HYDERABAD, April 29: Over the past several weeks, lower caste Hindus have made their reservations over candidates of various political parties contesting on reserved seats loud and clear by staging protest demonstrations in various parts of the province.
Scheduled caste Hindus and their lobbyists believe that representatives elected on reserved minority seats neglect their community while milking money for the parties they get elected from.
Till now scheduled caste representatives were rarely observed talking about their issues, be it legislation, their rights or excesses committed by their employers. But it appears now that the tides have changed. The community feels that upper class Hindus — who have for the most part held sway over reserved minority seats — have so much financial stakes that they hardly take a stand on issues confronting the community and choose to avoid them.
Lately the Hindu community, which has been living in upper Sindh for centuries, has also felt extremely alienated from the society because of several cases of forced conversions reported from Sindh in the past couple of years. The names of Rinkle Kumari, Dr Lata Kumari and Asha Kumari made headlines last year in kidnapping and forced conversion cases.
The incidents, combined with incidents of kidnapping for ransom, even scared away a large number of Hindus who left the country for India.
“Generally it is the scheduled caste Hindus who suffer the most,” said Advocate M. Parkash, a member of the National Lobbying Delegation and Liberal Forum Pakistan. “If members of the lower caste communities get a chance to reach assemblies they will be more vocal than their upper class counterparts primarily because they [lower caste] don’t have much to lose socially or financially.”
The scheduled caste community demands representation in parliament according to their population in Sindh — estimated to be between 5.3 and 6.8 million. They are mostly engaged in the end-tier professions such as sanitation, agricultural labourers or kiln workers, where they work in deplorable conditions.
“The Marriage Act, forced conversions and kidnappings for ransom are the issues haunting the Hindu community everywhere,” said advocate M. Parkash.
According to the Hindu community, when they approach their area’s MP they are told to approach their minority member. The minority members argue that their discretionary funds are to be utilised by parties in constituencies where it lost general seats so that their vote bank remains intact.
Though the PPP, PML-N, PML-F, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) have accommodated scheduled caste candidates from Kohli, Bheel and Meghwar communities but a large number of candidates is still from upper caste Hindus contesting on a number of reserved seats — the main reason for the hue and cry raised by the scheduled caste community.
“We did lobby for scheduled caste Hindus so that they are considered for party tickets. I feel that reserved seats have become a regular source of income for political parties,” said Dr Sonu Khangrani, the chief of Pakistani Dalit Solidarity Network (PDSN) and the recipient of a Presidential Award. “Rich Hindus provide a different kind of service to party leaderships.
“They arrange gatherings, dinners and even provide vehicles. Such activities help develop a powerful relationship between leadership and the community,” he said.
According to Mr Khangrani, out of the 2.78 million minority voters registered with Nadra, around 1.25 million are Hindus. “Most of these votes come from the scheduled caste but are represented nowhere in terms of parliamentary reserved seats. So the reservations are very obvious,” he said.
Besides candidates from their own community, the scheduled caste also want to be given dual right of voting — on general and reserved seats. They would be able to elect candidates on general and reserved seats and such an exercise would make reserved seats candidate answerable to the community.
The National Assembly has 272 general and 10 reserved minority seats. This means that each party has to bag at least 27 general seats to claim one reserved minority seat. Similarly in the Sindh Assembly, there are 130 general seats and nine reserved minority seats and each party has to win 14 or 15 general seats to claim one minority seat.
The ‘right’ connections
The PPP has awarded party tickets to Gian Chand for PS-60 and Mahesh Mallani for PS-61 — both in Tharparkar. But their chances of winning in theses constituencies are slim since they are competing against powerful Arbabs who won these seats even in the 2008 elections despite the PPP sympathy wave after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
On the other hand, PPP gave three reserved seats to the financially-strong family of the party’s minority wing president and former PPP MNA, Lal Chand, of Jamshoro. Besides Lal Chand, two of his family members, Peso Mal and Khem Chand, were also awarded PPP tickets.
Though a scheduled caste senator Dr Khatumal Jeewan is also contesting on a PPP ticket, he is number four in the list of MNAs, according to Mr Khangrani.
He said that if scheduled caste representatives are elected to the house then their issues would come into the limelight. “Issues such as the family law, law of conversion and marriage registration need to be resolved,” he said.
“The scheduled caste had a five per cent quota for federal government jobs but in 1995 this quota was allocated for all minorities. Now it is mostly used for the advantage of upper class Hindu families.”
However, PPP minority wing president and former PPP MNA Lal Chand differed with Khangrani. “We don’t believe in discrimination. We only categorise non-Muslims in the context of minority and not as scheduled or upper-class Hindu,” he said, citing the examples of Gian Chand and Mahesh Mallani on contesting on general seats in Tharparkar.
“Had we been interested in only favouring upper class Hindus these two candidates would not have gotten party tickets,” he said.
Advocate Parkash said that minority MNA or MPAs of the area concerned need to support the community so that they don’t feel cornered. “Otherwise Hindus will remain in double jeopardy and will keep running from pillar to post,” he said, calling for dual voting for scheduled caste Hindus.
The Pakistan Hindu Council chairman Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani was also on the same wavelength as Parkash. His name comes second in the PML-N’s list of minority candidates. “Its true that 80 per cent of the Hindu community belongs to scheduled caste Hindus but I would urge people not to get divided on this basis,” he said.
Usually those having the right connections in political parties get consideration for reserved seats otherwise poor Hindus are neglected. “This is the reason I say that Hindus should be given dual voting rights to elect general and minority candidates,” argued Dr Ramesh.
However, Satram Maheshwari, a journalist, strongly defended the reserved nominations. He said that certain elements within the Hindu community tend to blackmail political parties.
He believed that the scheduled caste communities such as Bheel, Kohli and Meghwar are attached to various political parties. “Everyone wants a seat so they use various means to get attention,” he said.
“The PPP gave a ticket to Dr Khatumal Jeewan, the MQM accommodated Ponjhomal Bheel and the PTI Lal Malhi from Umerkot. “What else does the lower caste want?” he asked.
However, PTI candidate Lal Malhi, a former journalist, joined in the chorus with scheduled caste representatives.
He accidentally tops PTI’s list of minority candidates because the other Christian candidate did not fill candidature.
“Only well-off families have access to [reserved] seats because they use different channels to woo party leaders. Some pay money directly while some promise to run election campaigns for some big shots,” he said.