Brain Stormer: Crocodile Tears for Dalits

The recent outbursts of politicians of all hue on the flogging of Una Dalits has almost created a history of sort. It is not surprising in this country. Politicians here hardly do and attend to the real problems. However they are always interested to display their sympathy to someone just for sake of political compulsions even if they are remotely connected to the cause of such incidents. This was exactly what happened in Una. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi paid a visit to the families of Dalit victims and promised justice while offering financial support as well. But record says, he has a habit of not following up on the promises.

He has been embarked on a grand outreach mission for quite a few years to sympathise with the people in distress but his critics say it is nothing but a kind of ‘disaster tourism’ which he does only for political compulsion. After a day of Rahul’s visit to Una, Arvind Kejriwal also paid a visit to Dalit victims of cow vigilantism. He accused the Gujarat Government for oppressing the Dalits and demanded compensation and jobs for Dalit victims. And Mayawati, the self-proclaimed Devi of Dalits who has never ever done anything in the past, except making statutes of Ambedkar, Kanshiram and of course her own, suddenly woke up and started hurling charges at the BJP Government in the Centre and in Gujarat.

And it was sad. Really sad. All these leaders were displaying their seasonal sympathy with the Dalit victims. Why they are shedding crocodile tears now? Where were they when thousands of Dalit families who have been engaged in manual scavenging and skinning works for decades? Have they ever thought about rehabilitating them and engaged them in any alternative work? Do they have any plan for their future? It is widely believed and as reality shows, none of these leaders are genuinely interested in working for the upliftment of the Dalits.

By paying high profile political visits, they are just insulting the Dalits and highlighting their pathetic conditions of life and living. Their only agenda is to just defame Prime Minister Modi and bring disgrace to the present NDA Government. Hope Rahul, Kejriwal and Behenji realizes that they need to find an alternative means of livelihood for some of the Dalits who are engaged in inhuman manual scavenging work even as of today. They should be given work that matches human dignity. Cheap populist propaganda and seasonal political moves will never help the Dalits in Una particularly and their community members in general across the country.