“We feel that nobody can remove our grievances as well as we can, and we cannot remove them unless we get political power in our own hands.”
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar
India is a democratic country. Indian constitution makes it clear that all citizens in the country are equal before law. Our constitution ensures Universal Adult Franchise to all citizens in elections to the Lok Sabha, the Vidhan Sabha, the three-tier Panchayati Raj Institution, Municipality and Corporation. In Indian constitution every adult citizen irrespective of caste, religion or sex enjoys equal right to vote. But even after 63 years of independence it is a travesty of justice that Dalit communities in a significant number of regions are unable to exercise their right of franchise in a free and fair manner as envisaged in the constitution. Violent strategies are deployed by non-Dalit communities’ vested interests to either prevent Dalits from voting or to force them to vote for candidates against their wish or separate queues. As per the survey done by different organizations, in more than 18% of villages Dalits were prevented to vote, forcing the Dalits to vote their candidates is prevailing in more than 50% of villages, in more than 8% villages practice of separate queues at poling booths is existing and in 18% of villages Dalits are permitted to vote only after dominant castes and also we all know the nature and extent of violence and the threat of violence before, during or after elections.
This pervades elections at all levels – from Loksabha to Panchayats. With the increasing politicization of the Dalit electorate and the awareness of the influence their votes and alliances can have in many constituencies or wards, nervous dominant caste interests have been increasingly becoming violent. This is a serious subversion of constitutional rights and also a criminal offence under the SC & ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
We have powerful constitutional and legal provisions that can be used to protect these rights, but the question is the commitment of state authorities to commit to their constitutional obligations. Article 14 talks about equality before law. It says the State shall not deny to any person equality before law or equal Protection of laws within the territory of India. Article 15 talks about prohibition of discrimination. It says the State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, and place of birth or any of them. Article 19 says all citizens shall have the right to freedom which includes right to vote independently. There is also a specific safeguards contained in section 3 (1) (vii) of the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe (PoA) Act 1989 and 171 (a) to (g) of Indian Penal Code 1860 to protect the rights of marginalized groups namely the Scheduled caste and Scheduled Tribe community.
In spite of all this even today Dalit men and women are the worst sufferers of caste system round the nation which not only perpetuates social hierarchy but also institutionalized discrimination and social exclusion; the key issues are untouchability, susceptibility to physical violence, barriers to participate in decision making process and access to basic services. All these lead to extreme level of marginalization and dehumanization of the Dalit men and women.
But we cannot ignore the fact that the special provisions in the constitution and numerous efforts to access and implement such provisions have definitely resulted in transformation. The most significant result has been enhanced political awareness. Increasing political awareness of the marginalized communities is leading to violent backlashes from the anxious upper caste interests across the political spectrum. At the local level this increasingly manifests in rivalry among caste groups in the run up to elections, in an effort to secure the numbers game. The time tested equations of vote bank politics are being transformed with eloquent Dalit and OBC leaders emerging on the electoral and political scenario. This is also being accompanied by other forms of political mobilization by Brahmanical forces based on Hindutva, using polarization of society along communal lines, employing violence wherever required. The position of Dalit communities is precarious in this dangerous form of politics. We have seen how Dalits have been caught in the political cross fire and violence in Gujarat and Kandhamal. We have seen violence recently in Kandhamal and other parts of Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, we have seen violence instigated by Maharashtra Navanirman Sena, We have seen state-sponsored violence in Nandigram, and we have seen bomb-explosion in Modasa and Malegaon. Every time elections are around the corner we have seen a campaign to divide and polarize the society, with no regard to loss of lives and violation of human rights.
Any analysis of the political structure of India, at present, and any predictions of its future will confirm the place of Dalit politics within it. It is fairly evident that as a marginalized group, the Dalits can no longer be ignored. However, this was not always so. Having faced centuries of oppression, the Dalits (taken here to mean largely the `untouchables' but politicians who coined the term took it to symbolize a wider coalition of the oppressed and disadvantaged), have suddenly found a new voice in the Indian political arena.
The National Dalit Election Watch (NDEW) instituted under the aegis of the National Dalit Movement for Justice, National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights and various Dalit Rights organizations across the country monitored the Lok Sabha General Elections 2009 in which they noted numerous types of violations of Right to Franchise. They recorded 32% cases of threat, intimidation & denial to vote by dominant caste elements; 22% cases prevention of Dalits from casting their vote by political parties; 19.2% cases of exclusion from voters list, not having voter ID etc; 10% of cases of influencing Dalit Voters by money, liquor, transport etc.; 8.8% cases of closing the polling early & non acceptance of other ID proofs; 5.3% of cases of rigging – votes cast by others in the name of Dalit voters; 1.6% cases of threats police & polling agents; 0.6% cases of implication in false cases & detention to Dalit voters.
