Intra-Dalit Fighting in Bihar Takes Toll on NDA's Politics
The strategy of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its alliance partner, the Janata Dal (United) JD(U), to pitch one Dalit caste against the other for sheer political ends has started making an ugly impact in several states, especially Bihar, where it has acquired a violent form too.
Strangely in this poll-bound state, two Union ministers belonging to this section of society, one leading the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) (Chirag Paswan) and the other patronising the Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) (Jitan Ram Manjhi), are locked in a grim battle to finish each other off.
In neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, the BJP’s bid to woo non-Jatav votes has caused a deep rift within the Scheduled Caste community that makes up 21.3% of the state's population. As the Jatavs, the largest Scheduled Caste group, are still inclined towards Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the BJP has left no stone unturned in attracting other, smaller Dalit castes.
Chirag’s ambition
In Bihar, the latest round of bitter squabbling within two Dalit parties started on June 8, when Paswan held a rally in Arrah, a town about 70 kilometres west of Patna. His party, for all practical purposes, projected him as the future chief minister of Bihar.
This was bound to alarm Nitish Kumar’s JD(U), as after the 2020 assembly election, the party accused Chirag of damaging its poll prospects in many seats.
The LJP contested that election independently and many of its candidates were BJP rebels who could not get a ticket from that party. They included senior Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh functionary Rajendra Singh and former legislators Rameshwar Chaurasia and Usha Vidyarthi.
As Paswan himself is interested in contesting the assembly election from the Shahabad region of western Bihar – in which Arrah is located – it is quite natural for the JD(U) to feel uneasy. It was Bikramganj in this very region where Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a public rally on May 30.
As the JD(U) has struggled to come up with a new leader as Nitish ails, Paswan is gradually projecting himself as a likely successor within the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Bihar. The BJP has no mass leader of its own.
Herein lies the crux of the matter. Former chief minister Manjhi was quick to respond to Paswan’s muscle-flexing. He said that he too had organised several big public meetings in the state and that it is those (read Paswan) who have a narrow support base who feel the need to speak loudly.
Not only that, the HAM supremo charged Paswan with manipulating his rallies to make it look like they had bigger turnouts than they actually did. He also said that this is a pressure tactic adopted by the LJP ahead of seat-sharing talks within the NDA.
Independent political observers are of the view that Manjhi was in fact speaking on behalf of a JD(U) that is facing an existential crisis.
It needs to be mentioned that after the death of Chirag’s father and Union food minister Ram Vilas Paswan on October 8, 2020 – that is, just three weeks before the assembly election that year – Manjhi had written a letter to Prime Minister Modi seeking a judicial probe into his death.
An infuriated Chirag had then hit back by stating that Manjhi should be ashamed of himself. If he was so concerned about his father, he should have come to the hospital to inquire about health, which he did not, said Chirag.
Genesis of the tussle
But what is of great concern is that the battle between the two Dalit outfits is not only confined to seat-sharing arrangements within the NDA. Now, it has acquired a serious violent turn.
For example, on September 18 last year, 34 Dalit houses were torched in the outskirts of Nawada town in Bihar. Incidentally, the alleged perpetrators of the crime were Paswans led by one local strongman named Nandu Paswan. The victims were mostly Musahars (Manjhi’s castemen) and some Ravidas.
So, the attackers and those who had suffered were all Dalits. Land grab was said to be the main motive behind this unusual type of clash.
Thus, in some parts of the rural hinterland, it can no more be said that only upper castes and backward castes are responsible for atrocities on Dalits; relatively well off Dalits have also targeted poor Dalits.
The genesis of this intra-Dalit quarrel can be traced back to the early years of Nitish's government. A few months after coming to power in November 2005, the new chief minister constituted the Mahadalit Commission. In those early days when the media was busy praising him sky-high, no journalist questioned this decision.
However, the LJP and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), who were both constituents of the ruling United Progressive Alliance at the Union government level, strongly disapproved of this move of dividing Dalits and weakening their common cause.
Initially, 18 of the 22 SCs of Bihar were categorised as Mahadalits – that is, the poorest among SCs. Only the Dussadhs (Paswans), Ravidas (known as Jatavs in north India), Dhobis (washermen) and Pasis (toddy sellers) were kept out of the list of Mahadalit castes, who were selected for special preferential treatment.
This caused widespread resentment within SCs. After much hue and cry the Nitish government included three other castes – the Pasis, Dhobis and Ravidas – in the Mahadalit list. The Dussadhs remained the only exception.
As if that was not enough, Nitish picked up Manjhi, a relatively little-known figure then, to become chief minister after the JD(U)'s debacle in the May 2014 Lok Sabha election. The chief minister took moral responsibility for this poor showing in which his party could win only two out of 40 seats.
The JD(U) had then contested the election in alliance with the Communist Party of India and not the BJP, as Nitish was dead against Modi being projected as a prime ministerial face.
Then-Union minister and LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan never forgave Nitish for this deliberate decision to divide SCs and isolate his caste. Ram Vilas was the tallest Dussadh leader of the state.
According to Bihar's 2023 caste survey, Dussadhs form 5.31% of the state population, followed among Dalits by the Ravidas (5.25%). The total Dalit population now stands at 19.65%.
While the Dussadhs had a leader in Ram Vilas, the BSP used to win some assembly seats in Ravidas-dominated pockets in districts bordering Uttar Pradesh. But after the decline of Mayawati, Ravidas votes became disintegrated.
The Musahars or Bhuiyans, the caste to which Manjhi belongs, are considered socially, economically and educationally the weakest among SCs. Some still survive by eating rats. They have a substantial population in Bihar, Jharkhand and even Uttar Pradesh. However, the numerically Musahars are not as strong as the Dussadhs and the Ravidas.
Seed of discontent
The seed of discontent sown in Bihar about two decades ago has started bearing fruit at the lowest level of society. The relationship between Chirag and Manjhi is so bad that during elections they do not campaign in constituencies having a substantial population of the rival Dalit sub-caste.
Tragically, the BJP and the JD(U) are also using them as pawns to further their cause.
The situation in Uttar Pradesh is no less alarming, as Dalits have no leader left to espouse their cause. The BJP borrowed from Nitish’s strategy to divide Dalits and did everything to isolate the Jatavs.
Till the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the BJP used to take away a lot of non-Jatav votes. Now the Samajwadi Party-Congress combine has made some inroads into the Dalit vote-bank. This was evident from the victory of Awadesh Prasad, a Dalit Samajwadi Party leader from the non-reserved constituency of Faizabad.
Lessons not learnt
In Bihar, the NDA seems to have learnt no lessons from the 2024 election result in Uttar Pradesh. The supremos of two Dalit constituents are baying for each other’s blood when Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has repeatedly been visiting the state to woo Dalits and the extremely backward classes.
Not only that, the Pasis have openly announced their support to the RJD because of the prohibition policy of Nitish's government. The Pasis and to some extent the Musahars are the worst victims of the liquor ban, as the upper caste men involved in this illegal business are rarely caught and punished thanks to their connections.
What is generally not noticed is that the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, a Grand Alliance constituent which won 12 seats in the 2020 assembly election, has a substantial hold on the Dalit vote.
As Dalit politics was passing through uncertainty came the challenge of sub-categorisation. Many of the numerically strong Dalit castes such as the Dussadhs and the Jatavs in north India and the Mahars and the Malas in the west and south see it with suspicion. Their argument is that this policy would dilute the spirit of reservation and weaken the cause of Dalits in general.
Soroor Ahmed is a freelance journalist based in Patna.
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