The Varnas that were defined on the basis of skills secured and deeds performed by a person in the Vedic days have been denigrated into a birth based system today. But what is more appalling than the rigidity of the caste system itself is the fact that caste today is a concubine at the hands of political conspirators!
It all started on July 11th in a small town called Una, in Gujarat, when the video of few men being beaten by an alleged vigilante of Gau Rakshak team went viral, the media was quick to milk the event and declared that the whole state of Gujarat and all the people of Gujarat were atrocious towards the Dalits and that the Anandiben Government was insensitive to the cause of Dalits, even when the police had sprang into action and already made arrests of 9 culprits responsible for the incident. What followed was a furore in the parliament with chest beating members of Congress, BSP, SP, JDS jumping into the well and stalling the house demanding answers from PM Narendra Modi.
The Home minister Rajnath Singh was quick to condemn the Una incident and also reiterated that the situation was under control as the state government had acted swiftly.
The investigation is still on and we do not know whether it was cow protection vigilantism or imposters of Congress/AAP who are making hay in the sunny secular debates but in spite of the matter being probed the media has blown this issue out of proportions. And the secular tourisms of polity and hypothecated humanity have already taken flight! What is even more intriguing is that the perpetrators had come to Una from Daman, 700 kms all the way to brutalize the poor Dalits, also the video that went viral was from a Telugu channel, whatever this channel was doing in Gujarat but Una is a Congress stronghold and a perfect platform to set the stage for the upcoming 2017 assembly elections. Amusingly as per an Indian Express report 2 Muslim boys were among the arrested who had flogged the Dalit family members in Una, since when did the Muslim community take up the cause of cow protection?
The evangelical missionaries in Gujarat fret about the anti-conversion laws strictly prevalent in the land and with strict anti-terror operations in place and an overwhelmingly successful 3 stints of BJP rule at their initiatives in development and growth has left the opposition parties like the Congress and their debutant wings clueless about how to drive a wedge into this strong bastion of BJP. But then how can the secularists castigate away caste so easily? It is their bread and butter in their time tested virtues of blood and bleater. The very concept of beef eating in India was started by the Moghuls to denigrate and belittle the Hindu religious sentiments to showcase the message of their power and reigning upmanship. It has worked in the past and with gullible people it will work in future as well. While BJP is focusing on newer states testing new waters to spread its wings, the opposition is leaving no stone unturned in its efforts to check the pulse of the people to ascertain if the bastion is still a strong rigid undeterred voter base or can they yield a gullible vote bank in the absence of Modi’s enigmatic, larger than life image. The Patidar agitation and the Patel political panache for begetting reservation quota for a well to do Patel community was one such experiment!
When the world is moving forward advancing in development and growth, the backward brotherhood Rahul and Kejriwal are inspiring our youth to call themselves backward and have deployed their political theatrics for public sympathy with the re admission of patients at the hospitals for a photo shoot with the Rahul Gandhi and the melodramatics by master blaster Kejriwal is clear enough that the whole Anti-Dalit pitch is staged and played out for public consumption.
But it is for general public to grow beyond caste and beef politics to stop and understand why a Mayawati does not enter Kerala and pitch a Dalit card or why a Jayalalitha does not interfere in the lawless state of Punjab or Karnataka’s affair? It is because they do not have expansionist political dreams and are clear that their party is not going for a poll in an upcoming election in other states!
Yes, it is brutal, highly condemnable and utterly inhuman to be assaulting people from weaker sections and it is for the law of the land to protect and uphold the socio economic status of these vulnerable sects whether Dalit or otherwise but alas it is the same weaker sections who have been used as cannon fodder in the political markets of caste and communal bigotry!
The cow that was skinned dead or alive may not be as glorious as Shaktiman the horse, the Kerala Dalit girl’s rape was lost in the doldrums of secular politics or perhaps it was too less horrific for the women’s commission to even raise their voice or light candles or perhaps there was no GST bill to be stalled! But the marauders of equality will masquerade themselves in moulds of political correctness and scream their lungs out about the growing inequality!
Yes, with its diversity India struggles for its unity with its caste and linguistic polarizations but which country is perfectly just and equal? Even America is just recovering from its racist conundrums and Europe was and is plagued with divisions amongst people into honourable and dishonourable professions. If one looks carefully, even BREXIT is a social oppression on its fellow nations. Every other religion has its sects and multiple sub sects that often pit against each other, every other country has its set of social problems but it is just that the Indian caste system is held out as a mascot of injustice across the world to hide their own flaws.
Invasions and vile attributions are not new to Gujarat and each time it has fallen it has sprung back with more vibrancy! But then little cracks have the potential to eventually break the pot, the real issue is never the cow or its cowboys, the Dalit or its disillusions, it is and has always been the power struggles and disruptive equations that the BJP should reject and nip it in the bud outright instead of naively conceding to non-state, non-existent problems like Una!