New Delhi: The yr was 2016 and the Aam Aadmi Celebration (AAP) had swept the Delhi Meeting polls the earlier yr, profitable 67 of 70 seats. This was when Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal inducted Rajendra Pal Gautam, then a first-time MLA from Seemapuri, into his cupboard.
Whereas Gautam, 54, was not the AAP’s first alternative because the ‘Dalit face’ of the Kejriwal Cupboard, he managed to deal with a number of portfolios together with Social Welfare and SC & ST welfare — all of the whereas sustaining a low-profile.
Gautam, a member of the AAP’s nationwide government, resigned as a minister within the Delhi authorities Sunday after his presence at an occasion in Karol Bagh final week triggered a political controversy.
Movies surfaced of Gautam attending the occasion on 5 October the place he, alongside Ambedkar’s great-grandson Rajratna Ambedkar, was seen repeating the ‘22 vows’ Ambedkar prescribed to his followers at an occasion in Nagpur in 1956 after changing from Hinduism to Buddhism.
The Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP) accused Gautam of allegedly ‘denouncing Hinduism’ by taking an oath to ‘boycott’ Hindu deities and demanded his resignation. Delhi BJP leaders additionally accused the AAP of ‘hurting the spiritual sentiments of Hindus’.
In his resignation, Gautam wrote that he attended the occasion in his private capability and never as an AAP member or a minister. He additionally accused the BJP of doing “soiled politics” over the problem, including that he determined to step down maintaining his celebration’s greatest pursuits in thoughts.
“Over the previous few years, he [Gautam] has attended many such occasions throughout India however it has by no means been a political challenge,” mentioned a senior AAP chief who didn’t want to be named.
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‘Hardcore Ambedkarite’
A lawyer by career, Gautam is thought to these in his internal circle as a Dalit rights activist, a hardcore Ambedkarite and an avid reader. The 2-time MLA is a Buddhist and founding father of the NGO ‘Mission Jai Bheem’, which helped organise the 5 October occasion.
“Mr Gautam is a hardcore Ambedkarite,” mentioned the AAP chief talked about earlier, including that the previous minister has many bookshelves devoted solely to Ambedkar’s writings at his residence.
Gautam, who received by a margin of 48,821 votes in 2015, not solely retained the Seemapuri seat — positioned within the northeastern peripheries of Delhi — in 2020 however widened his margin of victory to 56,108.
In contrast to a lot of the AAP’s prime management, Gautam was not a part of the 2011 India In opposition to Corruption (IAC) motion and joined the celebration solely in 2014. He received the meeting polls the following yr and was inducted into the Kejriwal Cupboard in 2016 with the cost of social welfare, SC & ST welfare, gurdwara elections and registrar cooperative societies.
The Delhi Cupboard has seven ministerial berths, of which one is reserved for an individual hailing from scheduled caste and scheduled tribe classes.
Nevertheless, Gautam was not Arvind Kejriwal’s first alternative.
After the AAP’s thumping victory in 2015, Kejriwal selected Sandeep Kumar for the reserved cupboard berth, giving him cost of portfolios together with social welfare, SC/ST welfare and ladies & little one growth. Whereas Kumar, in contrast to Gautam, had identified Kejriwal for the reason that IAC days, the MLA from Sultanpur Majra fell out of favour with the AAP management after a controversial video of him surfaced in August 2016.
“Subsequent alternative for the ministerial place was Rakhi Birla, who too, was related to the AAP management for the reason that Anna [Hazare] motion days. However earlier in the identical yr, she was made the Delhi deputy speaker. Boss [Kejriwal] then determined to offer Rajendra Pal Gautam an opportunity and he did rather well within the portfolios given to him,” mentioned a senior AAP chief.
‘Asset to AAP’
In 2019, Gautam went on to turn out to be the primary drive behind one of many flagship initiatives of the AAP authorities in Delhi — the Jai Bhim Mukhyamantri Pratibha Vikas Yojana. The scheme is basically a scholarship for college students from marginalised backgrounds to assist them enrol in main teaching centres to arrange for a variety of aggressive exams pertaining to the fields of medical and engineering, amongst others.
A second Delhi-based senior AAP functionary, who didn’t want to be named, mentioned Gautam has “excellent connections with Dalit teams and civil proper teams throughout India” together with “management qualities”.
“That means, he’s an asset as a result of greater than 20 per cent of Delhi’s inhabitants are individuals belonging to the Dalit neighborhood. He performed an lively function throughout election campaigns in Delhi in addition to in different states together with Punjab, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh,” the functionary instructed ThePrint.
Whereas the AAP swept the Punjab elections in March, it did not bag even a single seat in both Uttarakhand or Uttar Pradesh. The celebration is now working to broaden its footprint within the poll-bound states of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.
With Gautam’s resignation, the AAP is now left grappling with the query of whether or not his exit from the cupboard may damage the celebration’s electoral prospects amongst Dalit voters in poll-bound states.
“Now we have assessed such situations prior to now whereas maintaining a protected distance from spiritual points. Our thought is to create a separate house that’s primarily based on growth, welfare, jobs, higher residing, and so on. That’s what we expect primarily issues to individuals,” mentioned one other senior AAP chief.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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