Ghotala.in

Springs book on Dalits by Modi

Narendra Modi launched a jumbo campaign to woo Dalits today but to many, the gap between rhetoric and reality may have seemed wide enough for an elephant to be driven through it.On a day the Congress-led central government was wiping egg off its face over a howler in an anti-female foeticide advertisement, Modi’s political promotional appeared picture-perfect, having ticked all the right boxes on the symbolism stakes.

And the Samvidhan Gaurav Yatra (Parade of Pride for the Constitution) which he was leading through the streets of Surendranagar, over 100km from Ahmedabad, was taking place two days before the 60th anniversary of India’s adoption of the Constitution.

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Portions of the message, however, seemed a little mixed up.

Modi urged Gujaratis to learn more about the Constitution and take pride in Ambedkar.

“Ambedkar’s soul will surely bless us for this unique yatra,” he declared as his pageant resonated with Hindu religious chants and patriotic songs.

Ambedkar, however, had rejected Hinduism. Also, the religion he had embraced, Buddhism, does not believe in an abiding soul.

Modi, accused of presiding over the massacre of Muslims eight years ago, saluted the Constitution as the “greatest unifying force in a land of diversities and different faiths”.

Many listeners may have wondered some more if they remembered how K.S. Sudarshan, former chief of the RSS to which Modi owes his rise, had scoffed that the Constitution was an “enlarged and revised edition of the Government of India Act 1935”.

A Modi aide explained the yatra’s objective. He said Surendranagar had witnessed the highest number of atrocities on Dalits who, unlike elsewhere in Gujarat, were gearing to fight back politically.

The BSP’s labour arm has been working among them for some time but no political party has seriously tried to draft the community’s support. Modi, the aide said, wanted to be the first.

“He has read the signals correctly. The Dalits of Saurashtra are getting increasingly politicised and if we don’t watch out, the Congress may get their votes or else the BSP may acquire a foothold,” a government source said.