In 1996, Hoshiarpur elected Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Kanshi Ram to the Lok Sabha. Almost three decades later, Jeevan Singh Tamil, previously known as Jeevan Kumar Mall, is looking to revive the BSP founder’s legacy with his Bahujan Dravid Party (BDP) and some help from Guru Nanak Dev, the first Sikh guru.
Seated in a room of a community centre in the sleepy village of Raipur adjacent to a giant poster that reads “Begumpura Khalsa Raj di praapti layee, Jeevan Singh Tamil nu vote pao ji (Vote for Jeevan Singh Tamil for the rule of a casteless and just society),” Jeevan Singh looks every bit a weather-beaten, local farmer with his shock of white beard, blue turban, and white kurta-pyjama. But that is where the similarity ends.
The 51-year-old Jeevan Singh is a Supreme Court lawyer, practising in the national capital for the past four years. He introduces himself as “a socio-political activist from Tamil Nadu who believes that Guru Nanak’s path has the solution to issues related to human dignity and the fundamental rights of the lowest castes”.
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This seems like music to the ears of some locals, who have been viewing him with a mix of disbelief and awe, especially when Jeevan Singh gained prominence after few social media platforms reported how he had adopted Sikhism in Patna on Guru Gobind Singh’s birth anniversary in January last year.
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Jeevan Singh says his change of heart was gradual. It started with Periyar, the father of the Dravidian movement who opposed caste inequality, and Kanshi Ram. “I am a lifelong student of Kanshi Ram. He frequently quoted verses of the Sikh gurus. In fact, he once conducted a rally around Guru Gobind Singh’s verse, ‘Manas ki jaat sabhe eke pehchanbo (The human race is one)’. He declared in Parliament that the Guru Granth Sahib is his party’s manifesto,” he says 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 Kadodipannai in Tuticorin district of Tamil Nadu, Jeevan Singh was studying law at Dr. Ambedkar Law University in Chennai when he was drawn to Periyar and Kanshi Ram. He gravitated to politics after a stint of social work with an NGO called People’s Watch.
The BDP founder, whose wife is an activist-cum-English teacher, says he contested his maiden election from Tuticorin on a BSP ticket in 2014. But then came the big shift, according to Jeevan Singh: the decision of Kanshi Ram’s successor, Mayawati, to expand her party’s appeal from ‘Bahujan’ to ‘Sarvajan’.
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In 2019, Jeevan Singh floated his Bahujan Dravid Party. “I thought if our differences arise from ideology, we should move to another one to bring all the 700 castes under one umbrella,” he says.
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At Raipur near Sham Chaurasi in the SC-reserved constituency of Hoshiarpur, where Dalits constitute almost 36% of the population, a lone, bored Punjab police officer guards Jeevan Singh as he holds fort with Ashok Singh, his second-in-command, who believes in remaining silent; Tirath Singh, his talkative 72-year-old Punjab unit president from Gill village in Ludhiana; and Jagat Ram Jabni from Bullowal in Hoshiarpur, the district vice-president.
Tirath Singh, who has known Jeevan Singh since he joined him for Kanshi Ram’s cycle rally from Kanyakumari to Delhi in 1992, says people are gradually warming up to them while Jabni claims villagers shower a lot of affection on the BDP founder, who has suddenly found a profusion of mentors.
“Some told me they liked the way I had used Begumpura (a casteless society described by a poem of the same name by Bhagat Ravidas) with Khalsa, which means the pure,” Jeevan Singh says. But he is also seen as cosying up to Panthic politics by promising to work to ensure the freedom of Sikh political prisoners, besides talking about hardliner Amritpal Singh, who had been detained under the stringent National Security Act (NSA) and is currently lodged in an Assam jail.
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According to Jeevan Singh, the BDP has fielded 30 candidates across half a dozen states. Upon being asked if he fears forfeiting deposits, he quips: “A man without confidence cannot start a revolution.”
The 51-year-old claims the farmers’ agitation in 2020 taught him that the 3Ms (money, mafia and media), used by the “mighty”, mainstream parties like the BJP, Congress or AAP, can be outwitted with 3Ts (time, talent and treasure) used by peasants.
On why he chose Punjab as the centre for his ideological experiment, Jeevan Singh, who has camped here since May 5, says he zeroed in on the state as there was no “visible” discrimination against the Dalits here. “Everyone lives together as a community,” he says.
In the distant city of Mansa, Bhagwant Samaon, chief of the Mazdoor Mukti Morcha, who is contesting the Lok Sabha polls from Bathinda, disagrees. “Last week, an “arhtiya (a commission agent who picks up grain)” used the public address system to heap insults on Dalit women near Bareta mandi. Such incidents are so common. Sometimes half-baked knowledge is dangerous,” he says
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In Raipur itself, youngsters feel the “main contest” is between Raj Kumar Chabbewal of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the BJP’s Anita Som Prakash, the wife of former Union Minister and sitting MP Som Prakash, and the Congress’s Yamini Gomar, who had contested on an AAP ticket in 2014. Asked about the BDP’s chances, they smile.
