April 2 was the darkest day in her life, said Priyanka Rajoria, a 23-year-old Dalit woman in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh. That was the day she lost her husband Vimal Prakash after the police and some upper caste men allegedly fired upon Dalit protestors who participated in a rally during a day-long nationwide strike called by Dalit organisations. The strike was to protest against the Supreme Court’s dilution of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act the previous month. The violence that day led to the deaths of at least three people in Gwalior district alone.
At that time, Rajoria and Prakash had been married for just about a year. After his death, Rajoria’s in-laws shunned her so she moved into her parental home in Gautam Nagar, a Dalit neighbourhood in Gwalior. Rajoria says she has not yet got justice, and holds the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP government responsible for it.
The April 2 violence is also etched on the minds of other residents of the neighbourhood. “Not only the cops, even upper caste men were firing upon us,” said Ram Avtar, another resident. “If the government does not change, it will embolden the upper caste men who will take revenge. The onus is on Dalits to ensure no one votes for BJP like we did in the past.”
A few days before the Assembly elections on Wednesday, several testimonies from this neighbourhood provided a glimpse into the simmering caste tension in this town. Many have likened this tension to a dormant volcano waiting to erupt. It is no wonder then that caste is expected to play a major role in the elections.
‘No justice for Dalits’
Gwalior district has six Assembly seats. In the 2013 elections, the BJP won four of them, and the Congress two. According to the 2011 Census, the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe population in Gwalior district is approximately 22%, which is significant. No party therefore wants to alienate this votebank that can help swing votes either way. But given the sizeable presence of Thakurs and Brahmins and Other Backward Classes in the area too, both the Congress and ruling BJP have played safe, avoiding openly supporting any one community to ensure they do not alienate any group.
Sitting in her parental home last week, Rajoria accused the Chouhan government of being insensitive towards Dalits. “I did not get justice because of my caste,” she said. “Dalit lives do not matter.” She added that she would never vote for the party that she holds responsible for the death of her husband.
She compared her ordeal with that of Kalpana Tiwari, the wife of Apple executive Vivek Tiwari who was shot dead in September by policemen in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh that is also ruled by the BJP. Tiwari belonged to the Brahmin community. “There was such a hue and cry over his death with ministers visiting his house to meet his widow,” said Rajoria. “They gave his wife a job and a compensation of Rs 25 lakh while no one cared to even talk about us. The policeman who fired upon him [Vivek Tiwari] was suspended while the killers of my husband are roaming free waiting for their next kill.”
Rajoria became emotional when she narrated that she was not even allowed to see Prakash’s face one last time. “He loved me more than anything,” she said, tears rolling down her face. “The day he died, they cremated him without even informing us. Only his father was allowed to see him. I did not even get a chance to say goodbye to the man whom I loved so much.”
She also drew comparisons with last year’s incident in which six farmers were killed in police firing in Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh, and pointed out that the family members of the dead farmers were also provided with jobs and Rs 1 crore as compensation. “The government gave us Rs 4 lakh and that too is with my in-laws who no longer want me around,” she said.
In neighbouring Bhim Nagar, 18-year-old Kajal Tamodia is still trying to come to terms with the death of her father in the April 2 violence. “He just went out and later we came to know he is dead,” said Tamodia. “Since his death, my mother has not been her usual self. Though she has overburdened herself with work, I know there is not even a day when she does not miss him.”
Tamodia’s mother earns a living as a domestic worker. “We have such a shortage of money that my family is planning to get me married with Buddhist traditions,” she said. “I do not want to get married but she insists that we should use the compensation money before it is spent on other things. I wanted to study more.”
Shift in Dalit vote?
Over several elections in Gwalior region’s six Assembly seats, the top two positions have usually been bagged by the Congress and BJP, with the Bahujan Samaj Party taking third place because of the support from the area’s sizeable Dalit population. But now, there seems to be a shift in thinking among members of the community.
Local resident Ram Avtar said the events of April 2 have raised political consciousness amongst Dalits in the area who no longer think that voting for Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party is a smart strategy.
Suraj Banoriya of Bhim Nagar agreed. “What Behenji did was wrong,” he said, referring to Mayawati’s decision last month not to ally with the Congress. “She should have had an alliance with the Congress if the sole motive is to defeat the BJP. Ninety-eight per cent of Dalits in this neighbourhood will vote for the Congress.”
However, a Bahujan Samaj Party supporter, who is employed with the government and did not want to be identified, said that Dalits in the area stand with the Bahujan Samaj Party as both the Congress and BJP are upper caste parties who have never worked for the welfare of Dalits. “If Congress had done enough for Dalits, why did Kanshi Ram feel the need to create the BSP [Bahujan Samaj Party]?” he asked. “We [BSP] will be the kingmaker in these elections and win from at least three seats from Gwalior.”
Both Bhim Nagar and Gautam Nagar are part of the Gwalior (East) Assembly constituency, which was created in 2008. In 2013, the BJP’s Maya Singh beat the Congress’ Munna Lal Goyal by a slim margin of 1,147 votes. Sensing the lower caste consolidation against Singh, the BJP has replaced her with Satish Sikarwar for Wednesday’s elections. Goyal remains the Congress candidate.
Caste tensions
The tension between Dalits and upper castes in this region can be seen in the different versions of events members of both communities offer outsiders about the April 2 violence. It is also evident in the resentment seen among several members of the upper castes about reservations in government jobs and educational institutions for Dalits, Adivasis and the Other Backward Classes.
According to members of the upper castes, a mob comprising Dalits entered their houses on April 2 and began to beat up children and women mercilessly. This is what forced them to retaliate, they say. “They were carrying weapons and something needed to be done to show them their place,” said Amit Dubey, the Gwalior (East) candidate for the Samanya Pichhara Alpsankhyak Kalyan Samaj or Sapaks, a new political outfit that claims to have the support of upper caste, Other Backward Classes and minority voters in Madhya Pradesh. The party was floated in October and is expected to play spoiler for the BJP by eating into its upper caste votes.
When asked why the police failed to recover any weapons from the protestors or how none of the upper caste men were injured, Dubey blamed the media, saying it is biased in favour of Dalits. Quoting BR Ambedkar, Dubey said the leader had said that reservations should end when power is shared with Dalits. “Now you have a Dalit president, what else do they want?” he said. “The idea is to finish this Dalit mentality. Why should Ram Vilas Paswan continue to contest from a reserved seat when he has been minister in several governments?”
Dubey spoke of growing unemployment, and blamed this on the reservation system, and the state government’s reservation in promotion policy. This was a common refrain among several other residents of Gwalior district.
In Jiwaji University, upper caste students talked about ending reservations and claimed that most of the jobs available are cornered by members of the lower castes. “The government should pay attention towards general category students as well,” said 22-year-old Ashu Mishra. “Reservations should be based on economic conditions and not caste. We are not getting any jobs but the lower castes seem to be enjoying the perks of reservation. It should end.”
Even some journalists in Gwalior seem to support the upper caste narrative. “These men [Dalits] created a ruckus and began beating children,” said a crime reporter with a Hindi newspaper who said he has never met any family members of those killed on April 2. “All that upper caste did was retaliate.”
Dubey compared the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act – which protects marginalised communities from caste-related atrocities – to a blister. He said the day it bursts, there will be riots worse that those seen during Partition. “In some areas, their people are powerful and in some area ours,” he said. “If the government doesn’t address this soon, it is going to get very ugly.”