Members of various left-leaning student organisations today criticised the choice of Ram Nath Kovind as NDA's presidential candidate, claiming that it was a tactic of the BJP to garner Dalit votes and mitigate the anger of the community.
SFI national general secretary Vikram Singh claimed it was the first time a candidate's Dalit tag was pitched.
"Instead of choosing a candidate based on his credentials, the BJP has pitched his caste. It is just a move to attract votes and also to mitigate the anger of Dalits amid atrocities against them," Singh claimed.
The BJP yesterday named Kovind, the former Bihar governor, as the ruling NDA's candidate for the July 17 presidential election.
JNUSU president Mohit Kumar Pandey said selecting a Dalit for heading a state would not serve a purpose if he did not address the issue of caste atrocities.
"The president should not become a rubber stamp of a particular ideology as we see in most of cases of governors. They should speak in favor of rights and oppose the wrongs," he said.
Pratim Ghosal, a student activist belonging to the Democratic Students Federation, also alleged that it was a tactic of the BJP to reduce the effect of atrocities it had committed against Dalits.
"On one hand, there are crimes against Dalits like against Rohit (Vemula) and victims of cow vigilantes, on the other, there are inaugurations of roads and libraries in the name of B R Ambedkar," Ghosal said, adding that nothing was going to change if a Dalit was chosen as a presidential candidate.
Kovind continues to be a part of brahmanical political party, he alleged.
Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students' Association (BAPSA) general secretary Narendra Kumar alleged the BJP was trying to polarise the Dalit community.
"There is a difference between Dalit leaders and leaders of Dalits. Kovind is a Dalit leader but not a leader of Dalits, as he associates with ideology of the BJP and the RSS," Kumar said.
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