Once a great medium of empowerment, political parties have now become a medium of entrapment. In the past, while fighting against the monarchical state, these parties organised and mobilised Dalits and sensitised them about their rights. However, the same parties have now become a catch-22—we can’t do anything without them, but we can’t do anything with them either. Many Dalits are still connected to the mainstream parties, yet it’s impossible to work towards social transformation and social justice whilst serving the upper-caste masters.

The newly formed ruling coalition’s total exclusion of Dalits from the government is nothing new; nonetheless, it is deeply frustrating. This further proves the high casteist character of the ruling elites and the political parties in general. Things won’t change unless we do something about it.

A Dalit-free Cabinet

Conservative Hindus, strictly adhering to the traditional caste rules, would be thrilled to see the recent formation of yet another government—a much stronger one in terms of parliamentary support, led by a Bahun and without a single Dalit minister. They’d be glad to see the sacred caste hierarchy and Brahmanism protected, preserved and prevailed. Nepal is the only country in the world where one apex-caste Bahun follows another and leads it further. If Saint Manu were alive today, he would have greatly rejoiced the sight of his injunctions about keeping the Shudra away from power being followed by the so-called communists and others.

The previous coalition government, led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal, had no Dalit minister either. The former revolutionary leader still projects himself as the messiah of the downtrodden but has refrained from offering an influential position to a Dalit comrade. There’s no shortage of Dalits who, to date, consider him their saviour. But my realist eyes see him, with due respect, as the most hypocritical of all.

Parliament witnessed the height of Dahal’s hypocrisy on July 12. In his last address to the legislature as premier—hours before losing the vote of confidence and, thereby, his office—he remembered Dalits and other marginalised groups. He warned them about what the two biggest parties might do to hurt their cause. He sounded extremely hollow, as he had not only excluded Dalits from his Cabinet but also done absolutely nothing to tackle the pervasive problem of caste discrimination and untouchability in his three terms as top executive.

Many had hoped that Dalits would be included in the new KP Sharma Oli Cabinet. It was a coalition of the two biggest parties, agreeing to work together to lead the nation to a new path of stability, peace and prosperity. Nevertheless, none were selected. It was nothing new or surprising. The appointments of many Dalit leaders have been cancelled at the last minute, both at the federal and state governments.

In the three-and-a-half decades since the fall of the partyless Panchayat regime in 1990 and the emergence of the multiparty system, political parties have persistently neglected Dalits. Some became ministers, many of them junior ministers, but no Dalit has thus far been awarded important or influential portfolios like home minister, finance minister, foreign minister or defence minister.

The obvious reason for this perpetual exclusion is that the parties, big and small, left and right, old and new, have an unwritten agreement to obey Manusmriti vis-à-vis Dalits. Chapter 4, verse 61 of the ancient book says that a Shudras should not be allowed to become a ruler and that no Brahmin should live in a land ruled by them.

Why bother at all?

Some Dalits ask me: Why bother? They rightly point out that none of the Dalits lucky enough to become ministers have liberated their masses. All of them have been utterly obedient to their party leaders and have effectively forgotten Dalit issues. So why should we care about not getting any Dalit ministers in the first place? What difference does it make for ordinary Dalits?

The same can be said about ministers and government officials from other marginalised communities. Many Madheshi leaders have had the opportunity to serve as government ministers but don’t seem to focus much on securing the rights of their constituents. Janajatis are even worse. The erstwhile finance minister, Barsaman Pun, didn’t introduce any new policies or allocate any budget to promote the identity and rights of ethnic nationalities, did he?

Despite having many grievances about our representatives not doing enough to secure our rights, we should keep demanding our representation at all levels of the state, including the federal government. We should raise our voices for incision more vociferously.

Representation matters for any community anywhere in the world. That’s how we feel included and encouraged, and, more importantly, how we develop a sense of belonging to our country and to our society. We shouldn’t level our grievances squarely on our representatives for their incompetence; their loyalty to their party and lack of skills and abilities may be part of the problem.

However, looking at the bigger picture, it’s not difficult to realise that under a Brahmanic rule, there’s actually very little Dalits can do. They have limited influence even when they occupy seemingly lofty positions. What matters in the end is one’s caste background. This is true not just of our parties and governments but also of our army, police, judiciary, civil administration and our media.

What do we do?

Ideally, the best way to challenge this level of exclusion and neglect by parties and leaders would be for Dalits to establish their own parties and win seats in Parliament and the government. Some Dalit politicians and activists haven’t stopped dreaming of this, whereas a few have already established Dalit parties.

But I don’t think this is a feasible option. It’s almost impossible for Dalit parties to exclusively make a significant presence in Parliament. Dalits are too dispersed to form a regional force and don’t have access to power and wealth to contest increasingly costly elections. Things are going to get tougher now that the two big parties seem to have agreed to amend the constitution. They will increase the threshold and limit seats to be won through proportional representation to make sure the smaller parties aren’t able to stake a claim in national and federal power structures.

The Dalits’ approach should be both to demand representation in government and better performance of Dalits when they are in positions of power. Moreover, Dalits should form strong lobbies, watchdogs and pressure groups to apply pressure on ministers, junior ministers, government secretaries, CDOs and judges to think more about Dalit identity and rights and to contribute in that direction.