The line of the supreme and powerful who came to pay their last respects to the late Bahujan Samaj Party founder and Dalit “messiah”, Kanshi Ram, at his residence, was a fitting tribute in itself — Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, her son Rahul, Leader of the Opposition L.K. Advani, former prime minister V.P. Singh, Cabinet ministers Shivraj Patil, Sharad Pawar, Lalu Prasad Yadav, even Ram Vilas Paswan, who has always seen himself as a rival.

There were also political allies who had parted ways not so amicably — BJP leaders Arun Jaitely, Kalraj Mishra and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, JD(U) leader George Fernandes, among others.

But perhaps it was the ceaseless wave of Kanshi Ram’s followers — the Dalits whom he gave a powerful voice to — who testify to their leader’s accomplishments and triumph. As they jostled, pushed and filed into the party office for a last look at their leader, amidst the sounds of Buddhist chants and gongs, it was a stunning spectacle today, of quiet vigour and vitality of their new identity — of inclusiveness, empowerment and privilege.

If, in the villages it is the poor peasantry, wretched in their subjugation and poverty, in the cities, Kanshi Ram’s devotees are the bedrock of bureaucratic India — the vast, faceless, white-collar workers, subordinates and clerks, who he first enrolled as part of his mission, called BAMSEF (Backward and Minority, Scheduled Caste Employees Federation). They came in hundreds, from public sector banks and insurance companies, post offices to courier companies, from VSNL to BSNL, Indian oil companies to Indian railways, co-operatives to commissions, police force and judiciary offices, to express their gratitude and indebtedness to their leader who made life possible.

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