NEW DELHI: There are two very different ways of looking at the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes convention in the Capital recently. One, that the meet was an anti-climax because it failed to Sustain its momentum on the demand for an SC/ST President, which had catapulted the SC/ST Forum to the center stage of national politics, Two, that the Forum by compromising on a controversial issue managed to preserve its fragile unity against the contrary pulls of party politics.
The first view cannot be dismissed. As Bahujan Samaj Party leader Kanshi Ram bluntly put it, the main expectations aroused by his body of legislators and parliamentarians when they marched in a band to Rashtrapati Bhavan and later passed a resolution calling for an SC President, were political in nature. And yet, the political resolution was the most wishy washy and evasive of all its resolutions giving a wide berth, among things, to the presidential issue,
However, was it realistic to have expected the Forum, at this embryonic stage of its existence, to have gone out on a limb on the presidential question? As many defenders of the exercise printout, “self-limiting features” were inherent in it from the star.
For instance, could you really” expect a Buta Singh clearly using the Forum to regain lost clout in.
The party to be defiant beyond a point The reluctance of congressmen to overplay the presidential question was quite evident before the meet began. The Janta Dal went along, despite its only too visible chagrin at thé Congress (I)”s stands, because this only other option was break in the Forum,
But even if you are unimpressed by the way the convention concluded, you cannot write off the Forum as a pressure group. Take even the presidential question. The Forum will not secure an SC/ ST President this time, but a combination of the Forum and V.P.Singh have created enough ferment in major political parties to make this demand one that cannot be easily possible that for the first time, the country will have an SC/ST Vice President,
Ata more fundamental level, the Forum cannot be taken lightly because it was able to bring several politicians together who have nothing in common save their Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribes identities.
As many Participants pointed out, to understand the significance of this happening, you have to see the background against which it occurred. There was a time, not so long ago, that SCs and ST selected to Parliament and the Assemblies on reserved seats, hardly spoke to their counterparts in other political parties.
When it came to issues, the Dalits or Adivasis of various parties were used to counterpoint each other. This strategy was played out only too often in the Lok Sabha. If Ram Vilas Paswan stood up to flay the Congress for its failure to protect Scheduled-Castes, a Congress Scheduled Caste MP would promptly retaliate with sharp remarks on the track record of ID governments in this sphere. Thus even on national questions, such as atrocities on SCs, on which or Adivasis of various parties were used to counterpoint each other. This strategy was played out only too often in the Lok Sabha. If Ram Vilas Paswan stood up to flay the Congress for its failure to protect Scheduled-Castes, a Congress Scheduled Caste MP would promptly retaliate with sharp remarks on the track record of ID governments in this sphere. Thus even on national questions, such as atrocities on SCs, on which there was ostensibly unanimity, discordant notes were struck by rival politicians from these communities itself.
By contrast, at the Forum meeting, you had SCs and STs in broad agreement on an entire range of less sensational but perhaps more important issues than the: modalities of the Presidential election, such as what kind Of socioeconomic and political reforms, and what kind of security measures SCs and STs need. Not all these issues were uncontroversial, The conventions socioeconomic “Solution, for instance, was a blunt document on how economic polices including the new economic policy have excluded the SCs and STs but there was wide agreements on it. but there was wide agreement on it the recent gathering was not devoid of the discordant notes .they were inevitable .The participating politicians had individual personal ambitions and each leaders even had his own strategically positioned cheer group.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 3, 1992
