- Monday, May 06, 2024
The Bahujan Samaj Party has broken its alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal and is contesting alone in all 13 constituencies of Punjab in the June 1 election.
By: Twinkle Roy
HIS is one of India’s major political parties which claims to represent the people at the lowest levels of the Hindu social system, religious and social minorities and people who belong to the Dalit community, the lowest stratum of the Hindu society — who were earlier called untouchables.
However, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which implies a party of rainbow coalition, has failed to deliver results in the past few elections — be it at the national level or in states such as Uttar Pradesh, where it has been a major force, or Punjab, where it has tried to make an impact. The party’s chief in Punjab, Jasvir Singh Garhi, has not lost hope and is leading again the party to do well in the state in this year’s parliamentary elections.
In Punjab which has a substantial Dalit population, the BSP is contesting the election alone this time, unlike in the state polls in 2022 when it joined hands with Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), one of the major players in the state, to capitalise on Dalit-Sikh votebank. However, the results were disappointing for both allies as the BSP could win only one seat as against the SAD’s three.
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This year, the BSP has decided to contest the polls in Punjab alone. However, SAD supremo and former Punjab chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal remarked in March that an alliance with the BSP was still in place. When India Weekly asked Garhi about the state of the alliance, he said a meeting was held on February 13 under the instructions of BSP chief Mayawati and it was decided unanimously that the alliance with the SAD will be ended for the sake of the farmers’ interests.
He said they were aware of the statement made by India’s home minister Amit Shah that the latter’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was in talks for making an alliance with the SAD. The BSP, he added, was also aware of statements made by former Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh, who joined the BJP after leaving the Indian National Congress in 2022, that seat-sharing negotiations were underway with the SAD.
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“Based on these statements, we broke the alliance (with SAD) on February 13. On February 14, lovers meet. We decided to break up,” he told India Weekly.
The SAD was one of the oldest allies of the BJP in the latter’s National Democratic Alliance which parted ways in 2020 on the issue of contentious farm bills passed by the Modi government in parliament.
Speaking about the BSP’s mission to contest alone in all 13 seats of Punjab that go to polling on June 1, Garhi said this election is very important since there have been claims that this election will be the last in India and the Constitution will be changed (this is something that the critics of prime minister Narendra Modi and his BJP have been claiming).
“The BSP will initiate its work with the slogan of “Samvidhaan Bachao” (save the Constitution) to protect the Constitution and to raise public awareness about the Constitution and its significance. “Samvidhaan ke samman mein, BSP maidaan mein” (BSP on the streets to save the Constitution) will be echoed throughout the campaigning in Punjab,” he said.
On the claims that the 2024 election could be the last in India if Modi’s BJP wins, Garhi cited the controversial remarks made by former BJP parliamentarian from the southern state of Karnataka that the Hindu nationalist party requires to win 400 seats in the parliament in this election to change the Constitution and ‘save’ the Hindu religion.
The BJP, however, distanced itself from Anantkumar Hegde, the six-time MP, over his statements and even denied him a ticket to contest the election.
“Anant Hegde, an influential member of the BJP, issued a statement. We are also hearing remarks from BJP politicians that we want 400-paar seats so that we can change the Constitution. What would have been a conversation behind closed doors once is now out in the open, thanks to social media,” he said.
Mallikarjun Kharge, chief of India’s main opposition Indian National Congress, has also made the remarks in this election season that if Modi’s BJP wins two-thirds majority in the parliament, the Constitution will be changed and there will be no democracy left in the country.
When India Weekly asked Garhi about his recent remarks that the BSP would bust identities of the pseudo-Dalits in the upcoming elections, he said it is his party which focuses particularly on people who have been oppressed for centuries such as the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Backward Castes (BCs).
“The SC population in Punjab is nearly 35 per cent. When the 2011 National Census took place, it was nearly 32 per cent. When you study the community’s decade-wise growth from the Census data since 1871, you will notice that it is more than 20 per cent. So, working for the SC and saving Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar’s Constitution are parallel and synonymous in India. Justice for them is justice for the Constitution.
