Chandrashekhar alias Ravan held a roadshow in Varanasi, the Lok Sabha constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and declared that he would be contesting against the latter. Chandrashekhar had shot into limelight after he led protests in Saharanpur and some other western UP districts following the killing of two members of the SC community in clashes with the powerful ‘Thakur’ community members.
The man who has united his community people against atrocities, who claims to be Ravan for those demons that are hiding beneath the mask of Rama by changing the narrative of today’s Ramrajya, is all set to play a crucial role in the 2019 elections. Chandrashekhar Ravan asked each and every Dalit in this country to throw out the BJP government in 2019. He is ready to support whoever is willing to do so. BJP is known to be a party of upper castes; since Modi came to power, there were raising incidences of atrocities against Dalits. He was imprisoned for a year on controversial charges of jeopardising national security, has been freed just in time to challenge the Dalit powerhouse status of Mayawati and others. Mayawati’s enrolment in an anti-BJP league is the key to whether the opposition will have any luck in stopping PM Modi from a second consecutive term. Akhilesh Yadav, another youth leader of Uttar Pradesh has expressed his willingness to give her pride of place in a partnership in Uttar Pradesh to block the PM from racking up a big score in India’s most crucial state — it elects 80 members to the Lok Sabha. Mainstream Dalit leaders like Ramdas Athawale and Ramvilas Paswan have repeatedly betrayed the community by compromising with feudal and communal forces to stay in power.
Mayawati also failed to meet Dalit aspirations despite being a four-time Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. Today, they should be nervous of the Bhim Army which is making the older Dalit parties look increasingly irrelevant and out of touch with the aspirations of gen-next. Ravan feels Dalit needs justice, but UP has been ruled by the Dalit CM — Dalit mobilisation happened long ago. These days, it is time to stop the overreach. BSP leader Mayawati made every effort to counter the growing influence of Bhim Army by mobilising her party cadre in the region. Congress President Rahul Gandhi had his agenda and all set to try his luck again in UP. Though the Congress, SP, BSP all are against BJP whereas Ravan too has the same agenda but not happy with the rest of the three parties for not doing much for Dalits.
This new brigade of Bhim Sena that is said to be funded by some prominent Muslim leaders to divide Hindus is too much at decisive politics these days. Earlier it was always Hindu vs Muslim politics in India, where the political parties used to get the benefit by polarising the Muslim votes and used them as a vote bank. However, in the recent past, these parties have realised that the strategy actually started backfiring when Hindus too started voting united and obviously they are the majority of the population. So, as a new strategy, these political forces and Muslims are trying to play it smart by funding organisations like “Bhim Sena” which emerged from nowhere, to fight against the Hindu upper caste, so the entire battle can be settled on the caste politics. The intent is to divide the majority population on the basis of caste and unite the Muslim, other minority votes with Dalits and backward castes as they’ve realised that they won’t exist politically if Hindus start voting united.
Chandrashekhar titled himself as “Ravan”. He kept such title to demean Lord Rama who is worshipped by the majority and known as Maryada Purushottam but while glorifying Ravan, they forget that Ravan was actually a Brahmin and a literate one. Well! The one who is not worshiped by the majority becomes minority and Dalit’s political tool. So far, the Dalit politics had nothing to do with Dalit welfare, education, or rights but only interested in keeping them a so-called deprived community to bake politics. Some Dalit should actually question their Messiahs in politics, what is their contribution towards own community’s betterment and how much they earned for themselves in the name of ‘Dalit’ and ‘Bhimrao’? They have not spared a legend that has shown them a right path to live with self-respect and dignity, by mortgaging their loyalties to politics than the community itself. If Dalit leaders and their Politics could really change the fate of Dalits in India, trust me, today they wouldn’t have been on roads, protesting against the so-called upper castes. Meanwhile, no Dalit wants to be at par on merit basis with others in spite of being given all the facilities and reservations and the reason is that their political motive will come to an end.
Atrocities against Dalits have given them the topic to chew their vote bank sentiments. Why don’t they ever come aggressive or harsh educating their people about their rights? Why these Dalit leaders for their own advantage get sheltered under BJP-like parties? There are many Dalit leaders who are part of BJP/RSS wings; they have mortgaged their integrity by refuting Babasaheb’s preaching. The need of the hour is that the Dalit should fight against the Dalit leaders and bureaucrats who failed to serve their own community and serving the Brahmanical administration. Their fight should be against those people who sabotaged community, their fight should be against those leaders who took their votes but could not make much difference to their lives. Perhaps, this modern Ravan may stand up to the expiations. In future elections, he and his generation young aspirants in politics may play a crucial role against BJP and PM Modi. Let’s see whether they can collectively defeat the single powerhouse Modi or not!
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