It is extremely important that in future elections the Dalit movement in India should take cognizance of this precarious situation and take concerted action to ensure that Dalit Communities across the country are enabled to exercise their right of franchise. On the one hand we have seen some political forces appeasing and exploiting the dalit population to enrich its vote-bank, whereas on the other hand we have seen some political forces insinuating and strengthening the Hindu dominant caste population against the dalit population. From both ways the sufferers are the Dalits population who are at the receiving end. Both these forces do not hesitate to unleash violence as a means to establish their supremacy. Therefore, it is expected to climax into more heinous violence and dirty politics in election.
The struggle of the Dalits for justice, for their rightful place in Indian Democracy has reached a decisive stage. It has been a long drawn out movement for equality and dignity, elimination of untouchability from public and private spaces, and slow economic measures through constitutional, legal and policy instruments such as the Reservation Policy, Untouchability Act, SC / ST (Prevention Of Atrocities) Act, and Special Component Plans. Despite Dr. Ambedkar’s untiring efforts, the concept of a separate electorate for the Dalits was never allowed to see the light of the day by the Brahmanical order; but Dalits still struggled with the limited means such as reserved constituencies and also the reservation of seats in Panchayats and local bodies under the 73rd & 74th constitutional amendments. Recently the Women Reservation Bill is passed giving 33% reservation to women, but it would only help to upper caste & politically inherited women. There is no separate quota for SC,ST, OBC or Minority community women.
Today Civil Society Organizations working on Dalit Rights like National Dalit Movement for Justice are witnessing unprecedented levels of political participation by Dalits in many parts of the country, a sea change in the power equations in some states through strategic social and political engineering which has its basis in electoral politics. The time tested equations of vote bank politics are being transformed with eloquent Dalit and OBC leaders emerging on the electoral and political scenario.
But equally powerful are the efforts to undermine the aspirations of the Dalit communities for political participation. Let us remember that the Brahmanical forces are threatened by this increasing aspirations and endeavours of the Dalits and other marginalized communities for political participation. This is bound to and is leading to violent backlashes from the anxious upper caste interests across the political spectrum. At the local level this increasingly manifests in rivalry among caste groups in the run up to elections, in an effort to secure the numbers game. This is also being accompanied by other forms of political mobilization by Brahmanical forces using polarization of society along communal lines, employing violence wherever required. The position of Dalit communities is precarious in this dangerous form of politics.
Even after 63 years of independence it is a travesty of justice that Dalit communities in a significant number of regions are unable to exercise their right of franchise in a free and fair manner as envisaged in the constitution. All this, in spite of the fact that our constitution guarantees equality before law, right of franchise to all citizens regardless of caste, creed, sex or religion; and in spite of the fact that we have excellent provisions against electoral offences in the Representation of the People Act, Cr. P. C. and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act this fallacy of denial of voting rights to Dalit community continues.
The Election Commission of India issued the direction to all Chief Secretaries & Chief Electoral Officers of all States vide letter dated 12th Oct. 2007(No. 464)/INST/2007-PLN –I) written by an officer of CEC to the enjoin all the civil & political officials to take effective and the stringent measures to do vulnerability mapping in the respective areas of their jurisdictions. This letter also makes it a incumbent on the state authorities to take a adequate & the effective preventive measures to insure free exercise franchise by all citizens, particularly those vulnerable to threat, intimidation and the violence, taking cognizance of the ‘role being played by a muscle power in the elections and taking into account of the certain prevailing socio-economic realities of electoral of politics’.
“We, the depressed classes, demand a complete partition between ourselves and the Hindus. We have been called Hindus for political purposes, but we have never been acknowledged socially by the Hindus as their brethren. They have taken to themselves all the political advantage with our numbers, with our voting strength, have given to them, but in return we have received nothing. All that we have received is treatment which is worse than the treatment that they themselves have accorded to other communities whom they do not call Hindus.” Dr. B.R.Ambedkar (Writings & Speeches Volume 2 pp 443)
The Scheduled Caste(SC) have been the historically vulnerable to violence, threats & intimidations during elections as the innumerable cases of atrocities perpetrated on them before and during the elections. It is the common knowledge to those who watch the ground level realities that the SC’s are either prevented from voting or forced to vote for the candidates not of their choice through the violence, threats and intimidation through practices as social & economic boycott at the village level, preventing them from using the village common resources including water, not providing them wage employment in agriculture, and many similar acts of social pressure.
The Right of Franchise is a fundamental right and it is through the exercise of this right that any democracy is sustained and strengthened. The collective efforts to avail the political rights to Dalits is necessary to eliminate a primary obstacle to their political participation and assertion, hope that it would emerge as a significant civil society process that upholds and further strengthens our democracy.
*The Author is Maharashtra State General Secretary of National Dalit Movement for Justice - the part of NCDHR & also is Ph.D. (Law) Student in the University of Mumbai.
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