rahul Gandhi directed 300 party workers to visit Dalit houses in Uttar Pradesh on Friday and spend the night in Dalit households, marking 140th birth anniversary of “Father of the Nation” Mahatma Gandhi, who was responsible for ending the ugly practice of untouchability for over centuries.
Appalled by the system of untouchability practiced against Dalits, Mahatma Gandhi launched the program of re-integrating them into the social mainstream during the freedom struggle. It was largely due to the efforts of Mahatma Gandhi that the social stigma associated with the Dalits was virtually wiped out. Later, Indira Gandhi launched her famous “20-Point Program,” through which she sought to socially and economically empower the Dalits. Now Rahul Gandhi is seeking to regain this lost bastion for the Congress. Rahul Gandhi started the trend, by visiting Dalit homes, sharing a meal, sleeping in their courtyards and the following morning taking bath at the hand pumps. The idea was to identify with the most marginalized sections and woo them back to the Congress-fold, weaning away the Dalits from UP Chief Minister Mayawati’s party, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), who is at the other end of the political pole, with a firm grip over Dalits.
Virtually, Rahul Gandhi has hinged the Congress revival in the Hindi-heartland State on its capacity to win back the Dalits to the Congress. In a sense, Rahul Gandhi is seeking to reclaim the bastion of Dalits for the Congress, which was lost to non-Congress parties, which went into a drive political mobilization, in the name of B R Ambedkar. During the 1980s and 1990s, the non-Congress managed to wean the Dalits away from the Congress and firmly establish their stranglehold. While in Bihar, former Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan managed to establish his sway over Dalits, Mayawati succeeded in UP to gain a stranglehold over Dalits.
As direct fallout, the Congress lost its political base in the major Hindi-heartland States of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar, which together account for 160 seats in Parliament.
