There are elements of truth in criticisms of unity between Dalit, OBC and all minorities.
It is true that Ram Vilas Paswan, Kanshi Ram and Mayawati have vociferously spoken against communalism. At the same time, it is also true that Mayawati shamelessly went to Gujarat in support of Modi. And Kanshi Ram never distanced himself from- Mayawati statement. Paswan supported the NDA Govt. until he was marginalized It in favor of Mayawati. is also true that Sikander Bakht, Naqui, Najam Heptullah, and umpteen Muslim, Dalit, OBC and Christian MPs, MLAs and ministers elected under BJP affiliation, have all helped Hindu nazi combine.
Power of Hindu nazis: We can analyze, and counter analyze various acts of these politicians until cows go to moon. They have their own compulsions, priorities, selfishness and follies. We don’t necessarily have to be guided by them. What we can do is: prepare the intellectual and analytic framework that will facilitate erring and fumbling politicians to follow a course that is more enlightened and good for our society.
Muslim-Dalit unity, Muslim-OBC unity, Dalit-OBC unity, or Muslim-Dalit-OBC-Christian unity, all such talks are fruitless — they are all impossible to achieve under the current political setup. The Hindu nazi superpower can buy politicians, journalists, editors, intellectuals, bureaucrats, NGOs, etc., with money and power. Else, they can build them up from scratch, out of nothing, by picking any unscrupulous, unemployed, hungry, Tom, Dick and Harry from within any of the above. mentioned communities (SC/ST/OBC/Muslim/ Christian etc.) and instantly transform these Littie pebbles into mountains and disrupt laboriously worked out unity.
Dalit-Muslim unity failure: We have seen it happen to Dalit-OBC unity, Muslim-OBC unity, Dalit-Muslim unity, BAMCEF unity, etc. All these unities and their demises have taken place in UP and other states not too long ago.
The final result of any kind of unity has to result in appropriate alignment during elections. Else, all such talks remain nothing but “talks”. We can keep talking until the. cows come back from the moon. There are enormous difficulties on the way to confront Hindu nazi juggernauts. We all know that FPTP (first-past-the- post) eventually leads to two-party system on account of enormous and undue disadvantage suffered by smaller groups or parties.
if all segments get their proportionate share of power and position, that will automatically cut down the power ‘of the superpower.
It is time-consuming and laborious to erect a tall building, but very simple to destroy it instantaneously. Likewise, it is very difficult to achieve any unity, but very easy to dismantle it.
Caste-based parties fine: It is very difficult to have unity to fight our biggest enemy — the Hindu nazis. However, all of the lesser segments can have unity of purpose. The purpose being emancipation and equip- empowerment of all, with the elimination of extreme concentration of power in the hands of a small segment of our society. This cannot happen until and unless we switch over from FPTP to Proportional Representation (PR) system of election.
How will PR defeat the nazis?
Chances are that due to extreme disparity and discrimination across caste lines, caste-based parties may come up. if that would go towards help reducing disparity and chasm across caste lines, what is wrong with such caste-based parties?
But will not caste-based parties perpetuate casteism?
Why Udit Raj failed: No.Actually It is the current FPTP system that forces people to think of nothing but their own caste. We know that under FPTP unity of a group is of paramount importance. FPTP puts a huge premium on unity. And most Dalit voters and their smaller level leaders have come to understand that, and they feel obligated to line up behind just one leader, the oldest one, no matter how terrible he or she may have become lately; no matter how bright some other new leadership may be. We can see that nothing has come out of Udit Rajs and Tej Singhs, others’ efforts to float new parties, frustrated with the leadership of Mayawati. Voters and other leaders of Dalits don’t want to see their votes divide up and lose their newly achieved effectiveness.
PR facilitates voters of a caste divided up, among two or three leaders within their respective caste. Sum of seats under two, three or more leaderships would add up to equal what they would win if they were united. Such a situation allows voters of a caste to have divided allegiance. They don’t have to line up behind an individual just because s/he happens to be their oldest leader. On matters related to safeguard their caste-interest all the different co-caste leaders can join hands and safeguard their respective caste interests. In such a case, we won’t have one or two castes dominating the rest. Under FPTP all these caste-based parties are forced to be subsumed under one or two most powerful castes, or two parts of the same powerful caste — and caste-disparities and discrimination continues to increase.
While FPTP accentuates conflict and tension, PR relieves the tensions.
PR will free voters to think more than just about their caste. If caste disparity and caste discrimination is acute, they cannot escape thinking in terms of caste. But PR will allow them to think of ideology, besides their caste.
Many of the European countries are living and vibrant proofs of what | am saying.
What | have talked about is not all just hypothetical. It% is happening in many European countries that use PR. Switzerland and Belgium are the best examples where PR has relieved their tensions across linguistic and religious divides.
