During the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, which catapulted the BJP to power at the centre and in several states, the party was concerned mainly with the Ayodhya temple. It was also driven by intense anti-Muslim sentiments as was evident at the time from the speeches of Uma Bharti and Sadhvi Rithambara. This attitude also prevailed at the start of Narendra Modi’s tenure at the centre as the provocative gharwapsi and love jihad campaigns showed along with advice from ministers to beef-eaters to go to Pakistan.

In recent months, however, there has been a change. It may be because the Modi government paid heed to President Barack Obama’s advocacy of a tolerant society and decided to tone down the anti-Muslim rhetoric of the likes of Sakshi Maharaj who said that the madrasas produced terrorists.

Instead, the focus has turned to Dalits and Leftists as could be seen from the description of Hyderabad Central University as a “den of anti-nationals” by a central minister, Bandaru Dattatreya, and the relentless pressure exerted by the former HRD minister, Smriti Irani, on the university’s vice-chancellor to crack down on members of the Ambedkar Students Association.

The suicide of a bright young student, Rohith Vemula, because of the unwarranted ministerial interventions exposed the BJP’s anti-Dalit attitude. The BJP tried for some time to insist that Vemula was not a Dalit but belonged to the backward castes. But the conversion of Vemula’s mother and brother to Buddhism after the suicide in keeping with what Ambedkar did negated the saffron propaganda.

The BJP’s confrontations with the Dalits in Hyderabad and with Leftists in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi were in line with the pro-upper caste and anti-communist outlook of the Sangh Parivar. What is difficult to understand, however, is why the party allowed its Brahmin-Bania image to be reinforced when it was trying to woo the Dalits with the forthcoming U.P. elections in mind.

There was evidently a disconnect between the BJP and a section of the rank and file who may have drawn their inspiration from the Brahminical patriarchs of the RSS. It can be recalled that the RSS chief, Mohan Bhagwat, had called for a reconsideration of the quota system on the eve of the Bihar elections – an uncalled for observation for which the BJP paid a price in the polls since the implication was a dilution of the affirmative action for Dalits and Adivasis.

However, the violent attack on a group of Dalits by gau-rakshaks or cow protectors in Gujarat was not something unwarranted. It was very much an expression of the Hindutva brigade’s deep-seated dislike of the lower castes which is on a par with a similar attitude towards the Muslims. In the eyes of the Parivar, both are untouchables.

If Bhagwat’s earlier gaffe had cost BJP the Bihar elections, the latest outrage against Dalits may well cause its fortunes to sink in UP. But the government’s problem apparently is that the Parivar is such a hydra-headed entity that it is nearly impossible to rein in all its rabid members. If Yogi Adityanath and Sakshi Maharaj are silenced, Sadhvi Prachi takes the field with her call for a “Muslim-mukt Bharat”. And if an FIR is filed against her, the gau-rakshaks run amok.

In a way, the latter are probably the most difficult to control because they claim to protect an animal which is sacred to the saffron brotherhood. Hence, they have been able to have their lawless way in various parts of the country – killing Muslim cowherds in Jharkhand and forcing other Muslim groups to eat a mixture of cow dung and cow urine in Faridabad.

Although the police have made arrests, such routine steps are unlikely to act as a deterrent because they are not as harsh as sending Hardik Patel to jail for nine months for raising the banner of revolt against the Modi government or filing sedition charges against rebellious JNU students. Little wonder that the government’s laxity emboldened the cow vigilantes to attack the Dalits in Gujarat with impunity for skinning a cow, which is their profession.

It has to be seen whether the government can summon up the courage to take tougher measures against the self-appointed saviours of the holy cow. Although the RSS will not be pleased if the government does so, the BJP has little option because angering the Dalits will mean that it will alienate yet another community apart from the Muslims. Since the Dalits comprise 20 per cent of the population in UP, and the Muslims 18 per cent, losing their support will be a big blow to the BJP’s prospects in the state. (IPA Service)