Last Updated on 31/07/2024 by wccexam Desk
Caste surveys have been conducted in states before. It was never felt necessary to release the data. The issue of caste census got a strong political base in Bihar, when Nitish Kumar, while running the government with BJP, took the initiative with Tejashwi Yadav. Caste census was conducted in Bihar, and after being presented in the assembly, the proposal to increase the reservation limit was also passed. But the High Court put a stay on it, and the Supreme Court also approved the decision of the High Court – now Nitish Kumar is saying that he has requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to include Bihar’s proposal in the Ninth Schedule.
The latest debate that has started after Rahul Gandhi’s mention of caste census in Parliament is not a new matter. When the women’s bill was introduced in the special session of Parliament in 2023, Rahul Gandhi raised the demand for OBC reservation – and after that he started demanding caste census through social media. Later, a resolution was also passed in the Congress Working Committee regarding this, after which during the assembly elections, he kept promising caste census if he came to power. There was no effect of Rahul Gandhi’s election promise in the assembly elections, but the opposition got tremendous benefit in the Lok Sabha elections – and now preparations are on to capitalize on it further.
The question is who is going to benefit from the ongoing debate on caste census? The ruling NDA at the Centre or the INDIA Block which has emerged as a stronger opposition than before?
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After the results of the caste survey conducted in Bihar came out, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tried to directly reject this issue from his side, and also tried to explain what is the intention of the opposition parties behind the caste census?
While presenting the Union Budget 2024, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also said that the focus of the interim budget has been the poor, women, youth and farmers – in fact, these are the same four categories that Prime Minister Modi had presented as the four major castes of the country.
But now the debate on caste census that is going on is only and only a political fight, in which the opposition is trying to incite the BJP – and from the reaction of Anurag Thakur in Parliament, it does not seem that the BJP is taking this issue seriously.
Did anyone ask anyone’s caste?
The debate going on on social media, did the same thing happen in Parliament as well? Questions are being raised on social media in the name of caste. An old video of Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav has also started circulating again, in which he is hinting at caste by telling his surname to a journalist – In Parliament too, Akhilesh Yadav had asked the question standing on behalf of Rahul Gandhi – how can you ask someone’s caste? Actually, through the old video, people are trying to show the mirror to Akhilesh Yadav.
But did anyone ask anyone’s caste in Parliament? If yes, then who asked him and from whom?
What happened was that on Rahul Gandhi’s demand for caste census, BJP MP Anurag Thakur had said in a sarcastic manner, “The one whose caste is not known talks about census!”
On this sarcasm of Anurag Thakur, Rahul Gandhi accused the BJP MP of insulting him, but at the same time he also said that he does not want an apology from Anurag Thakur – because he is fighting a battle. He also explained from his side that he is fighting for the downtrodden and deprived sections of the society.
But Akhilesh Yadav stood up and while defending Rahul Gandhi, he got angry at BJP MP Anurag Thakur and attacked him. Akhilesh Yadav said, how can you ask someone’s caste?
In fact, Rahul Gandhi has been trying to make the caste of the officers posted in the central government an issue many times. While introducing the Women’s Bill in Parliament, Rahul Gandhi had said that out of 90 secretaries in the central government, only 3 are from the OBC category – and in the same way, while showing the picture of the budget pudding, Rahul Gandhi had claimed that 20 officers prepared the country’s budget, but only one of them is a minority and one is an OBC, and there is not a single Dalit or tribal among them.
Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi said, ‘Only 2-3 per cent people in the government are preparing halwa… the same number of people are eating halwa, and the rest of India is not getting it.’
Is BJP starting to fall into the trap of Congress?
Of course, BJP is constantly responding, but the problem is that the agenda is being set by the opposition led by Congress, and BJP is being forced to respond – overall it can be said that this entire narrative is going against BJP’s politics.
The question is why is BJP getting entangled in the web of caste-based discussions of Congress? BJP’s parent organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has always been against such things. On one hand, the Sangh runs a campaign of one well, one crematorium and one temple among Hindus, and on the other hand, BJP leaders are getting unnecessarily entangled in the debate of caste census.
