Dalits take centrestage in Bihar's poll year
NALIN VERMA
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, flanked by his deputy Sushil Kumar
Modi (left) and PWD minister Chedi Paswan, at the maha-Dalit rally in
Patna on Sunday. Picture by Deepak Kumar
Patna, April 4: The Dalits have apparently become the flavour of the
poll season in Bihar.
A day after LJP boss Ram Vilas Paswan organised his Dalit Sena rally,
the NDA convened a maha-Dalit rally here today. Chief minister Nitish
Kumar dwelt at length on the special measures that his government had
initiated to uplift the maha-Dalits (lowly among the Dalits).
The measures include constitution of the Mahadalit Commission to
identify the lowly among the Dalits and take up schemes to provide
them with house, work, food, education besides financial assistance.
NDA strategists believe that Nitish's maha-Dalit mantra has paid off
handsomely for the party with the "special measures" for them drawing
a large section of the Dalit communities towards the ruling
combination.
Initially, there were only 22 sub-castes of the Dalits were included
in the maha-Dalit bracket. Later, the government included all the
Dalit castes except the Paswans in the maha-Dalit bracket. Ram Vilas
also belongs to the militant Paswan community and as such its
exclusion provided him with the weapon to attack the Nitish government
for "dividing" the Dalit community for political gains.
Nitish, however, announced that he was equally concerned for the
Paswans and his government would bring out schemes to improve the lot
of the community.
The differences within the JD(U) also came to the fore at the
maha-Dalit rally, as its president Sharad Yadav failed to attend
despite his name finding a place among the speakers.
Differences between the two leaders came to the fore over the women's
bill with Sharad opposing it in its current form and Nitish supporting
it.
But the differences on the women's bill issue appears to be taking a
bigger dimension with Sharad trying to emerge as the centre of a few
dissident MPs led by the ousted state JD(U) chief Lallan Singh.
However, Nitish still appears to have a stronger grip over the
parliamentary party, too, as all the five MPs present in the Rajya
Sabha at the time of voting on the women's bill voted in favour of the
bill despite Sharad opposing it.
Today also, almost all senior JD(U) and BJP leaders, including deputy
chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, participated in the maha-Dalit
rally.
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