New Delhi, October 8
Representatives of the Valmiki community burst into applause today when Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi described the Dalits as the “spine of the party”, saying he would love to see them in Assemblies and Parliament.

Minutes before addressing the Valmikis, Rahul was speaking to another Dalit congregation on how they needed the “Jupiter’s escape velocity” to break free and how BSP chief Mayawati had harmed the Dalit movement by capturing its leadership and letting none flourish.

“Mayawati doesn’t let anyone progress. But we will build the Dalit leaders at every level,” said Rahul, invoking his grandmother Indira Gandhi to say that like her he would not be afraid to speak for the poor.

“I got the idea of working for the Dalits from my ‘daadi’,” said the Gandhi scion, recounting Indira’s legacy through an anecdote where she as a child had dared to applaud an underdog ice hockey team during a match in Hitler’s Germany.

Quite indirectly, Rahul equated the Opposition BJP to Hitler’s Germany that detested anti-German voices.

He later teased the BJP, “If you want to win elections, go to the homes of the poor and hold their hands and then go and win elections. The Opposition speaks of India Shining and loses elections. They lost in 2004, in 2009 and will lose again in 2014.”

The commonality between Rahul’s two pitches was hard to miss, both being part of Congress’ calculated strategy to woo SCs ahead of Lok Sabha polls considering they form 16 pc of India’s population. In UP where Mayawati is a force, SCs are 20.7 per cent. That’s why, Congress today denounced her to deftly move and fill the gap Uttar Pradesh’s SP government has left by wooing Muslims and ignoring the dalits. Even in poll bound MP and Rajasthan, there’s 16.6 per cent and 17.1 per cent Dalit population, respectively.

No wonder Rahul’s appearance at today’s back to back events (hosted by National SC Commission and Bhagwan Valmiki Foundation) was his second at a Dalit event in a month.

SC Commission chief PL Punia, who is Congress’ Barabanki MP, today gave Rahul the sobriquet of “messiah of Dalits” and urged him to include in Congress’ Lok Sabha manifesto the recommendations of the two day SC empowerment camp which the commission is hosting here.

Rahul nodded in agreement on Punia’s suggested Dalit agenda and later spoke of the escape velocity to say how hard dalits need to be pushed. And for all the ills afflicting the class he blamed Mayawati.

“There are three stages in the Dalit movement of India - the first led by Dr BR Ambedkar, the first Dalit who attained escape velocity and gave us the concept of reservations; the second under BSP founder Kanshi Ram who consolidated the Dalits who gained from reservations; the third, under Mayawati wherein the production of Dalit leaders has stopped,” Rahul said.

“Congress’ pro-dalit strategy is a well thought out move and we will push it in the months left for elections,” admitted Congress SC panel chief K Raju, recently installed in a post that had been lying vacant for five years.