It’s time for PM Modi to walk the talk and address the anger of his ‘Dalit brothers’, by first rooting out anti-Dalit forces in his own party
This is Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India: “If you have to shoot, shoot me but not my Dalit brothers.”
An emotional reaction, certainly, to what is happening in the nation but an intriguing one as well.
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In the name of ‘cow protection’, various groups of people have set about attacking those who are suspected of eating beef (banned in many states) and also people who handle dead cattle (not banned). When a video of four young people in Gujarat being brutally thrashed for transporting a cow carcass became public, there was a virulent and angry reaction from the Dalit community to which the young people belonged. All right-thinking people also reacted in horror to what was happening in the name of ‘cow protection’. The Una incident was one of many, but it seems to have become the tipping point.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi at an event in Telangana on Sunday, when he slammed the so-called gau rakshaks for the attacks on Dalits. Pic/PTI
But who are these ‘protectors’ of cows? As if we the people of India don’t know that most if not all belong to stridently ‘Hindu’ groups, a good number of those associated with offshoots of the RSS which is the parent organisation of the BJP. The refrain that ‘cow is our mother’ became very loud after the BJP Lok Sabha victory of 2014. Banning beef (selling, storing, eating, looking, sniffing, dreaming) became an issue of national importance. Last year in Uttar Pradesh, a man was murdered by a mob on the mere suspicion that he and his family had eaten beef.
No one wept for Mohammed Akhlaq, however, except evil, liberal, secular, anti-national and anti-cow people because who else is bothered that an innocent man was thrashed to death for nothing, especially if he’s a Muslim?
The prime minister is correct when he says that cows wander about eating plastic and no one cares, certainly not cow ‘protectors’. He is also somewhat correct when he says that anti-social elements have jumped on to this cow protection bandwagon.
But there is a problem here. His own party members are part of these cow protection units. A BJP MLA from Hyderabad supported the thrashing of Dalits in Gujarat. Modi made his “shoot me” statement in Telangana. Perhaps he should have addressed it straight to Raja Singh. And most cow-protection related attacks against Dalits have taken place in BJP-ruled states. Already, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (RSS) and the Hindu Mahasabha (not RSS, but connected) have reacted vehemently to Modi’s statement, saying he should resign if he has forgotten why he was elected.
Where has this concern for Dalit brothers come from, almost a month after Una? If anyone remembers, after the death of Dalit student Rohith Vemula in January this year, many BJP and RSS members reacted with disdain to Dalit pain. And here, a change of heart: “Shoot me, do not shoot my Dalit brothers.” The cynics amongst us know that elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Gujarat are due and the Dalit vote is worth an emotional outpouring of love. As Mayawati, former BJP ally and four-time chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, has asked, why didn’t the prime minister make these remarks in Parliament where other legislators could engage him in discussion? As it happens, we also know the answer to that: discussion is not really encouraged by our prime minister.
There are two rather more disturbing issues with the prime minister’s statements. On August 6 he said he had asked for ‘dossiers’ on these cow protection gangs, though it is unclear how those will help and also that he cannot answer for what happens in every district or municipality. But every part of India is a district or a municipality and Modi is India’s prime minster. Has he no responsibility at all?
The other issue is worse. “Shoot me” means very little in administrative terms, if it means anything at all. What India needs is immediate action by governments and by political parties and politicians against cow vigilante groups. What India needs is a prime minister who takes on that burden for his “Dalit brothers”.
We’re heard the nice speeches. Now we want to see how the legitimate pain and anger of our “Dalit brothers” is addressed by the Union government. For a show of good faith, start with rooting out anti-Dalit cow protectors within the RSS and BJP.
Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist. You can follow her on Twitter @ranjona
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