(Samaj Weekly)
– Vidya Bhushan Rawat
Its a good news particularly those who are youth and feel that none can gain unless you have a good father. Our very dear friend who I have known from his BHU days, Kunal Kishor Vivek has been appointed the State Coordinator of Bihar State Bahujan Samaj Party. It is a great opportunity for him to build his party in the state from the stretch. We can understand that party might not be in a great position there but then when situation is difficult, it gives you ample opportunities to rebuild the party structure and bring young, honest and dedicated Ambedkarites into party fold. We know it well that in Bihar, Ambedkarite movement is negligible in comparison to Uttar Pradesh where movement, both socially, culturally and politically is independent, autonomous and powerful. Bihar has been quiet mischievous in this regard giving us a false pretext of ‘social justice’ by the so called JP-Lohiasists which is nothing beyond reformist and status quests.
Every party has its own calculations and we also know BSP too has its own political calculations and positions based on its strength but if we leave that aside, it is a great honor for Kunal Kishor to have been appointed as State Coordinator of the party in such a young age is an opportunity for him to spread his base, strengthen the party and rebuilt it from the stretch. We know despite all claims, Dalits in Bihar have not got fair deals in the political space. Land Reforms never happened and political parties dont raise the issue. Most of the Dalits in Bihar are absolutely landless and thoroughly disenfranchised and their issues have never become the main issues. They have been cleverly divided in the caste lines and a major chunk is gone to Ram Vilas Paswan, an important ally of NDA and the other one, Jeetan Ram Manjhi, who left NDA to again join them.
Positive thing for Kunal is that he is young, he is a clean slate whose political journey started with BSP and he already has experience of contesting Gopal Ganj Lok Sabha seat as a BSP candidate. He must continue to work with various communities and bring them together. It would be good for him to bring young committed political activists to his party.
Our best wishes to Kunal K. Vivek and hope his party will not only raise the issues of the rural poor and other marginalised sections in Bihar but also raise issues of Education, health, Rural Development and ofcourse fight to protect the constitutional values as enshrined in our constitution so laboriously drafted by Baba Saheb Ambedkar.
Vidya Bhushan Rawat
October 6th, 2020
