Mandal seeks a comeback against Kamandal

Responding to a discussion on the need for “specific parameters” for the 2011 Census, then Union Home Minister P Chidambaram had told Lok Sabha why, despite the demand of the United Progressive Al­liance (UPA) government’s key allies, Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Mulayam Singh Yadav and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad, enumeration of caste could not be made part of the national headcount. Information on the caste of household members was last published in 1931. Decades later, the enumerators, mostly school teachers, are not trained to verify caste claims. Some castes are listed as both Other Backward Classes (OBC) and Scheduled Castes (SC). The categorisation can vary from state to state with some not listing OBCs and others additionally listing Economically Backward Classes (EBC) as well. Undertaking a caste count, even if considered desirable, presented a logistical nightmare and, most importantly, was at odds with the purpose of the Cen­sus—to arrive at an accurate numerical count of the population.

“The Registrar General has pointed out that, assuming that it is desirable to canvass the question of caste, further issues will arise regarding the methodology, avoiding phonetic and spelling errors, stage of canvassing, maintaining the integrity of the enumeration, doing an accurate headcount of the population,” Chidambaram had told the House. The discussion had been animated and Chid­ambaram was careful to state that he would not debate the merits of a caste count, stating that those who said caste is a reality also noted that it is divisive and India is nowhere near a casteless society. Thirteen years on, Congress’ commitment to the 1951 decision to keep caste out of the Census (to lessen caste divisions apart from op­erational factors) stands abandoned with Rahul Gandhi advocating the “jitni abadi, utna haq (rights proportional to population)” slogan that mirrors caste catchphrases that even Mandal parties no longer invoke, marking the distance the party has travelled from its cen­trist moorings. It is unclear whether Congress considered the issues articulated by its government before supporting a nationwide caste count. As leading advocate and Congress MP Abhishek Manu Sing­hvi’s deleted post on X indicated, immediate considerations might have prevailed. The question whether a ‘rule by numbers’ may in fact translate into a tyranny of the majority has been sidestepped in the pursuit of a strategy to dent the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) political dominance.

In order to keep the Mandal twins Mulayam and Lalu happy, Congress did make a concession in 2010. Chidambaram told Lok Sabha that he had heard MPs “loudly and clearly” that the ques­tion of caste should be canvassed. “That means, to the best of my understanding, the enumerator should record whatever answer the respondent gives to the question ‘what is your caste?’ At that point of time, it is simply collection of the information,” he said. This became the basis of the Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) that commenced in June 2011. While it collected considera­ble information on households and economic indicators, the caste data was never released because it was, as apprehended, a collation of unverifiable claims. Caste, gotra (kinship or clan) and jati (caste or community) and even surnames were freely proffered as caste identities and resulted in a listing of more than 46 lakh “castes and sub-castes”. While speaking on the Bill on women’s reservation in Lok Sabha last month, Rahul Gandhi called for the introduction of an OBC sub-quota (not part of the UPA Bill of 2008) and demanded the SECC caste data should be released or else his party would do so. “Do a caste census as quickly as possible and release the data of the caste census that we carried out and if you don’t, we will,” he said. What he failed to mention is that neither UPA nor the Modi government found it fit to do so as the data is riddled with inaccu­racies and is largely unusable. The data was shared with the states and this also did not shed any light on the identification of castes and co-relating them to the population.

The release of the Bihar caste survey has brought the politics over a caste count to a boil again. The survey, the details of which are to be tabled in the state Assembly, pegs the percent­age of backward castes at 27 per cent, of EBCs at 36, SCs at 19.6, Scheduled Tribes (ST) at 1.6, and general or forward caste at 15.5 per cent. The results immediately led to the demand for a national caste count being voiced by the opposition I.N.D.I.A. bloc leaders. Such a count, said Rahul Gandhi, would be an “X ray” of the popu­lation and SP leader Akhilesh Yadav said only a caste census would deliver the rightful share of development to the underprivileged. While Rahul Gandhi called for a national caste census, the Con­gress government in Karnataka is yet to release an exercise con­ducted in 2018, apparently because it reveals that the numbers of dominant castes, Lingayats and Vokkaligas, are less than has been believed and the Muslim population of the state is close to 16 per cent. In Bihar too, already various caste associations are claiming that their numbers are under-represented.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi responded to the opposition’s OBC pitch at a rally in Bastar in Chhattisgarh on October 3 where he took on Congress, saying, “Congress wants to destroy India by dividing Hindus at any cost and wants to divide the poor also. For me the poor are the biggest community in the country. Welfare of the poor means welfare of the country.” It was a major speech, outlining BJP’s response to the opposition’s caste gambit, and made it plain that Modi has no intention of deviating from his political and social agenda that places strong emphasis on OBC welfare but does not make it an exclusivist pitch. “BJP stands and talks for sarva samaj (whole of society) even as it remains committed to the inter­ests of the backward sections,” said a BJP leader. Modi followed up his comments by pointing to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s remarks (which Singh did not repeat) about minorities having the first right to national resources. If the proportion of the population is to decide the share of rights, whose population is more, he asked. “Congress should clarify whether it wants to take away the rights of minorities,” he said. Congress leaders, he said, had no say in running the party which was being run by people in nexus with “anti-national” forces.

