The buzz now is on caste census. With the Bihar government releasing its caste census report, the INDIA alliance is in a mood to use Backward Caste welfare as the main campaign plank for the upcoming parliament polls. This issue might have the potential to upstage the BJP and catch Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the wrong foot. Caught in a desert, the opposition is increasingly seeing a mirage. The tone was set by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who raised the point that out of the 90 secretaries in the Union Government, only three are from the backward communities. The BJP can be depended on to come up with a counter-strategy. A Modi image by itself will not help it retain power. The old ‘India Shining’ slogan did not help the BJP win the polls after the AB Vajpayee phase. For, in any election, the undercurrents influence the outcome.
Certain aspects must be noted in the present context. When Rahul Gandhi expresses his indignation at the sidelining of the backward communities – who form over 60 per cent of the population – as also Muslims and other minorities in the governmental apparatuses, this must be taken with a pinch of salt. It was his party, the Congress, which ruled India for much of the past and shaped the bureaucracy on these lines. The BJP too ruled this country for repeated terms. The credit for the gains and the blame for the ills of the nation must be shared handsomely between these two parties.
If the BJP government is hesitating to go for a caste-census at the national level, fact is also that such aspects of the 2011 Census report had not been made public by the Congress-led UPA government and the BJP-led Modi government also avoided it like a hot potato. The Mandal Commission report was kept locked in government shelves by the Congress governments while it was the VP Singh-led opposition government that finally implemented its recommendations to help the BCs. The Congress is now changing the tune as it badly wants to outwit the BJP and win the polls. The Indian society is deeply fragmented on caste, religious, racial, regional and linguistic lines. Justice is a far cry in most respects even as governance is apologetic. The North-East, or the East as a whole, lay neglected for many decades. The South overcame such neglect after Narasimha Rao became Prime Minister. Even today, the BJP is focusing its infra development push largely in the Hindi belt. Equitable distribution of opportunities remains a dream. Muscle-flexers manage to grab more while the weak are left to fend for themselves. Politics here is a game of crooks. Fooling the people is the name of the game.
