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Being Ramdas Athawale — Dalit poet, political lightweight but a Modi govt constant

Dalit rights activist Ramdas Athawale has been a part of both Modi govts, and was almost confident of getting a ministerial berth the minute NDA won Lok Sabha elections.

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Mumbai: When Rajya Sabha member Ramdas Athawale returned to Mumbai last week after taking oath as a minister in the new Modi government, he was received by a throng of supporters at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport.

Dressed in a bright blue kurta with a cherry red jacket, Athawale sat in a makeshift chariot under a large decorative umbrella. Amid a 15-km-long traditional Marathi dhol-tasha procession, Athawale and his supporters made their way to Chaityabhoomi in Dadar, where Dr B.R. Ambedkar’s ashes are interred.

The Republican Party of India (RPI) did not contest a single seat this election, has no directly-elected public representative, but, ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, Athawale was in demand to address all major campaign rallies of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders in Maharashtra.

He has been a part of both Narendra Modi governments, and unlike several others, was almost confident of getting a ministerial berth the minute the NDA won the Lok Sabha election.

For a bystander, the question arises: Just how is a leader without much electoral clout able to pull such weight in a powerful coalition?

The poet with strange rhymes

In any discussion on RPI chief Athawale in political circles, there is rarely any mention of his opinion on critical issues.

Instead, the 59-year-old Dalit leader is most popular for providing comic relief during serious parliamentary discussions with his poems, where he mixes Hindi and Marathi to fashion awkward rhymes.

He is known for his unconventional fashion, and has made headlines for such things as the induction of actor Rakhi Sawant into the RPI and being a potential housemate on Bigg Boss [when he was dropped from the season 2 line-up, hundreds of RPI workers ransacked the office of Colors TV, which airs the reality TV show].

For political commentator Pratap Asbe, Athawale’s relevance lies in his reputation as a Dalit leader.

“Having Athawale’s support helps the BJP show a blue flag with their saffron one and sends a message that the Dalit community is with them, and that they are giving a Dalit community leader prominence,” he said.

“Athawale has a large following of lumpen elements at the grassroots level who flex their muscle on the streets quite like the Shiv Sena did when it started out,” said a former journalist, requesting anonymity. “These help the alliance in canvassing for votes to a certain extent, but more importantly, if kept out, they are capable of stirring nuisance.”

Jailed gangster Chhota Rajan’s brother Deepak Nikalje is a member of the RPI.


Also read: Congress allegation of Dalit oppression under Modi rule is wrong, says NDA ally Athawale


From ‘Dalit Panther’ to politician

Participating in a Parliament discussion on the 10 per cent general-category quota this January, Athawale launched into a poem: “Savarno ko arakshan deneki dikhayi hain Narendra Modiji ne himmat, isi liye 2019 mein badhegi unki kimmat… (Narendra Modiji has shown the courage to give reservations to the upper castes and this will help his stocks rise in 2019).”

Notable here is the use of the Marathi word “kimmat” instead of the Hindi “keemat” to strike a rhyme with “himmat”.

After a few more verses, Athawale’s poem moved to his favourite topic — his political ambitions. “Narendra Modiji aur Amit Shahji agar de de mujhe thoda dhakka, toh main Congress ke khilaf marta hun chhakka (If Narendra Modi and Amit Shah give me a little push, I will hit a six against the Congress).”

But much before Athawale unabashedly brandished his ministerial ambitions in the corridors of power, he sharpened his political acumen as an active opponent of caste-based oppression.

Born on Christmas Day 1959 in Sangli, Maharashtra, Athawale’s first brush with activism came as a student at Mumbai’s Siddhartha College, the hotbed of the Ambedkarite movement back then.

He subsequently became a firebrand member of the Dalit Panthers, an organisation founded by poet and activist Namdeo Dhasal that seeks to combat caste discrimination.

The organisation later split into smaller groups and Athawale was one of the leaders who kept the movement alive by aligning with fellow Dalit Panther Arun Kamble, a Buddhist scholar.

Athawale rose to significance in the late 1970s, during a movement to rename Marathwada University after Ambedkar. The movement, which the Shiv Sena strongly opposed, saw violent clashes between Dalits and Marathas on Maharashtra’s streets [the university was renamed on a compromise in 1994 to Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University].

Within years, Athawale transitioned from activist to politician.

The RPI, established by Ambedkar, split into several smaller factions, with Athawale’s faction emerging as one of the few significant ones.

In 1990, Athawale joined the cabinet in the Sharad Pawar-led state government, allying with the Congress (I). He was appointed as the minister for social welfare, transport, employment guarantee scheme and prohibition propaganda, and also served as member of the state legislative council from 1990 to 1996.

When ‘Bhim shakti’ joined ‘Shiv shakti’

“The saffron flag will never flutter over Mantralaya. We will ensure the Tricolour remains there,” Athawale had said at a massive pre-election rally at Mumbai’s Shivaji Park in 1990, soon after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiv Sena forged an alliance.

Athawale’s conviction, however, lasted only till 2011, when, feeling sidelined, he severed ties with the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) alliance.

Athawale, who won the 1999 and 2004 Lok Sabha polls from Pandharpur (later merged with the Solapur constituency), lost the Shirdi Lok Sabha seat in 2009 to the Shiv Sena by more than a lakh votes and blamed the local Congress leadership for working against him.

In most of his interviews even today, Athawale likes to recall a story about a visit to Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray on his birthday in 2011: As they chatted, the latter remarked, “Bhim shakti and Shiv shakti can work wonders together.” The BJP, too, came on board and there has been no looking back, he says.

Eight years into the saffron alliance, Athawale’s RPI has hardly grown. But the alliance has helped him raise his profile as a Union minister of state.

“Dalits have got permanent houses under the (Pradhan Mantri) Awas Yojana, gas cylinders under the Ujjwala Yojana, and work on the Babasaheb Ambedkar memorial at Indu Mills has picked up pace,” Athawale told ThePrint in an interview in March, seated on a throne-like chair at his Mumbai residence, ‘Sanvidhan’, in suburban Bandra.

Athawale had made a strong push for at least one seat to contest as part of the BJP-Shiv Sena-RPI alliance in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. But when that could not happen, he was told that his Rajya Sabha membership and ministership will continue.

Athawale was content with that.


Also read: Narendra Modi’s 2019 victory is Hindutva 2.0 — and Dalits & OBCs form its backbone


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1 COMMENT

  1. The Athawlaes and the Paswans are used by the BJP to pretend that they love the Dalits. These leaders remain with BJP because they love ministerial posts.

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