After TDP and Shiv Sena, Ram Vilas Paswan's LJP puts Modi govt on notice

Ram Vilas Paswan-led Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) on Friday put ally Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on notice. It said it would be forced to join Dalit protests against the Narendra Modi government on August 9 if its two demands were not met by then.

The LJP is the latest in a series of BJP allies who in recent months have flexed muscles. If it was the BJP which parted ways with its Kashmir ally Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Telugu Desam Party quit the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in March, and the Shiv Sena has kept BJP on tenterhooks. Other allies have also been more voluble in expressing disconcert at the BJP leadership not heeding their concerns.

LJP leader Chirag Paswan said on Friday the LJP could review its stand if the Modi government met its two conditions by August 7. He demanded the government should bring a Bill in Parliament to restore the stringent clauses of the Scheduled Castes and Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act, and remove National Green Tribunal (NGT) chairperson Adarsh Kumar Goel.

NGT chairperson Goel is a retired Supreme Court judge, and was part of the bench that Dalit groups accuse of having diluted the law for protecting Dalits and Tribes from atrocities. In its order on March 20, the Supreme Court bench had restricted the arrest of accused under the SC and ST prevention of atrocities law without any police verification, and permitted bail.

Ram Vilas Paswan is a minister in Modi government, an ally of the BJP in Bihar. The LJP has six seats in the Lok Sabha. Ram Vilas Paswan and son Chirag are both members of the Lok Sabha, and the LJP commands a significant five per cent Dalit vote in more than half of Bihar’s 40-Lok Sabha seats.

In his speech during the no-confidence motion debate in the Lok Sabha on July 20, Paswan had been mostly supportive of the Modi government. But he had also issued a veiled threat that his party would join the Dalit movement if the government failed to heed the community’s demands.

“We wanted the Centre to bring an ordinance on the SC/ST Act. But it cannot be done now. We have asked the Centre to reintroduce it as a Bill in Parliament on August 7 and restore the previous law. Otherwise Dalit protests on August 9 could be more aggressive than those that took place on April 2,” Chirag Paswan said.

Chirag Paswan said patience of many in the LJP was running thin because of reports of increasing atrocities on Dalits and tribals after the dilution of the law.

But Chirag Paswan said the LJP continued to be part of the BJP-led NDA, and has faith in the PM as his government had done a lot for Dalits. "We will cross the bridge when it comes," he said when asked if his party would consider walking out of the BJP-led NDA if its demands were not met by the August 9 deadline.

Earlier this month, Chirag Paswan had said all politics was the art of the possible when asked if his party might join the Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar. A day later, his father had clarified that the LJP was firmly in the BJP-led NDA.

Chirag Paswan said incidents of atrocities against the community have risen following the verdict and FIRs were not being registered by police. The LJP has criticised justice Goel’s appointment as NGT chief immediately after he retired from the Supreme Court. Earlier this week, Chirag Paswan had written to the PM seeking his removal, saying it has sent a wrong message. Dalits believe that he has been rewarded for his judgement, he said. His father has also written to Home Minister Rajnath Singh on the issue.

Chirag Paswan said the opposition has been working to give an impression that the government was being "anti-Dalit" and the Modi dispensation should take strong measures to dispel it.

The BJP, along with its allies, had won 31 of Bihar’s 40 Lok Sabha seats in 2014. It has since added Janata Dal (United) to the list of its Bihar allies. Dalit leader and Hindustan Awam Morcha chief Jitan Ram Manjhi had aligned with the BJP for the 2015 Bihar assembly polls, but is now with the RJD and Congress alliance. Departure of LJP from NDA in Bihar could mean a dent in whatever support BJP had received from Dalits in 2014.

RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav has also welcomed Rashtriya Lok Samata Party chief Upendra Kushwaha to the fold of the of RJD-led ‘grand alliance’ in Bihar.