The Bharatiya Janata Party would like to believe that it has scored an important goal against the Aam Aadmi Party, which is ambitious about raiding the former’s fief in Gujarat. A shrill tirade by the BJP has now scalped the head of Rajendra Pal Gautam, the AAP’s most prominent Dalit ministerial face in the Delhi government. Mr Gautam had participated in a ceremony where an estimated 10,000 people renounced Hinduism in favour of Buddhism by reciting several vows laid down by B.R. Ambedkar. The BJP — it loves stoking controversy — spotted grounds of incitement in the act and, rather gleefully, took the opportunity to project the AAP and its leaders as anti-Hindu. In poll-bound Gujarat, where the AAP has been busy trying to efface the deep electoral imprint of the saffron party, the BJP is already at work projecting Arvind Kejriwal to be adversarial towards the majority community. Divisiveness has proved to be a powerful antidote to anti-incumbency: the BJP, which has been in power for long in Gujarat, would undoubtedly hope to gain from the AAP’s vilification. Mr Gautam’s resignation from the Delhi cabinet also indicates that Mr Kejriwal may have been forced on the back foot. Playing to the majority’s — majoritarian? — gallery, Mr Kejriwal may soon realise, comes with its own costs.

But the slip is showing for the BJP too, albeit on a different shoulder. In recent times, outreach to India’s Dalit community has been a conscious strategy on the part of the BJP. This exercise stems from electoral and ideological necessity. In several states, Dalits form influential vote blocs and the BJP — the UP elections are an example — has been successful in gaining traction among them. The social engineering that has helped the BJP create this footprint is also central to its rhetoric of being a truly representative political force capable of dismantling traditional caste equations. This also explains the periodic attempts by BJP leaders to appropriate Ambedkar’s enlightening vision. But there is often a gap between thought and deed. Sustained violence against Dalits in BJP-ruled states along with their social and economic marginalisation have torpedoed the BJP’s claim of assimilating the disadvantaged community. The BJP’s convenient distancing from Ambedkar’s principles to gain favour with the Hindu majority may extract further collateral damage on its consolidation of Dalits in other states. It is for the BJP’s opponents to take advantage of its double-speak.