Congress has a history of demeaning its Dalit leaders. Starting from Bharat Ratna Dr BR Ambedkar to Babu Jagjivan Ram to Sitaram Kesri to present-day Kumari Selja and Charanjit Singh Channi, Congress has seldom given respect to its Dalit politicians.
While Nehru and Indira Gandhi gave themselves awards, Dr Ambedkar was deprived of the Bharat Ratna, an honour he truly deserved.
Despite Congress being in power then for 29 years, it was subsequently the VP Singh government at the centre in 1990 that unveiled the portrait of Dr Ambedkar in the Central Hall of Parliament.
Everyone knows how Babu Jagjivan Ram’s relationship with Indira Gandhi deteriorated during the Emergency, and he eventually left Congress in 1977. The same was the case with Sitaram Kesri, who was humiliated and forcibly removed as party president at the behest of the Gandhis. Both belonged to Bihar. Even Jagjivan Ram’s daughter Meira Kumar was sidelined by the grand old party in her latter’s years of political life.
The last Haryana assembly elections saw how a Dalit woman leader of Congress Kumari Selja was totally ignored by the Congress high command, who yet again favoured a political dynasty in the state over Selja. She was not even given the party ticket despite her showing keenness to contest the assembly polls.
Even today, a Dalit Congress leader of Punjab is finding himself helpless before the party high command. The Gandhis are not even giving him an audience. Ex-Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi today stands completely neglected and ignored within Congress. Despite having popular support within the party’s rank and file, the high command led by Rahul Gandhi is least bothered about the concerns raised by him.
Present-day Karnataka Congress Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara has himself publicly said that he was denied the chief ministership thrice because of being a Dalit. Even another Kannadiga leader, Akhanda Murthy, a Dalit politician in Congress in 2023 resigned from Congress after being denied party ticket for polls and made shocking revelations as to how he was ill-treated within Congress for being a Dalit.
Today Rahul Gandhi is trying to portray himself as a champion of Dalit rights, but the history of the grand old party says otherwise.
