Humiliation At The Door!

As I watched the video of Priyanka Gandhi filing her nomination papers in Waynad, a wave of unease washed over me. The image of Mallikarjun Kharge, the Congress president, waiting outside the room while a gathering of Gandhi family members carried on inside, felt like more than just an oversight. It seemed to echo a long and painful history of how the Congress party has treated its Dalit leaders.

I couldn’t help but recall the insult heaped on Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. Nehru saw to it that Ambedkar did not win the 1952 Lok Sabha election, and this was no small slight. This wasn’t just a political maneuver; it was a dismissal of a man who had fought tirelessly for the rights of the Dalit community, reduced to a sidelined figure when he should have been a central part of India's political landscape. 

The same pattern of disrespect continued with other Dalit leaders. I remember how Sitaram Kesari, a former AICC president, was mistreated by his own party members. The youth Congress physically manhandled him, and in an act of sheer humiliation, they even locked him inside a bathroom of AICC office for hours and tried to pull his dhoti on 14 March 1998. This wasn’t just a personal affront; it was a public degradation of a senior leader, a clear signal of where power truly lay within the party.

Now, with Kharge ji being left out of the room during Priyanka Vadra’s nomination, the message feels unmistakable. If the Congress can treat its own president this way, a man who has risen from humble beginnings to lead the party, what respect can they truly have for the Dalit community? The humiliation of leaders like Ambedkar and Kesari shows a disturbing pattern of sidelining those who represent the marginalised. Today, that same pattern is visible again, this time with Kharge.

And with Rahul Gandhi’s past statements about ending reservations still fresh in my mind, I can’t help but feel that this is part of a larger trend. This isn’t just about a single incident; it speaks to a deeper issue. The Congress party, which claims to champion equality and inclusivity, continues to treat its Dalit leaders with disrespect. If they can push their own president to the sidelines, how can they claim to stand for the empowerment of the Dalit community?