Not just Paswan and BJP: How everyone is playing caste politics now

There was never any doubt that elections come with a periodical buttressing of caste structures, so nobody should be surprised that the Bharatiya Janata Party’s calculations are being readjusted with the arrival of Dr Udit Raj, Ram Vilas Paswan and a small coterie of other backward caste leaders in the NDA fold.<

The Indian Express reports that this is part of the party’s wider effort to emerge as a party for all castes, not one of the “Kamandal forces against the Mandals”, a reference to the BJP’s tradition as an upper caste party led by Hindutvawadi godmen and traders.

Ram Vilas Paswan and his smiling son Chirag, who appears to have put to rest his Bollywood ambitions for a career in politics, are not the only ones the BJP has swept up.

There was also Dr Udit Raj before that, and Upendra Kushwaha, OBC leader Captain Jainarain Prasad Nishad (a Lok Sabha MP suspended by Nitish Kumar) and a string of local leaders in Uttar Pradesh – such as 20-year BSP veteran Rajesh Verma, EBC member Fagu Chauhan and former Samajwadi Party MP Ramrati Bind, all backward caste leaders.

The socialism of the Nitishs and the Lalus is ‘hollow’, BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad is quoted as having told the newspaper.

The BJP’s move comes on anticipated lines – caste and class will get equal thrust from the spin masters of prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. He speaks of the end of poverty, of being one among the ‘picchda’ or backward classes even as partymen root for a vote for India’s first backward caste prime minister.

That ambush marketing could even involve some tinkering with facts, it appears, in Uttar Pradesh, where Modi, an OBC belonging to the Ghanchi community, is being projected as an EBC leader. While Ghanchis are connected to the savarna communities, the EBCs, those on the bottom of the OBC list or the Extremely Backward Castes (EBCs).

As this report points out , this move could be fraught with troubles – not the least of which is that the other OBCs, who outnumber the EBCs by far, could feel antagonised.

One thing is certain – as elections near, caste politics will continue to occupy centrestage across the country.

Nitish has already wooed the ‘Mahadalits’ and sought a Bharat Ratna for late socialist leader Karpoori Thakur. BJP leaders in Uttar Pradesh have also sought a Bharat Ratna for Kanshi Ram, a move that immediately riled BSP leaders at the appropriation of their leader. If BJP leaders are so fond of Kanshi Ram’s legacy, they should well join the BSP, one taunted.

In Maharashtra, the Congress-NCP state government is under pressure to announce a 20 percent quota for Marathas in state government jobs and in educational institutions and an announcement to the effect could be made soon.

The Marathas are a dominant caste in Maharashtra, politically powerful and considered a “forward” caste. They constitute about a third of the voters of the state. Besides, the likely reservation for Marathas could also invite legal trouble since an additional 20 percent reservation would add to the already existing 51 percent reservation in Maharashtra – there is a Supreme Court order stating that affirmative action reservations should not exceed 51 percent.

That might still not be as contentious as the BJP’s rumoured proposal to add in their manifesto a proposal for a radical shift in the affirmative action programme -- deny benefits to third generation and beyond of those in the ambit of reservations, or add an income criteria to the eligibility criteria for the benefits of the quota system.

No party ventured to tinker with the reservation policy. The  BJP, which called the Congress a “confused” party when one of its leaders opined that the time may be ripe for calling an end to the reservation system, has not officially announced such an idea – it may well be one of those proposals that are too radical for a manifesto drafting committee.