Why Shivraj Singh Chouhan diluted SC/ST Act in Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh (MP) is simmering over the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, in brief called the SC/ST Act, a couple of months ahead of the assembly election in the state. This is a dangerous development for the BJP as the upper castes (UCs) and the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) are protesting against the Centre overturning the Supreme Court’s order diluting the provisions of the Act and which gave some reliefs to the UCs and the OBCs.

Since late last month, UC and OBC groups had started expressing reservation over the Modi government restoring the stringent provisions of the SC/ST Act. However, these reservations turned into protests from the turn of the month.

As per the Supreme Court order, a complaint could have led to the arrest of the accused only after a preliminary enquiry (PE) and there was the provision of anticipatory bail. However, Parliament overturned these provisions and made them status quo ante.

Peeved over this, the protesters called for a bandh on September 6 after which they intensified their struggle. Looking at the growing unrest among the non-SC and ST castes, MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan yesterday (September 21) announced that it would not follow the Centre’s law.

In a tweet, Shivraj Singh Chouhan said, “The SC/ST Act would not be misused in MP. Arrests will not take place without enquiry.”

The timing of Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s announcement is also noteworthy. It came on a day Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati declared that her party would contest alone in Madhya Pradesh besides aligning with Ajit Jogi’s Chhattisgarh Janata Party in the neighbouring state.

This may split the votes of the SCs and the STs between the Congress and the BSP. The BJP, therefore, is less worried about garnering the votes of the SCs and STs than it was before Mayawati’s latest stand.

The BJP seems to have got down to consolidating the votes of the UCs and the OBCs which appeared to be slipping away from its kitty.

Meanwhile, this is the first statement coming from not just the chief minister but also anyone in the state BJP ever since the protests started over the SC/ST Act in the poll-bound state.

Otherwise, the ministers and all other leaders had been shying away from speaking anything on the issue considering it too hot and sensitive to handle.

Why only the BJP leaders? Even the Congress politicians had kept from speaking a word on the contentious topic.

All this while, the UCs and OBCs kept protesting. They confronted not only the BJP leaders but also those from the Congress party, shouting slogans against them, pelting stones on their cavalcade and painting the offices of the two parties black.

Besides Shivraj Singh Chouhan, other BJP leaders such as Union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar and Thawar Chand Gehlot, Rajya Sabha MP Prabhat Jha were hooted by the protestors. Among the Congress leaders, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Rajya Sabha MP Digvijaya Singh among others faced the wrath of the protestors.

The UCs and OBCs are largely loosely organised groups devoid of any organisation or leader. The only guidance they are getting is from newly-formed anti-reservation organisation Samanya Pichhda Alpsankhyak Kalyan Samaj (SAPAKS) and a spiritual guru Devkinandan Thakur.

SAPAKS and Devkinandan Thakur called for a Bharat Bandh on September 6 which passed off peacefully. However, their grievance found support from a large number of people.

Devkinandan Thakur was even issued advisory by the administration on September 10 to refrain from leading the agitation. He was detained at Agra, where he was on a visit the next day. However, he was let off later the same day.

The protest was initially limited to Gwalior. However, very soon it spread to other districts of the state, particularly Satna where the police was forced to charge the protestors with cane earlier this week.

In a strange phenomenon, though elections are also to be held in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, the protests are concentrated in MP.

Meanwhile, as the protest spread and got intensified, it has worried both the ruling BJP and the main opposition party. However, the Shivraj Singh Chouhan is likely to suffer more losses than the Congress because it was the BJP government at the Centre which overturned the Supreme Court order on the SC/ST Act and BJP has been ruling MP for almost 15 years now.

With elections approaching fast and protest against the SC/ST Act intensifying, CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan was forced yesterday to issue a statement in order to pacify the protestors.