This debate seems to be similar to the DNA issue that became an issue in the 2015 Bihar elections. Everyone knows what the result was, but instead of recovering, the BJP is getting trapped in the opposition’s strategy.
Anurag Thakur has again trapped BJP in the 2020 Delhi Assembly elections. Now BJP is helpless because Anurag Thakur has spoken, so it will have to defend itself. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also shared a video of Anurag Thakur, and has insisted that he should be heard. The video is of Anurag Thakur’s speech, in which he is trying to put Rahul Gandhi in the dock on the pretext of Shashi Tharoor’s book ‘The Great Indian Novel’. Actually, it is a humorous novel in which Shashi Tharoor is discussing the leaders of the time in the background of Mahabharata, in which comparisons have been made with the characters of Mahabharata. On the completion of 25 years of publication of his novel, Shashi Tharoor had said in a literary festival in Kolkata in 2015, I am lucky that my book was not banned, and after that I have never looked back.
Anurag Thakur wanted a chance. BJP has certainly won all four seats in Himachal Pradesh in the Lok Sabha elections, but despite that the anger of the party leadership has not subsided. Anurag Thakur not being made a minister in the central government shows that BJP has not forgotten the defeat in the Himachal Pradesh assembly elections – obviously Anurag Thakur is doing all this only to please the leadership. Certainly this can be beneficial for Anurag Thakur personally, but is it a profitable deal for BJP as well? After losing the Delhi assembly elections in 2020, in an interview, BJP leader Amit Shah also admitted that the opposition made the speeches of leaders like Anurag Thakur an issue, which went against the BJP. At that time, one of Anurag Thakur’s slogans was very popular, ‘Desh ke gaddaron ko, goli maaro…’
Doesn’t the BJP leadership feel that Anurag Thakur has repeated the mistake of the Delhi elections for personal gain? Even if Anurag Thakur did not take Rahul Gandhi’s name in Parliament.
Is Congress succeeding in its mission?
Keeping aside the election issues of Jammu and Kashmir, assembly elections are going to be held in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand this year, which is very important for the BJP to win at any cost, so that it can compensate for the performance of the Lok Sabha elections – and along with that, by-elections are also going to be held on 10 assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh.
The way Rahul Gandhi is making caste politics an issue and Akhilesh Yadav is supporting him, it is clear that all this is being done keeping the UP by-elections in mind. BJP should not forget that this issue will not have any effect on the by-elections – because anyway, BJP’s ‘achche din’ are not going well at the moment. Many things are happening, including train accidents, which go against BJP, and BJP’s opponents can easily benefit from this.
I don’t know whether BJP’s strategists are able to understand this or not, but Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is seeing immense benefits in caste politics. The first advantage is that Rahul Gandhi is comfortably cornering the BJP in Parliament. The second advantage is that on the pretext of caste politics, Congress is getting strong support from political parties like Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal. The third advantage is that by setting such a narrative, Rahul Gandhi is trying to make a place in the hearts of the backward class people, so that the OBC section that has turned away from the Congress can be connected again.
Congress also got votes from backward and Dalits in Lok Sabha elections, but actually they are votes of Samajwadi Party or RJD which have been transferred. But what will happen when Congress wants to get rid of regional parties after standing on its own feet. Who can understand better than Akhilesh Yadav what Rahul Gandhi thinks about regional parties. Right now it is an alliance of compulsion. When both Congress and Samajwadi Party started realizing that it is difficult to fight BJP without holding each other’s hand, then they adopted this path.
If BJP too understands the tricks of the Congress-led INDIA block leaders in time, then only its welfare is possible. What can be a bigger lesson for BJP than the condition of Congress.
There is only one thing in BJP’s favour. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who conducted the caste census in Bihar, is still with the BJP – but can he save the BJP from getting trapped in caste politics? The problem is that Nitish Kumar had conducted the caste census in collaboration with the anti-BJP camp.