Dalit leader and Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani (TOI file photo)

NEW DELHI: Set to up the ante to make the proposed August 9 national bandh a worthy sequel to April 2, Dalit groups are planning to pressure SC/ST MPs and MLAs cutting across party lines to back their call for agitation.

The organisers will write to 131 parliamentarians and 1,000-plus MLAs reminding them they are elected from reserved seats and have a duty to their community.

A 'Bharat Bandh' has been called for August 9 with a charter of 20 demands, the principal being that the government bring an ordinance to undo the "dilution" of SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act by the Supreme Court. The first bandh was held in April whose success forced politicians to take notice.

"We are simply telling them they should repay some debt to the community," Ashok Bharti, who heads the organising banner All India Ambedkar Mahasabha (AIAM), told TOI.

It is a bid to force the legislators, who are tied down by party discipline, to own up an aggressive Dalit agenda with the warning that a refusal would paint them as shy about their own community's interests.

The organisers believe if MPs and MLAs feel the "pressure from below" and shed their inhibitions, political parties would be compelled to accept the demands put forth by Dalit civil society. It is felt mainstreaming of Dalit agenda would make it difficult for "saboteurs" in future.

If AIAM is taking a leaf out of the strategy of historic agitations of 1970s, the idea seems to have been thought through, rooted in the belief that the success of April 2 bandh has made the institutionalised political leadership of Dalits jittery.

The sudden emergence of independent actors like Jignesh Mevani , Chandrashekhar Ravan of Bhim Army besides a burgeoning activist class, is forcing a rethink among Dalit politicians that they have to match the aggression of their non-political counterparts to stay relevant.

The warnings came well before the April 2 bandh. A call by Ambedkarite groups on January 3, 2018, to protest against the Bhima-Koregaon violence in Pune plunged Maharashtra into chaos and created ripples nationally.

Amid heightened anticipation in the run-up to the bandh, the pressure appears to be showing results. Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan has begun to speak out in uncharacteristically belligerent tone demanding an ordinance on SC/ST Act and even the sacking of the chairman of the National Green Tribunal who, as SC judge, delivered the SC/ST Act judgment.

However, organisers are cautious about political leaders playing to the gallery. "Paswan is neither the organizer nor does he have any control over the bandh, even in Bihar," Bharti said.

