MLA & Dalit activist Jignesh Mevani is force majeure for the marginalised

In the last week of December Jignesh Mevani's Meghaninagar house was filled with “well-wishers” — supporters, fellow comrades who had come from far-flung villages where Mevani has worked — to congratulate their leader upon his maiden election victory in the Gujarat Assembly elections from the Vadgam constituency. A visibly elated Mevani was greeting everyone, he seemed to know those who had gathered by their first names. 

Less than a month later, he had made his debut as a national politician, organising a Yuva Hunkar (The roar of the youth) at a defiant meeting on New Delhi’s Parliament Street where prohibitory orders are in place. No matter that the meeting was thinly attended, and the principal aim was to lobby for the release of Chandrashekar Azad, leader of the Dalit activist organisation Bhim Army, who was arrested following Thakur-Dalit clashes in Uttar Pradesh. The 35-year-old political debutant who won as an independent supported by the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party did what he likes to do best: criticise Narendra Modi.  

This topic so consumes him that the otherwise unassuming 37-year old Dalit leader (he does not like the tag himself) changes form when he is on stage. Fiery speeches are his chosen style and Modi his favourite target. Modi should retire and go to the Himalayas, he says in extreme moments. His principal grouse: "For the two decades that he was the chief minister of Gujarat, he has never ever had a meeting with any of the Dalit activists or organisations representing their interests." 

Taking pot shots at the prime minister is part and parcel of Mevani’s reputation as a rising star in national politics. Indeed, he has probably scored some brownie points over his counterpart Hardik Patel (who is championing the cause of Patidar reservation) for his better grasp over theologies and political ideologies. Sanjay Bhave, his former teacher at HK Arts College in Ahmedabad and in Mevani's own words a formative influence on him, says that Mevani can explain Karl Marx to a rural backward caste audience with elan. "He has a penchant of simplifying the complex ideologies for his audience," says Bhave 

Mevani says he is a crusader for the marginalised - it need not be just the Hindu backward castes. "I fight for anyone who is poor, marginalised or victimised. If a Dalit factory owner is inflicting atrocities on his Brahmin worker, then I will fight for the poor Brahmin," Mevani told Business Standard recently. As for the Dalits, he is fighting for the removal of the caste system - the only way he feels can do away with atrocities against the backward castes and counter discrimination. 

Mevani's rise in national politics, however, is not simply a factor of his rising popularity, more air-time, and his “bold” comments. Backward castes are emerging as an electoral force to reckon with - they comprise 6.7 per  cent of Gujarat's population, but nationally the figure is higher at over 16 per cent. In recent years, India has lacked a credible face that could possibly mobilise this massive population - Mayawati's corrupt image and focus on Uttar Pradesh weakening her reputation as a national leader. 

Mevani himself, however, is in no mood to align himself with any political party at the moment. He says there are serious advantages of not being a part of any political party -- at least for his brand of activism. "There is no pressure on me, no instructions as to how to conduct myself, what to say, where to go. I will take my fight to the streets," he says. 

Political pundits believe that Mevani needs more long-term planning and a vision to achieve what he really wants. Political activism has got him this far, but to go further, Mevani sure needs a plan. Even as he plans to nurture a trade union movement in Gujarat and fight for land rights of Dalits, Mevani is banking on his voice inside the state Assembly this time. His colleagues are concerned. "He will have a lot of nuisance value inside the Assembly," said a BJP MLA here.  

Socioligist and political commentator Vidyut Joshi feels that Mevani primarily draws his support from the rural Dalit, the urban Dalit is not so impressed with him. "The Dalit is not a homogenous community. The discrimination against this community is more in rural areas while the urban educated Dalit has lost his caste identity partly," he says. This is why, Mevani's supporters are mainly from the villages; the urban Dalit may not want to disrupt the status quo and bring his caste identity to the fore.