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Dalits scoff at CPM support pledge
Prominent Dalit organisations and intellectuals in Kerala are refusing to see the support the CPI(M) has pledged to the community in its draft political resolution as genuine.
Most Dalit bodies are viewing the “newfound love for Dalits” (as an intellectual puts it) of the Marxists as hypocritical posturing to stem the rapid loss of support, particularly in light of the party’s traditional support base of working and middle class leaving it in the lurch.
One such claim made in the draft political resolution of the party which will be presented at its conclave in Kozhikode goes: “The fight against untouchability and caste oppression of Dalits has to be actively taken up by the party.” But a prominent Dalit intellectual asked, “What were the Marxists doing all these decades? Is it that they came to know of the oppression of Dalits only now?”
A leader of the Sadhujana Vimochana Samyuktha Vedi, a Dalit forum which had spearheaded a four-year-long, arduous agitation for being granted land to live on when the CPI(M)-led LDF was in power in Kerala, said the “Marxist masters” had even threatened to send police with teeth and claw to quell the struggle. “They are now asking us to trust them,” he said.
Pointing out that the draft resolution of the CPI(M) had identified “landlessness and denial of access to water supply, public roads and other services” as factors that affected Dalits’ lives”, the Dalit leader said the party was perhaps for the first time understanding why it had lost West Bengal to Mamata and Maoists”.
“As far as we are concerned, there is no difference between the CPI(M) and the Congress-led Government in the Centre. Their approach to us - and also the Adivasis - is the same in Kerala as well as at the national level. The Marxists are now worried because we are beginning to identify our inner strength, which is detrimental to their interests,” he said.
Dalit leaders say that the CPI(M) has still not understood the value of identity politics.
Prominent Dalit organisations and intellectuals in Kerala are refusing to see the support the CPI(M) has pledged to the community in its draft political resolution as genuine.
Most Dalit bodies are viewing the “newfound love for Dalits” (as an intellectual puts it) of the Marxists as hypocritical posturing to stem the rapid loss of support, particularly in light of the party’s traditional support base of working and middle class leaving it in the lurch.
One such claim made in the draft political resolution of the party which will be presented at its conclave in Kozhikode goes: “The fight against untouchability and caste oppression of Dalits has to be actively taken up by the party.” But a prominent Dalit intellectual asked, “What were the Marxists doing all these decades? Is it that they came to know of the oppression of Dalits only now?”
A leader of the Sadhujana Vimochana Samyuktha Vedi, a Dalit forum which had spearheaded a four-year-long, arduous agitation for being granted land to live on when the CPI(M)-led LDF was in power in Kerala, said the “Marxist masters” had even threatened to send police with teeth and claw to quell the struggle. “They are now asking us to trust them,” he said.
Pointing out that the draft resolution of the CPI(M) had identified “landlessness and denial of access to water supply, public roads and other services” as factors that affected Dalits’ lives”, the Dalit leader said the party was perhaps for the first time understanding why it had lost West Bengal to Mamata and Maoists”.
“As far as we are concerned, there is no difference between the CPI(M) and the Congress-led Government in the Centre. Their approach to us - and also the Adivasis - is the same in Kerala as well as at the national level. The Marxists are now worried because we are beginning to identify our inner strength, which is detrimental to their interests,” he said.
Dalit leaders say that the CPI(M) has still not understood the value of identity politics.
