The monsoon session of Parliament has been going on for the last 9 days. Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi is continuously attacking BJP. And he is also cornering BJP by making those points an issue for which BJP has a better record than Congress. BJP is not able to understand how to counter those narratives of Rahul. Whatever BJP is doing, it is getting trapped in it itself. For example, when BJP MP Anurag Thakur asked about Rahul Gandhi’s caste on Tuesday, there was an uproar. Whereas Rahul Gandhi himself is harping on caste-caste. He has been asking journalists about their caste. Secondly, Akhilesh Yadav is more angry than Rahul Gandhi as if he has never asked anyone about their caste. Akhilesh has also been insulting journalists by asking their caste. And Akhilesh’s entire politics is based on caste. Kamandal came into existence only to counter the casteist politics of Mandal.
But it must also be accepted that the narrative is constantly being set against the BJP. Congress and its allies are talking about caste census, if BJP had talked about caste census, it would have been accused of doing so with the intention of discrimination. Today BJP has lagged behind in setting this narrative. Why this is happening can be a matter of debate.
BJP has been in support of caste census, but the narrative is being set differently
Even before Rahul Gandhi, the issue of conducting caste census has been raised by Nitish Kumar, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadav. During the UPA government at the center, there was a demand for caste census in 2010, but Congress refused. Just last year, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar raised the issue of caste census and the Bihar government conducted caste census. Not only this, the census report was also brought before the public. On the basis of the report, the Bihar government also increased the reservation limit to benefit various deprived castes. The Bharatiya Janata Party was in the opposition in Bihar at that time. But the Bharatiya Janata Party supported every step of caste census. BJP was also included in the all-party delegation demanding caste census. Meanwhile, efforts were also made to stop the caste census. The matter reached the Supreme Court. The court sought the central government’s side, and caste census became possible only after the BJP government at the center gave its OK.
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Not only this, big BJP leaders of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra have also supported caste census. Keshav Prasad Maurya in Uttar Pradesh, Devendra Fadnavis in Maharashtra etc. have always supported the demand for caste census. Not only support, these leaders have also been demanding caste census. As far as caste census is concerned, neither Congress-ruled states nor BJP-ruled states took the initiative. When caste census was being conducted in Bihar, Congress was in power in Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh. But never thought about caste census. Not only this, Rahul Gandhi, who demands caste census every day, never even asked the Congress government of Karnataka why the caste census report is not placed before the public. It is worth noting that caste census has been done in Karnataka but the Congress government is deliberately not bringing it before the public. Just like the Congress government suppressed the report of caste census conducted in 2011 till 2014.
In fact, with time, Congress has brought about a change in itself. Just like BJP brought about a change in itself in 2014 and got success. Now the process of change in BJP has come to a halt. BJP first worked on the concept of IT cell. It got a lot of success. Now others have also adopted that concept. BJP will have to think differently. Congress has changed its strategy. It is thinking beyond what is and what is not. Like the slogan of Congress was ‘Jaati par paat par-muhar lagegi haath par’. Now Congress is saying ‘Jaati bhi paat bhi, muhar lagegi haath par’.
BJP has worked more for backward and Dalits than Congress, but the narrative is being set differently
Congress party has always been accused of ignoring the backward and Dalits. Congress got very little support from the backward classes but it ruled India for decades on the votes of Dalits. Whereas it is well known that Baba Saheb Ambedkar left Congress for Dalit rights. Not only this, Congress also had a hand in preventing Jagjivan Ram from becoming the Prime Minister. The country’s first PM Jawaharlal Nehru and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi were staunch opponents of reservation. Rahul Gandhi today asks how many Dalit and backward officers were there in the Halwa Ceremony? Whereas during the Congress government, forget about officers, leaders of backward classes were not even considered eligible to become MLAs or MPs. Congress suppressed the report of Mandal Commission for years. Former PM Vishwanath Pratap Singh implemented the report. After that, the entry of backward classes started in politics and administration. Those who know the history of Indian elections after independence know that the vote bank of Congress was Brahmins, Dalits and Muslims. The vote of backward classes has always been anti-Congress. After the Mandalist regional parties came into existence, the Bharatiya Janata Party was the first national party where backward leadership was accepted. Kalyan Singh in Uttar Pradesh, Uma Bharti in Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chauhan etc. were its flag bearers. Later, the credit of making a backward person the first PM of the country in the form of Narendra Modi also goes to the BJP.
As far as Dalits are concerned, Congress kept taking their votes but did not do anything for their welfare which was beyond the Constitution. Reservation for Dalits was mentioned in the Constitution. That is why they were getting reservation. Apart from this, nothing was ever done for the upliftment of Dalits. Bharatiya Janata Party took strong steps to keep reservation in promotions and Harijan Act strong, although it had to face opposition from Samajwadi Party on both these issues.