“Every party has a central vote bank. The Congress and BJP consider Brahman and Baniya population the foundation of their vote bank. The SAD considers the Jats as the foundation of their base. The BSP, likewise, focuses particularly on the ones who have been oppressed for centuries — SCs and BCs. We work on behalf of the distraught, the poor and the oppressed, even if they are from the general-caste category,” the leader said.
Explaining whether Dalits in Punjab are represented properly, Garhi, who was a government employee before becoming the BSP’s Punjab chief in 2019, said his party had taken a firm decision to stand against feudalism and casteism in the state after government data showed that the state’s SCs and OBCs (Other Backward Classes) made up 15 million impoverished citizens of the state.
“The socio-economic stance of ours proved to be so influential that Dalits became the focal point of Punjab politics. Our voice was so amplified to the SCs that they began to feel empowered and as a result, every party had to accommodate the SCs in their purview. Parties such as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), SAD and the Congress prioritised having chief ministers or deputy chief ministers from the SC community. If our voice could reach the SCs during the Covid-19 crisis and the farmers’ protest, no crisis can deter us now and our voices will reach them even louder this time,” he told the publication.
According to Garhi, parties such as the Congress and AAP have insulted the SC community in Punjab. He alleged that the Congress had held its chief minister from the community responsible after losing the last state elections. He also accused the AAP of denigrating officials with SC backgrounds by saying they are not suitable to run the administration efficiently. Garhi said his party protested against it on the streets for months and added that biggest demand of the SC community is respect.
India Weekly asked Garhi about the BSP’s strongholds in Punjab in this election and he said while they could not win many seats, the number of voters who backed the party was not too less.
“In the last general elections, we contested three seats in Punjab. In Jalandhar, we secured 250,000 votes; in Hoshiarpur, we received 103,000 votes and in Shri Anandpur Sahib, we had 145,000 votes. The fight was three-cornered last year but will be a multi-cornered one this time. Take the example of Sangrur and Patiala where we have fielded SC candidates who will be contesting against opponents from the general category.
“Each of these constituencies have 250,000-300,000 voters. In Ferozepur, too, where there are 300,000 registered voters, we have fielded an OBC candidate. In Anandpur Sahib, also, we are trying to field an SC candidate. Our ultimate goal is to get maximum support, whatever it takes,” he said.
Garhi was also asked about the prospects of the BSP in Uttar Pradesh, a state it has ruled in the past but where it failed to do well in the past two general elections, hurting its own cause in national politics.
Is the party eyeing a revival in Uttar Pradesh this time?
Garhi said, “In the 2014 national elections, BSP’s results were duck, meaning 0. But, we secured 25 million votes. In the 2019 elections, we won 22.5 million votes and 10 members. Currently, based on the number of votes, the BSP is the third-largest party in the nation. This despite our voters being the oppressed, who do not have land ownership, economic sources, allowances, petrol pumps, factories or industries.
“The BSP, which has had its origin in the mid 1980s, has been on the front for many decades now and this year, we will be contesting the elections alone. If you see closely, the opposition INDIA bloc is giving the same statement that the BSP had done once. It talked about the OBC community and their representation, had surrounded and subverted the parliament around the Mandal Commission in 1989, conducted huge rallies and today, the Congress is using the same strategy and the same slogans.
“Even PM Modi is saying that he is a backward caste member. So every party that was once chanting slogans of “Jai Shree Ram” and “Vande Mataram”, they are using the pictures of Bhimrao Ambedkar and greeting people with “Jai Bhim”. Instead of Mahatma Gandhi, they are now bowing to the feet of Babasaheb. Whatever the political realism is at this moment, we are happy that our ideology is progressing through other parties who are picking our core agenda, our slogans. It is a moral win for us already. Political win is yet to be achieved and we will achieve that too, very soon.”
