CHENNAI: For months, the BJP has been attempting to paint the DMK as anti-Dalit and thereby weaken one of its vote bases. Though one has to wait till the elections to find out if the strategy pays off, the BJP has managed to sustain its campaign until now.
The key narrative has been that the DMK only exploits Dalits for their votes by means of tokenism.
It started with the allegations that the office of Murasoli, the DMK's newspaper, is located on panchami land, which belongs to Dalits. Though no evidence has been produced substantiating the claim, the matter has been taken to the National Scheduled Castes Commission and hearings were conducted. Loose talk by a few DMK leaders also helped the BJP in its campaign. One such statement by the party spokesperson RS Bharathi, for which he has apologised, nearly landed him in prison after Chennai police arrested him for the speech.
Former BJP SC Morcha state president Ma Venkatesan says his party took up the campaign because the DMK, is in reality, acting against the interests of Dalits. He says, "The DMK is claiming to be the pioneer of social justice and working for the betterment of Dalits. But they are only brainwashing Dalits. The mentality of most DMK leaders and cadre is anti-Dalit. They only consider them fit to be low-profile."
The BJP has also recently appointed L Murugan, who hails from the Dalit community, as president of the party's Tamil Nadu unit. Soon after his appointment, posters in Chennai with photos of Murugan and Prime Minister Narendra Modi proclaimed, "This is real social justice." Incidentally, Murugan was the vice-chairman of the National Scheduled Castes Commission when the Murasoli case was taken up by the commission.
Even as the DMK's IT wing was carrying out a strong counter campaign, loose comments by some DMK leaders, like Dayanidhi Maran, worked against their case. While the DMK leaders later apologised and said their intentions were misconstrued, even the party's ally VCK expressed concerns over the statements. A few cases were also filed before the National Commission for Scheduled Castes & Tribes on such statements which helped keep the issue alive.
Venkatesan says the party's aim is to show people the "original face" of DMK and each district unit has been given a target to reach at least 10,000 persons.
Speaking to The New Indian Express, DMK SC wing secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Anthiyur Selvaraj said that the BJP is trying to exploit a few slips of the tongue by DMK leaders. "It is the DMK which has done a lot for the welfare of Dalits. In other parties, Dalits are given postings only in Dalit wings. But that's not the case in the DMK. The BJP has appointed a Dalit as president in Tamil Nadu, where the party has not much political presence. In how many other states do they have Dalits as state presidents?" he says.
VP Duraisamy, former deputy general secretary of the DMK who recently joined the BJP, counters this argument saying the Narendra Modi-led government in the Centre has done many things for Dalits, including releasing of stamps and coins commemorating Dr BR Ambedkar. "The BJP government bought the house where Ambedkar stayed in London and converted it into an accomodation for Indian Dalit students in London."
Activists from the Dalit community say the BJP's campaign to paint DMK as anti-Dalit is yet to have enough impact to drive Dalits away from the party or to help the BJP.
Activist and director of Evidence A Kathir told The New Indian Express, "We cannot accept the statements of the DMK leader (which were derogatory towards Dalits). At the same time, we cannot brush aside what the party has done for the community. The DMK has been in the forefront of ensuring reservation for the suppressed communities. But the DMK leaders must be more responsible with their words." He said the BJP has not come forward to help when Dalits faced several issues.
Durai Guna, an activist and writer, says, "Both the Dravidian parties have given Rajya Sabha tickets to Dalits while other parties, including the BJP, usually confine Dalits to reserved constituencies." While the BJP has of late never missed a chance to brand the DMK as anti-Dalit, it remained silent when the DMK was recently being criticised for not speaking out against the acquittal of the key accused in the Udumalpet honour killing case of Dalit youth Shankar.
The DMK was accused of not speaking out on the case since that might antagonise the intermediate caste groups and thereby letting down the Dalit community on such a serious issue. After a three-day delay, DMK president MK Stalin commented on the issue supporting an appeal against the Madras high court order. However, the BJP has so far not commented on the case.