Sitting in his room at the Western Court MP Hostel along Janpath, Chandrashekhar Azad fields calls on a phone that does not stop ringing. Two Uttar Pradesh Police personnel are sitting on the couch next to him. There is a beeline of journalists, fellow MPs, politicians, and political workers waiting to meet him.
Among them is Manoj Kumar, the newly-elected Congress MP from Bihar’s Sasaram — one of the 19 SC seats the INDIA bloc flipped from the BJP during this Lok Sabha election. After an endearing embrace, Mr. Azad introduces him to the room: “He used to be a state unit president of Azad Samaj Party (the party Mr. Azad founded) — a Majboot Chamar.” Then he turns to Mr. Kumar, “This is our moment. So what if we are from different parties, we are stepping into Parliament together now.”
Mr. Kumar replies, “What can I say? Iss baar Chamaron ne Samvidhaan bacha diya hai bhai saab (This time the Chamar people have rescued the Constitution).”
“This is what has happened in this election,” Mr. Chandrashekhar, 37, tells The Hindu as he tries to prepare his schedule for the next few weeks after having won a decisive victory in Uttar Pradesh’s Nagina constituency — a traditional bastion of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
Mr. Chandrashekhar’s victory by a margin of over 1.5 lakh votes on a seat like Nagina, put together with the BSP’s abysmal performance this year (the party drew a blank), is now giving more credence to the argument that the firebrand leader has occupied a special place among Dalit voters in the region.
An Ambedkarite activist and lawyer by education, Mr. Chandrashekhar’s politics is built on a visible assertion of his Dalit, specifically Chamar, identity. As an activist, his initial focus was on bringing volunteer-run schools to the people of his community.
One of the early instances that catapulted Mr. Chandrashekhar and his organisation, the Bhim Army, into the spotlight was the installation of a board in 2015 on private land in Gharkauli, proclaiming, “The Great Chamar: Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar Village, Gharkauli welcomes you”, which triggered objection from Thakurs.
Ever since, the Bhim Army and its members have worked hard to become the first port of call for the people of their community — whether it is about atrocities by upper caste folk or police brutality or about protecting Ambedkar statues from bulldozers.
The Bhim Army has also organised protests demanding government action against atrocities on Dalits and arranged legal help to the victims.
As the conversation in Mr. Azad’s Western Court quarters continues, he says, “Now you see what they are doing with the Ambedkar statue’s relocation in Parliament complex. I am not going to let that go.”
Dalit-Muslim unity
A significant part of Mr. Azad’s politics over the years has also been to build Dalit-Muslim unity, which was buoyed by his participation in the anti-CAA protests that erupted across the country in December 2019. His protests in front of the Delhi Police headquarters and at Jama Masjid won him an almost cult-like status.
Following the prominence his politics gained after this, Mr. Azad registered his party — the Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) — and immediately started preparing to build his political organisation. In 2021, TIME magazine put him on a list of 100 “emerging leaders who are shaping the future”.
Now, as he prepares to take oath as a member of the 18th Lok Sabha, Mr. Azad is clear about his priorities — “My work will be for the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, backward classes, Muslims, youth and women and it will always be against injustice,” he says, without getting into the specifics except one thing — the need for a Caste Census.
At the same time, when asked if he thought the vote for his politics was one rejecting Hindutva, Mr. Azad was cautious in his response. “Religion is a personal thing. It should not be brought into politics. So I won’t say this was a rejection of anything, but I will say this: BJP leaders repeatedly talking about making a theocratic nation and their arrogance has upset the people and they have spoken accordingly.”
