Paswan too wants his share of sectarian politics - The Indian Express

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While it was secularism on show during the kick-off of the Golden Jubilee
celebrations of Independence in Mumbai Saturday, the occasion was used by
Railway Minister Ram Vilas Paswan to entrench himself firmly as a player in
Maharashtra's sectarian politics.

The day had begun with reservations being expressed about whether Paswan
would visit Mumbai at all. It ended with him having staged a political coup
of sorts since he could prevail upon Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral to
make an unscheduled visit to Ramabai Ambedkar Nagar, where the statue of B
R Ambedkar had been desecrated and 11 Dalits killed in police firing on
July 11.

The significance of the Ramabai Nagar meeting could not be underscored.
Just two hours before Gujral arrived at the Dalit-dominated colony, he was
sharing the dais with BJP and Shiv Sena leaders like Atal Behari Vajpayee,
Manohar Joshi, Gopinath Munde and Sahib Singh Verma. He ended his Mumbai
visit by stopping to personally hand over cheques of Rs 1 lakh compensation
to the "shaheed" Dalit victims, from a hastily-erected stage which was
surrounded by banners demanding that the Joshi Government be sacked for
the July 11 incident.

It later transpired that while the suggestion for the Prime Minister's
visit had been made earlier, the issue was clinched only at the behest
Paswan. Intelligence officials present on the spot said earlier they too
had expressed reservations about the unscheduled visit to the crowded
locality, but it was at the assurance of the Railway Minister and local
leaders who said they would organise a quiet meeting provided members of
the state Government were kept away - that they agreed.

Thus, while Gujral succeeded in walking the tight-rope and managed the
joint Golden Jubilee celebrations with the BJP-Shiv Sena with only muted
opposition from the Youth Congress and a faction of the Republican Party of
India (RPI), it is Paswan who is now on the offensive.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Paswan said that he would be going ahead
with his plan to rename the Dadar Railway terminus before August 15
notwithstanding the snowballing controversy. "Why can't the name be
changed?" he demanded. "The name of the Victoria Terminus was changed to
Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus wasn't it? The Shiv Sena said they would not
allow me to come to Mumbai but I have been freely roaming in the markets."

However, such rhetoric appears to have already unnerved a section of the
State's Dalit leadership which wanted to get rid of emotional and symbolic
issues. Several Dalit leaders and thinkers feel that Paswan has derailed
their efforts to bring their movement back to Ambedkar's path of agitating
for social and economical justice. Instead, they are now facing an issue
similar to the renaming of a university, which had kept the movement
occupied for almost 12 years. "We had just overcome the fatigue and
frustration of the prolonged movement for renaming and we are once again at
it," said a Dalit leader.

Dalit leaders fear that renaming of the Dadar station will not take place
before the August 15 deadline and that it will only lead to Hindu and
neo-Buddhist polarisation. They even suspect that the Union Minister is
eyeing the neo-Buddhist-dominated north-east Mumbai Parliamentary
constituency since he no longer feels safe in Hajipur, Bihar, after being
openly challenged by former chief minister Laloo Yaday to dare contest from
the constituency. Sources close to Paswan also do not rule out the
possibility of the minister contesting from Mumbai in case of a mid-term
poll. In fact, the RPI was not too keen on joining Friday's morcha in which
Paswan opened the Pandora's box "However, at the last moment and unaware of
Paswan's gameplan, we decided to join in order to keep party politics away
from the larger political struggle of the Ambedkarites "said an RPI leader.
A well-known Dalit thinker blasted Paswan saving that he did not understand
the dynamics of the State's Dalit movement.

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