Rahul Gandhi on Sunday said many Indians don’t consider Dalits, Muslims and tribals to be human, articulating concern about the foremost structural problem of Indian society without mincing words or playing safe.
“The shameful truth is many Indians don’t consider Dalits, Muslims and Tribals to be human. The (Uttar Pradesh) Chief Minister & his police say no one was raped because for them, and many other Indians, she was NO ONE,” the Congress leader tweeted, commenting on a BBC report about attempts to deny rape of the Dalit girl in Hathras in spite of her dying declaration.
Few leaders in recent decades have addressed the evils of caste and religious hatred in such stark terms after the stalwarts of the freedom struggle gave a Constitution that guaranteed equality of every citizen.
B.R. Ambedkar, who not only drafted the Constitution but forced the Congress leadership to adopt social justice as a critical responsibility, wrote: “No society (except India’s) has an official gradation laid down, fixed and permanent, with an ascending scale of reverence and a descending scale of contempt.”
Although a national consensus exists — if only in words, not deed — about the immorality of inflicting atrocities on Dalits and tribal people, this concept of social justice does not cover Muslims.
After an agonising period in which the minority community has suffered the worst hate attacks, including a spiral of lynchings, with barely an acknowledgement from the government, Rahul has told it like it is — without caring for the impact this might have in the Bihar elections this month or that in Uttar Pradesh next year.
The capacity of the RSS-BJP to hijack the national discourse had terrorised the secular parties, including the Congress, so badly that they became wary of forcefully protesting against the persecution of Muslims.
Although a tweet by itself means little, what Rahul said stands out because no other leader from a mainstream party has formally recorded this sentiment with such clarity.
While atrocities against Dalits have become more pronounced under the Narendra Modi regime, the BJP has succeeded to a large extent in winning the support of Dalits and tribals over the past two decades. The RSS-BJP, which has completely ignored the lynching of Muslims, has often tried to assuage the feelings of Dalits because of electoral compulsions.
Some Congress leaders were not very comfortable with Rahul’s blunt tweet. One of them told The Telegraph: “It is wrong to lay emphasis on Muslims as Rahul has always stood by the oppressed group. That has been his politics; he fights for the poor, the marginalised and the historically oppressed. He fights for equality and justice.”
The Congress took a stand against CAA-NRC but moved very cautiously on the Ayodhya verdict and the foundation-laying ceremony of Ram temple. If Rahul sincerely decides to execute the spirit behind his tweet, he will have to demonstrate his intent through an action plan.
