In 1996, Hoshiarpur Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Kanshi Ram was elected to the Lok Sabha.
Nearly three decades later, Jeevan Singh Tamil, popularly known as Jeevan Kumar Mal, wanted to revive the legacy of the BSP founders with his Bahujan Dravidian Party (BDP) and some help from the first Sikh Guru, Guru Nanak Dev.
Sitting in the living room of a community center in a sleepy village in Raipur, a large poster is plastered saying, “Begampura Khalsa Raj Di Prabti Lai Jeevan Singh Tamilu Otu Bhao Ji Vote Jeevan Singh Tamil for the rule of a casteless and just society”.
Jeevan Singh appears as a weather-beaten, local farmer with a shock of white beard, blue turban and white kurta-pyjama. But that’s where the similarity ends.
Jeevan Singh, 51, is a Supreme Court advocate and has been practicing in the national capital for the past four years.
He introduces himself as “a socio-political activist from Tamil Nadu who believes that the path of Guru Nanak has solutions to the issues of human dignity and fundamental rights of the lower castes.
When Jeevan Singh rose to prominence after some social media sites reported how he converted to Sikhism in Patna on Guru Gobind Singh’s birthday, it sounded like music to the ears of some locals who viewed him with a mixture of disbelief and awe.
Jeevan Singh says his conversion happened gradually. It started with Periyar and Kanshiram, the fathers of the Dravidian movement who opposed caste inequality.
I am a lifelong student of Kanshi Ram. He often quoted the verses of the Sikh Gurus. In fact, he once organized a rally around Guru Gobind Singh’s verse ‘Manas Ki Jaat Sabe Ek Behsanpo’.
He declared in Parliament that the Guru Granth Sahib was his party’s manifesto, and credits “Godman” Rajneesh Osho for introducing him to the teachings of Guru Nanak, Namdev and Ravidas, among others.
Born into a poor Dalit family in Gadotipanna in Thoothukudi district of Tamil Nadu, Jeevan Singh was drawn to Periyar and Kanshiram while studying law at Dr. Ambedkar Law University in Chennai.
He was drawn to politics after doing social work with an NGO called People’s Watch. The BDP founder, whose wife is an activist and English teacher, says he contested his first election in Tuticorin in 2014 on a BSP ticket.
But according to Jeevan Singh, the big change came: Kanshiram’s successor, Mayawati, decided to broaden her party’s appeal from ‘Bahujan’ to ‘Sarvajan’.
In Raipur, near Sham Chaurasi in Hoshiarpur, a Scheduled Caste constituency where Dalits make up nearly 36% of the population, a lonely, bored Punjab police officer provides security for Jeevan Singh.
A believer in silence; 72-year-old Punjab unit leader Deerat Singh of Gill village in Ludhiana; and Jagat Ram Jabni, deputy chairman of Bullowal district in Hoshiarpur.
Deerat Singh, who has known Jeevan Singh since he joined him in Kanshiram’s cycle rally from Kanyakumari to Delhi in 1992, says people have gradually warmed to him, while Jabni says villagers shower more affection on the BDP founder. Lots of guides.
Some people told me that they liked the way I used Bekampura (a casteless community described by a poem of the same name by Bhagat Ravidas) with the Khalsa, which means pure Jeevan Singh.
But he is seen as cozying up to Panthic politics by talking about hardliner Amritpal Singh, who is detained under the draconian National Security Act (NSA) and now in jail, and promising to work to ensure the freedom of Sikh political prisoners. Assam Jail.
According to Jeevan Singh, the BDP has fielded 30 candidates in half a dozen states. Asked if he fears losing deposits, he quips: “A man without faith cannot start a revolution.
The 51-year-old says the 2020 farmers’ agitation taught him that the 3T (time, talent and treasure) can outwit the 3Ts (time, talent and treasure) of money, mafia and media used by powerful mainstream parties like the BJP, Congress or Aam Aadmi Party. Used by farmers.
On why he chose Punjab as the center for his ideological experiment, Jeevan Singh, who has been camping here since May 5, says he zeroed in on the state as there was no “visible” discrimination against Dalits here. “Everyone lives together as a community,” he says.
In the remote town of Mansa, Bhagwant Samon, leader of the Mastur Mukti Morcha, which is contesting the Lok Sabha elections from Bathinda, disagrees. “Last week, an ‘arthya (grain collecting commission agent)’ used the public address system to insult Dalit women near Paretta Mandi. Such incidents are very common. Sometimes half-knowledge is dangerous,” he says.
In Raipur, Aam Aadmi Party’s Raj Kumar Sabbewal, Anita Som Prakash, wife of BJP’s former Union Minister and sitting MP Som Prakash, and Congress’s Yamini Gomar are seen as key contests by the youth. 2014 Aam Aadmi Ticket. Asked about PDP’s prospects, they laughed.
