Bihar caste survey: Rahul Gandhi turns his back on dad Rajiv’s modern thinking

By praising the Bihar government’s decision to release caste survey data and demanding the rights of a community in proportion to its population, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has turned his back on the modern thinking of his own father. It may be recalled that as leader of the Opposition in 1990, former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was one of the few spirited and sagacious politicians who had the courage to challenge the nefarious recommendations of the Mandal Commission report. Nefarious not just because they polarised society on the lines of caste but also because they injected a potent and toxic dose of casteism in society. Tendentious commentators, whom liberals blindly follow, often misinform us by saying that Mandal paved the path for the rise of politicians from other backward classes or OBCs. This is unadulterated baloney, for in its natural progression democracy does throw up leaders from various sections of society. A hundred years ago, most politicians came from aristocratic, privileged backgrounds; this is not true today, the two predecessors of Prime Minister Narendra Modi being the biggest examples. No Mandal Commission, or its equivalent, helped Atal Bihari Vajpayee reach the top. And even Modi owes his position more to the surge in the Bharatiya Janata Party’s fortunes than to Mandal. But, unfortunately, Rahul Gandhi seems to have repudiated his party’s generally Centrist position and embraced the Left-leaning Lohiaite-Mandalite ideology. “The caste census of Bihar has revealed that OBC SC ST are 84% there. Out of 90 secretaries of the Central Government, only 3 are OBC, who handle only 5% of India’s budget! Therefore, it is important to know the caste statistics of India. The greater the population, the greater the rights – this is our pledge,” Rahul Gandhi posted on ‘X’ (Formerly Twitter). That a prominent Opposition leader could say such things is symptomatic of the depth the grand old party has plunged to. BJP MP and president Jagat Prakash Nadda slammed Rahul by asking him how many secretaries from OBC were there between 2004 to 2014 when the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance was in power at the Centre. He also said that OBC reservation in services was implemented only after the Supreme Court cleared it in 1992, adding that the cut-off for the current panel of secretaries is 1992. Nadda also prided on the fact that his party gave the country its first OBC Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. Political parties will keep taking potshots at each other, but the more substantive points need to be made to demonstrate the hollowness, indeed silliness, of the Congress’ stance of “Jitni abadi, utna haq” (greater population, greater rights). In other words, in every field where reservation is applicable, we should get people proportionate to the community composition of society. But what do we do when we don’t have suitable persons from each and every community? And this happens all over the world. Blacks excel in basketball and athletics, but not in golf and tennis. In our country, Sikhs do well in hockey. In fact, in 1975 when India won the world cup (the only time it has), half of the players were turbaned, though Sikhs are just about 2 per cent of the country’s population. Similarly, there was a time when Maharashtra had a disproportionate representation in the Indian cricket team. Should there have been caps on numbers of Sikh hockey players and Maharashtrian cricketers? In other walks of life too, various castes, communities, etc., acquire skills in various walks of life because of a zillion historical, social, cultural, and religious factors. The British came up with the theory of martial and non-martial races, and implemented it. This resulted in martial mores and values in several communities; the tradition continues till date. This is the reason that we have the regiments of Sikhs, Jats, Rajputs, etc. Over the centuries, Baniyas and Jains have been engaged in trade and business. Their success in the field has a lot to do with the values they have imbibed over the generations and the customs and traditions they have been following. Similarly, there are professions like tailoring and auto repairing in which Muslims are found in large numbers. Such arrangements have been going on since time immemorial, for the arrangements suit the aptitude of the people involved, promote merit, and result in desirable outcomes. This is how things should be, especially in a democracy. After all, a liberal democracy ought to offer freedom and opportunities to citizens to excel in what they do or want to do. The politics of Mandal is the antithesis of this principle inasmuch as it wants to thrust upon the system a mechanism that tends to disrupt the natural order of things. This is not to say that reservation in toto is bad. Quotas (with qualifications) are desirable for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, for discrimination against them is justified on historical grounds. But expanding the ambit of caste-based quotas, which Mandal politics does, is a recipe for disaster. The GOP should have kept away from this. The author is a freelance journalist. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost_’s views._ Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.