Lautan Ram Nishad can offer a counter to BJP’s Hindutva. If only Akhilesh Yadav lets him

 In Uttar Pradesh, politics of social justice has no chance of revival. In India’s electorally most important state, Ram and BJP set the rules.

the promise of Nishad’s politics and ideology, as a counter to the BJP’s Hindutva, has been betrayed by his own Samajwadi Party and its leader Akhilesh Yadav. It also shows that there is no political space in the Hindi heartland for a Periyar-style ideological atheism.

Until last week, Lautan Ram Nishad was the state chief of the Samajwadi Party’s (SP) OBC cell. In a media interaction in Ayodhya, Nishad was asked about his views on Ram and the Ram Mandir. Because of his socialist-Lohiaite-Ambedkarite training, the SP leader has been an atheist and a supporter of separation of religion and politics. So, Nishad bluntly answered: “I don’t believe in Ram or any other god. He is a fictional character. I am of the opinion that the life chances of the lower caste people in India have improved not because of any imaginary god and goddesses. Rather it was because of leaders like Dr B.R. Ambedkar and Jyotiba Phule that the OBCs and the SC-STs have got their constitutional rights.”