How Rahul-led Congress' advocacy of caste-based census lacks logic and coherence

The infamous aphorism of divide et impera (divide and rule) politics, historically repudiated by the Grand Old Party, has returned with Rahul Gandhi making strong pitches for the Bihar government’s decision to release the caste survey data. As soon as the chariot wheels of the British Empire set foot in India, a malevolent design was orchestrated for a cynical chasm by vivisecting India’s Hindus into categories. The manufactured and ostensible schisms were further incised to exploit the burgeoning population of Hindus. Ever since India has been held in the thrall of caste calculus that dominates electoral politics, a term that was alien to us until introduced by Sir HH Risley in the 1901 census. The idea of conducting a caste-based census has been at loggerheads with Jawaharlal Nehru and Rahul’s father, former PM Rajiv Gandhi, who believed that a caste survey polarised society along the lines of caste. Back in the heyday of the Congress party, Jawaharlal Nehru, in a letter to the chief ministers, said, “If we go in for reservations on a communal and caste basis, we swamp the bright and able people and remain second- or third-rate. I am grieved to learn how far this business of reservation has gone based on communal considerations. It has amazed me to learn that even promotions are sometimes based on communal or caste considerations. This way lies not only folly but also disaster. Let us help the backward groups by all means, but never at the cost of efficiency.” Decades later, in September 1990, Rajiv Gandhi opposed the Mandal Commission’s report ensuring reservation for the OBSs to the extent of 27 per cent. Rajiv Gandhi, the then leader of the opposition, said, “Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, before I start on what I really wanted to say, I must say that I have been terribly pained with what I have heard just now from one of the members of the government, one of the ministers. It is extremely sad that the thinking in this government revolves around caste, and perhaps that is why we are so sorry. Sir, even at this late hour, there is time to pull the country back from this caste division.” In fact, from the time of BR Ambedkar until 2011, Congress has been considered to be against reservations for the backward classes. Perhaps the somnolent Congress must always look for skeletons in their closet before jumping on the very bandwagon their leaders once opposed! Extending support to the caste enumeration in Bihar, Rahul Gandhi posted on X: “Out of 90 secretaries of the Central Government, only three are OBC, who handle only 5 per cent of India’s budget! Not a single secretary was from the OBC community in 2019. Therefore, it is important to know the caste statistics in India. The greater the population, the greater the rights—this is our pledge.” Being a late entrant in the caste equations, Rahul Gandhi advocating the Jitni aabadi, utna haq (rights proportional to population) slogan is a desperate gamble to incorporate OBC sentiments. But Rahul Gandhi’s recent bonhomie with the OBCs is pure sophistry. Even if he were to be taken with an earnest note—on face value—he alludes to a majoritarian system where the staggering majority with landslide numbers would monopolise the resources and the system. This again challenges the stand of former PM Manmohan Singh, who observed that minorities, especially Muslims, should have the first right over national resources. The logic, cogency and coherence were never lost more than now! In stark contrast, recognising the legitimate demands of the OBCs, the top echelons of the Bhartiya Janta Party, including Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani, reiterated the party’s commitment to inclusivity by welcoming the decision of the VP Singh government. Lashing out at Rahul Gandhi, JP Nadda, the BJP President, said, “The first OBC Prime Minister for India was given by the BJP and NDA, and that is Narendra Modi. Out of 303 BJP MPs, 85 are OBC, which makes 29 per cent. Out of 1358 MLAs, 27 per cent are OBCs. Out of 163 MLCs, 40 per cent are OBCs. We have more OBC MPs than the total number of Congress MPs in the Lok Sabha.” The sharp irony of Modi’s inclusive frame is that his ideas ostensibly seem to fare closer to the Congress leaders Jawaharlal Nehru and Rajiv Gandhi, who envisioned a country free of casteism, than the political formations that swear by them. PM Modi has not just marginalised caste-based Mandal politics but has also empowered the marginalised to put them on an equal footing with the social mainstream. In 2022, Draupadi Murmu, governor of Jharkhand and hailing from the Santhal tribals of Odisha, was bestowed as the NDA’s presidential candidate. Queering the pitch for today’s opposition is the BJP’s politics of integration and homogenisation of the backward classes, thereby rendering the salience of caste-based politics and caste-based dime-a-dozen parties toothless. Ironically, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, at a conference in 2021, said: “Adivasis were never Hindus, and they will never be.” Look at the pattern: from Jharkhand’s Chief Minister Hemant to Bihar’s Education Minister Chandra Shekhar to a leading face of the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, Swami Prasad Maurya, to Congress leaders, to Tamil Nadu minister, Udhayanidhi Stalin, there has been a constancy to vitiate the vicious against Sanatan Dharma. This desperate and diabolical attempt to divide Hindus is the last straw that the desperate and disparate conglomeration of regressive parties that goes by the acronym I.N.D.I. Alliance is clutching to for the 2024 general elections. The opposition’s politics is stuck in the quicksand of 1990s Mandal-era caste dynamics, and its aim is polarisation among castes to foil the unity of Hindus across India and weaponising caste for a divisive ‘split and conquer’ game plan. Despite caste dynamics being a formidable force for political expediency, PM Narendra Modi’s massive rural drive, emphasising the single plank of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas has won him plaudits and ubiquitous presence in the electoral fray. Narendra Modi’s relentless pursuit of a civilisational repair of a united and unified India, free from fragmented identity politics, and a seamless, monolithic Hindu identity is said to define a Naya Bharat. Interesting will be the 2024 general elections, where the main poll plank of the opposition seems to be the caste narrative of keeping the Muslim vote bank intact while dividing the Hindus into motley castes. The author is an independent journalist and columnist. 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.