Every politician, several successive governments, quite a number of service organisations and a plethora of legislations have over the years sought to improve the lot of the millions of Dalits of the country. Yet they remain where they are, as perennial untouchables, to be touched only when democracy comes alive at times of elections. In other times, they remain as subdued and cursed as democracy itself, rarely able to raise their head and instead getting trampled upon by those who have hijacked power and position. Beyond being a vote bank, their importance as citizens, nay, human beings, itself is virtually nil. Well, this is not a historical piece about an eighteenth century scenario but a sad commentary of the twentieth-or is it twenty first-century reality.
Ironically, there has never been a dearth of champions of the Dalit cause from among the Dalits themselves and the tribe of such leaders has only been proliferating, especially of late. The gullible Dalits, who yearn for social recognition and liberation from oppression, are always an easy prey to the machinations of such self-styled leaders who promise them the moon, when even a glass of drinking water is beyond the reach of their ‘inferior’ hands. These leaders are intelligent, ambitious men, who have realised the potential of this inert mass of humanity as an explosive vote bank and hence, a virtual passport to power and pelf. The pattern is too obvious to be missed. From Kanshi to Krishnaswamy, it has only been the case of such messiahs riding the crest of a Dalit wave to get ashore, while the wave itself recedes back into the depths. This is the reason why, while the Dalits remain where they are, fighting it out and defending themselves in the streets and their thatched hutments, their leaders go places on the political map.
Contrast the lives of the Dalits and the Dalit leaders, and it will be quite revealing of a thriving situation of haves and have-nots among the have-nots, themselves. Having cultivated and nurtured, either a social or geographical sphere of influence for themselves, through meticulous exploitation of the penury and ostracisation of the Dalits, these leaders slowly gravitate to the political arena, where the stakes are high. They establish their clout in successive elections and even quantify it in terms of percentages, so that they become an important factor in the poll time arithmetic. Once these figures gain acceptance in the media and among the different political parties, the leaders are then steadily wooed by those who believe that they could do with a few thousand extra votes. There is of course, nothing surprising and wrong in politicians making such calculations for politics is all about winning. The pathetic aspect is the way these Dalit leaders trade their own people’s faith and support for gaining personal uplift in their political careers.
So while a Kanshi becomes an MP and a Krishnaswamy makes it to the Assembly, it is indeed cause for celebration for the Dalits. And for these men too, though for a different reason. Once on the pedestal, these leaders rarely look back, not even to reminisce. The atrocities and discriminations fade away in a wink and all that matter is what lies ahead…for them. When Dalit representatives themselves care a hoot about their own brethren, where is the question of a dominant community, whose wont it is to keep them at the lower rungs of the society, to bother about their emancipation? This is not to justify the wrong doings of the upper classes as but for their uncivilised attitudes and absolutely unpalatable practices, the lot of the Dalits would not have been as bad as it is today, even in these very modern times. However the point that cannot be missed is simply that despite the existence of several legislations and an army of leaders, if the Dalits still remain at the bottom, it is more because all their pent up emotions and righteous indignation have been singularly hijacked by a chosen few who have cleverly managed to channelise such anger to their own benefit. If the Dalits of Ramnad are fighting an upper caste today, it will not be long before they will have to struggle to get out of the clutches of their self-seeking leaders too.
On present sights their future looks as bleak as their past. Their leaders, of course have never had it so good, what with burning villages and quite a few dead bodies as launching pads to fire their political missiles. And it most certainly suits these self-proclaimed messiahs to address press conferences in far away Chennai and lament about the plight of the Dalits, while their followers have it out at the scene of action with sickles and pick axes, shedding and drawing blood, as the case may be. These commanders of the Dalits, who rarely set foot on the battle front when it is raging, mouth profundities and invoke the fair name of the long dead Ambedkar to kick up a frenzy which the great leader would have cringed at, even as the bare bodied soldiers fall victims to the official guns. While the leaders ignite the spark from the safe confines of their ivory towers, the live cannon fodder explodes in distant hamlets. Liberation indeed!
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