According to highly placed police sources, the growing organisation has a militant angle to it. “The face of the Bhim Army may be a young lawyer Chandrashekhar, but the brain behind the outfit is Satish Kumar, a Dalit thinker from Chutmulpur village. Satish has been underground since the violence in Saharanpur began. He is the man to look out for,” said a police official.
Satish, according to sources, wanted to build the Bhim Army on the lines of the Shiv Sena and instill an element of fear in non-Dalits, especially, politicians and the administration and he used Chandrashekhar as the face of his outfit.
Chandrashekhar became a household name two years ago when he clashed with Thakur youths in the AHP College in Saharanpur over the issue of a separate hand pump for Dalit students.
Satish and Chandrashekhar have formed WhatsApp groups of Dalit youths in several districts of western Uttar Pradesh and their one message percolates down to the rural interiors within minutes.
Dalits are now being asked to report incidents of caste discrimination and hundreds of Dalit youth reach the site of the incident. Satish has also been asking Dalits to learn how to defend themselves and that too, “in a language that the upper castes understand”.
“Lathi ka jawab lathi, goli ka jawab goli”, is the tag line of his speeches and messages. “The aggression of Dalits was more than visible in the recent clashes and this is a dangerous trend in the present social set-up,” said a local journalist S.K. Dubey.
“Satish remains an unknown face, but he is the real brain behind the Bhim Army. They have formed a three-tier outfit and he remains in the core group. Chandrashekhar is the face of the outfit and gives interviews, leads demonstrations and posts videos on social networking sites. It is Satish who is dangerous because he remains underground and decides the course of the outfit. Reports suggest that he is also advising Dalits to invest in weapons instead of clothes”, said an intelligence official.
A Dalit woman, Mamta Shiva, has been entrusted the job of bringing Dalit women into the Bhim Army. Mamta, sources said, has been looking after women who were injured in the casteist clashes, taking care of families whose men are in jail and also visiting the Dalits in jail.
She is encouraging public funding for her activities and now has a group of young girls who are actively helping her. “If the outfit is not firmly dealt with, it could emerge as a major problem in the coming days”, said the police official.
Fearing the possibility of a ban, the Bhim Army has already floated new organisations under different names. One of the organisations that is gaining roots in Lucknow is called “Lakshya”, which aims at bringing the intellectuals in the Dalit community to one platform. “Lakshya”, according to sources, will focus on building up its cadres in the Avadh region, particularly districts adjoining Lucknow.
The other organisation that is spreading its reach is MOST (Muslims, Other Backward Castes, Scheduled Castes and Tribes). MOST is headquartered in Sultanpur and works in Rae Bareli and Amethi at the moment.
Both organisations are preparing to set up kangaroo courts in Dalit dominated areas and dispense justice on the spot.