LEADER OF OPPOSITION in the Rajya Sabha and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge expressed his deep anguish on August 13, two days before the 80th Independence Day celebrations, that he was made to “feel the sting of untouchability.” These painful utterances were made by him after a “purification” ritual was performed allegedly by some BJP people at the venue in Uttarakhand’s Haldwani where he addressed a public meeting on August 8.
Untouchability is Contrary to the Vision of Swaraj
It is instructive that during freedom struggle Mahatma Gandhi used to repeatedly assert that the removal of untouchability was an indispensable condition for attaining Swaraj, for he conjured up the vision of Swaraj not just in terms of liberation of India from British colonial rule but also liberation from the long festering social scourge of untouchability.
Kharge hails from a Dalit background. So the purification of the site, allegedly by BJP leaders, where he addressed a massive rally smacks of the attempts by them to treat him as an untouchable so that the pollution caused by his presence at the venue would be purified. So, the sting of untouchability he suffered due to this socially retrograde action is certainly the travesty of Swaraj envisioned by Gandhi and the Constitution’s provision under Article 17, which abolishes “untouchability”. The said Article states, ““Untouchability” is abolished and its practice in any form is forbidden. The enforcement of any disability arising out of “Untouchability” shall be an offence punishable in accordance with law.”
This emancipatory Article which forms part of the fundamental rights chapter of the Constitution discards the “purity-pollution” logic defining an occupation or action.
Kharge hails from a Dalit background. So the purification of the site, allegedly by BJP leaders, where he addressed a massive rally smacks of the attempts by them to treat him as an untouchable so that the pollution caused by his presence at the venue would be purified.
As per Anup Michael Salve, who also recently wrote an insightful article for The Leaflet on why civil protection for people Dalit lineage under Article 17 must be decoupled from the politics of reservation, “this evolving jurisprudence demonstrates that Article 17 is not confined to a single static historical practice but targets the underlying logic of purity and pollution – the structural mechanism used to subordinate, exclude and stigmatise human beings.”
The purification of the venue where Kharge delivered his speech was intended to stigmatise him on account of his caste profile and so the severity of “the sting of untouchability” inflicted on him deserved to be visited with punishment as per law and statute against those who did the purification.
Constitution and Social Revolution
Granville Austin in his book “The Indian Constitution: Corner of a Nation” very thoughtfully observes that “The Indian Constitution is first and foremost a social document.” “The majority of its provisions,” he remarks, “are either directly aimed at furthering the goals of the social revolution or attempt to foster this revolution by establishing the conditions necessary for its achievement… Yet despite the permeation of the entire constitution by the aim of national renascence, the core of the commitment to the social revolution lies in Parts III and IV, in the Fundamental Rights and in the Directive Principles of State Policy. These are the conscience of the Constitution,” he notes.
The humiliation heaped on Kharge by that vicious purification ceremony is a negation of the social revolution or the establishing conditions necessary for its achievement. Rather it represented a counter revolution to push back the social revolution that has been going on in our country after the Constitution came into force and B.R. Ambedkar’s ideas remained central to several agitations to carry forward the social revolution.
Kharge’s remarked in the Rajya Sabha on August 13 that in his speech at Haldwani he never referred to any community or religion and only reiterated the issues of the BJP government of the state. And yet he said people associated with BJP tried to insult him by doing a purification ritual which made him feel the sting of untouchability. “Is this the way in a democracy? How are you protecting the constitution?” he asked.
It was reported in the Times of India that members of Shri Ram Sena Dharmarth Seva Nyas Sangathan did the purification ritual on August 10, by stating that certain slogans raised at Kharge’s August 8 rally “sounded like Islamic slogans.” They very preposterously argued that the Ramlila Ground where Kharge delivered his speech is meant for religious and cultural events and should not be given to political parties, while referring to Kharge’s earlier comments against the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
The Prime Minister and the Home Minister’s silence
Responding to anguished remarks of Kharge Union minister J.P. Nadda stated in the Rajya Sabha that action would be taken against the wrongdoers and that the BJP never approved of such activities.
Even Rajya Sabha Chairman C.P. Radhakrishnan said, “If untouchability is not a sin, there is no sin in the world. Irrespective of parties or ideology, we all condemn untouchability. There is no need for anyone to purify. Those who have done the wrong thing, they will be investigated, they should be caught and they should be punished. There are no two different opinions on this.”
However, Kharge demanded legal action against the culprits and their arrest under provisions of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
It has been interpreted that Article 17 is a constitutional shield against the logic of purity, pollution and exclusion and so it should be applied to the diverse ways in which caste atrocities based on practice untouchability are perpetuated in contemporary India. Therefore, it is baffling that Prime Minister Modi and Union Home Minister never uttered a word in condemning the caste related humiliation suffered by Kharge who is the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha and President of Congress Party.
When President K.R. Narayanan was Called “Untouchable”
Twenty six years back in April 2000 when President of India K.R. Narayanan undertook a State visit to France and was scheduled to meet his French counterpart Chirac at the Palais de l'Élysée, several French newspapers including Le Figaro wrote “A rare event today in the Elysee protocol: Chirac will shake hands with an Untouchable, the President of India”. It also reported, “However Kocheril Narayanan can feel at ease: another famous untouchable, a prophet of the emancipation of the “lower castes”, had the same motto, “Liberty, Equality and Fraternity”.” A Delhi-based French journalist, working for a leading French newspaper, wondered why so much fuss was being created about the use of the word “untouchable" in the context of Narayanan. He argued that “for the French people, India’s caste system is something they don’t understand. They don’t know what is a ‘Dalit,’ and the only way to tell them that Narayanan is one is to say he is an “untouchable” and the reference is made in a complimentary manner, that an untouchable is today the president of India and going to shake hands with the President of France.” “It is absolutely incredible” he said and remarked, “ how this can be interpreted as an insult,"
Later when the Indian embassy in Paris expressed outrage for the manner in which the President of India was described, the editor of Le Figaro apologised to Narayanan.
Even that time, Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee never condemned the description of the President Narayanan as an “untouchable.” Only Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh said in the Lok Sabha that the President of India K R Narayanan was called an “untouchable” and regretted that the Government of India did nothing to counter it.
The emancipatory Article 17 of the Constitution discards the “purity-pollution” logic defining an occupation or action.
Untouchability is a National Problem
It is instructive to quote K.R. Narayanan who as Vice President of India unveiled the portrait of N.C. Chatterjee, father of Somnath Chatterjee, and a Lok Sabha MP till early 1970s. Narayanan referred to N.C. Chatterjee’s participation in the Joint Parliamentary Committee examining the Untouchability Offences Bill in 1955 and also in the Parliamentary debates on the Bill in Lok Sabha. Narayanan stated that “He characterized untouchability as “the national problem of the first magnitude” and quoted his words that, “There would have been no Naxalbari if we would have been very fair to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes .”
Almost seven decades after those words were uttered, Prime Minister Modi instead of tracing the root cause behind the persistence of untouchability has coined the term “Dimagi Naxal” and is facing backlash from across the country. What is required to deal with the humiliation faced by Kharge is to invoke Article 17 and other provisions of law to deal with the offence and uphold the Constitution and constitutional morality.