When common sense is given short shrift for electoral gains chaos is sure to ensue
Who would have thought that Brahmins, at the top of the varna system and responsible as a historically elite, power-wielding group in significant measure at least in their role as the traditional priestly class of India for the ostracization of Scheduled Castes and other disempowered sections of society, would make common cause with the so-called middle castes or OBCs across a vast swathe of North and Central India? But they have, and on an issue where anyone on the side of common sense and the protection of individual rights will be simpatico to their position. Do remember, though, that the agrarian middle castes, many of whom have been listed as OBCs or are agitating to be included in that category, have been the primary physical oppressors of Scheduled Castes in an eco-system of suppression sanctified by those at the top of the pyramid.
The protests planned for today by means of a Bharat bandh have been called against the Narendra Modi Government's restoration of the procedural bias in the stringent clauses of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act despite the Supreme Court modifying them. The Court took its decision after due deliberation and on the basis of empirical data which showed that immediate arrest of the accused on the mere levelling of an allegation under the Act without even checking prima facie if the allegations were true and not false, or malicious, or both, was resulting in the misuse of these stringent provisions to frame innocents. In fact, the apex court made it clear that its order did not in any way 'dilute' the Act but only put in some checks on procedural aspects to ensure justice. The Government in its wisdom and with an eye on the SC/ST vote-bank, however, virtually overturned the Court verdict and the Opposition was equally reckless and eager to denounce the ruling dispensation as 'insensitive' and 'anti-SC/ST' if it didn't act immediately to 'correct' the judgment. Well, it's comeuppance time now. Although the so-called upper caste population is numerically not enough to form a substantial voter base, if it solidifies and aligns with OBC groups in key States it can certainly be a force-multiplier for any political party. Brahmins in particular were traditional Congress supporters and the Brahmin-SC/ST-Muslim base of the party with incremental votes from various other 'middle castes' from State to State held it in good stead till the Indira Gandhi years. But the collapse of the party and the rise of the BJP from the early 1990s onward meant that in the 2014 General Election the so-called upper caste vote went overwhelmingly to Modi. Now, with the Congress' desperately trying to reclaim its alleged 'Brahmin DNA' and the anger among sections of middle and upper castes at what they perceive, ironically, as the vote-bank politics of the BJP, a fresh churning to build a new social coalition seems to have begun.