The ‘Mandal’ versus ‘Kamandal’ battle is not new; it was joined in August 1990 when the VP Singh government announced the implementation of the Mandal Commission’s recommendations. In September 1990, BJP leader LK Advani began his Somnath to Ayodhya Ram Rath Yatra as the party stepped up its mobilisation in support of a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya. Will the latest chapter, which is a bid to revisit the Mandal formula, provide a fresh narra­tive and pose a challenge to BJP? Dharmendra Pradhan, Union edu­cation minister and senior BJP leader from Odisha, said slogans will not detract from the work the Modi government has done for the weaker sections and backward classes. “Opposition parties are shed­ding crocodile tears for the backward sections. For certain parties, empowerment has meant benefits for families like the Akhilesh Yadav and Lalu Prasad clans. Then there is the rank opportunism of the Odisha government which is yet to implement the 27 per cent reservation for OBCs but says it is going to release the findings of a caste survey. Modi has been consistent in his commitment to the weaker sections whether as chief minister of Gujarat or now as prime minister. His philosophy, policies and programmes reflect this fully,” Pradhan told Open. There has been a significant change in the leadership and thinking of BJP since the days of the 1990 Man­dal announcement, point out BJP leaders. The party is no longer an upper-caste conclave or defined by Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan formulations given its geographical spread and the rapid expan­sion of its support base that now includes a significant proportion of OBCs. The party has promoted several backward leaders in its ranks and has been busy absorbing newcomers from rival parties as well. Keenly aware of the support of OBCs, particularly EBCs, the Modi government gave the National Commission for Backward Classes constitutional status and provided a 27 per cent quota in fresh fuel-pump dealerships in 2012 and made a similar quantum of reservation in MBBs and BDS seats from the 2021-22 academic ses­sion. The newly launched Vishwakarma scheme to benefit artisans will largely cover the same social groups. BJP functionaries say that most welfare schemes help OBCs as they ‘self-select’ as beneficiaries given their socio-economic status along with the less privileged from other sections of society.

The roil caused by the Bihar caste survey and the demand for a national caste count are bound to see the demand that the 50 per cent limit on reservations, set by the Supreme Court in the 1992 Indra Sawhney case, be reconsidered gain momentum. Already Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Sharad Pawar has asked the Centre to raise the 50 per cent cap by 15 per cent to accommodate the demand for reservations for the Maratha community which was not approved by the Supreme Court. The previous Bommai government in Karnataka hiked reservations to 56 per cent, too. When the Modi government introduced the EWS (economically weaker sections) quota of 10 per cent, it did so through a constitu­tional amendment which was upheld by the apex court. Senior BJP leader from Bihar and Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Modi feels the 50 per cent cap has been eroded and challenged and may well be revisited. He questioned the commitment of Congress to OBCs, saying that the party’s latest turn was like the temple visits of its leaders ahead of elections. “Prime Minister Modi has taken several decisions that empower the weaker sections. He hails from the OBC communi­ty as well. What stopped Congress from implementing what it is demanding when it was in office? Did not UPA inform Parliament that the policy on the Census did not include enumeration of castes or categories other than SCs and STs?” he asked while speaking to Open. The Bihar leader said the party had supported the Bihar survey and had made Renu Devi, an EBC, the deputy chief minister and the party’s state chief was Samrat Chaudhary. He argued that Janata Dal-United, or JD(U), slumped to 43 seats in the 2020 Bihar polls and this clearly showed that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar did not enjoy the trust of EBCs and a section of OBCs as well. The JD(U) claim that it was hurt by the presence of Chirag Paswan contesting on his own was a post-defeat justification unsupported by evidence.

In the previous editions of the Mandal-Kamandal contest, caste satraps gained ground in the Hindi heartland even as BJP surged on a Hindutva mobilisation. After BJP lost the 2004 General Elec­tion, caste-based parties like SP, RJD and Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) found a new wind in their sails. The decline of these parties was spurred by perceptions that only a few groups called the shots and by the rise of Modi ahead of the 2014 parliamentary elections. The prime minister has exercised a strong hold on the OBC vote, particularly EBCs, in Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Bihar. In the case of UP, this has resulted in stellar results in Lok Sabha and Assembly polls where BJP majorities would not be possible without the backing of the backward vote. The commissioning of the Ram temple early next year, the Centre’s focus on achieving saturation coverage of its welfare schemes, and Modi’s projection of a strong nationalist leadership provide a solid base for his Hindutva-plus development platform ahead of the 2024 election. In its hunt for a counter, Congress has often moved far leftward or in the current scenario adopted a Mandal credo that has never been its comfort zone. The party remains a Johnny-come-lately in incorporating OBC sentiments and stands in danger of further alienating the for­ward castes that have grown increasingly disinterested in the party that was once synonymous with governance. In the cut-and-thrust of politics, no quarters are given and there remains the danger of the winner taking all if a desperate manoeuvre fails to deliver the hoped-for results.

Bihar politicscaste censusNarendra ModiNitish KumarpoliticsTejashwi YadavVijay Sinha