The recommendations of the Mandal Commission and their acceptance by the VP Singh regime led to an explosion of caste-based politics and political parties. The dangerous trend is irreversible, especially in UP
She did what was expected of her. The national president of the Bahujan Samaj Party, Ms Mayawati, while addressing a Press conference in lucknow, defended caste-based rallies and called these meetings a binding force in society which unites different castes. Her argument was diagonally opposite to what the lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court laid out in its order banning caste-based rallies organised by political parties in Uttar Pradesh. She knows that in politics, caste is the one driving force that can catapult a party to power.
The BSP has brazenly promoted caste in Uttar Pradesh’s politics for the last two decades or so. It was in the 80s BSP founder Kanshi Ram declared that he would oust the upper castes from power. He promoted caste rallies and even coined slogans like, ‘Tilak, tarazu aur talwar; inko maaro joote chaar’ — which was a direct and vicious attack on caste Hindus. The other parties frowned at the BSP’s slogans, not realising then that those very slogans would one day fetch power for the BSP.
What the BSP does openly, the other parties do clandestinely. Such has been the political pressure that Mr Rahul Gandhi played up the caste affiliation of techie Sam Pitroda at an election rally. He is a Badhai — carpenter, Mr Gandhi said, advocating that the Congress even projected people belonging to lower castes like the Vishwakarmas.
last week, the Samajwadi Party inducted family members of tainted former BSP Minister Babu Singh Kushwaha in the party. Kushwaha is lodged in jail in connection with the multi-crore National Rural Health Mission scam, and it is the same SP that had called him an epitome of corruption. The party laid the red carpet for the brother and wife of Kushwaha in the name of social justice. Indications are that Shivkanya Kushwaha, wife of Babu Singh Kushwaha, could be the party’s candidate for the lok Sabha election. The whole exercise is aimed to win the Kushwaha-Shakya-Kachi votes, that account for almost four per cent of the total votes in Uttar Pradesh.
The seeds of caste politics were sown in 1950s when backward castes used to dominate the political scenario. Ram Manohar lohia mobilised the backwards and advocated for 60 per cent reservation for Muslims, backward class and SC/STs. Charan Singh in the 1960s promoted the Jats and the Yadavs. The Mandal panel recommendations and its implementation in 1989 gave a new twist to caste politics. Suddenly, many caste-based leaders have emerged from the social churning.
Director, Institute of Social Sciences, Mr Aash Narain Rai, said that the Constitution of India does not talk about caste; it talks only about class. The leaders have included the word ‘caste’ in politics only to garner votes on caste lines — and that has created a divide in society.
“The court has stayed caste-based rallies by a political party but it is silent on rallies organised by caste-based organisations that are attended by political leaders,” BJP senior leader Vijay Bahadur Pathak said, suggesting how caste-based parties like the BSP and the SP can circumvent the court order.
While staying caste-based rallies in Uttar Pradesh, the Allahabad High Court had issued notices to various political parties. The Bench of Justices Uma Nath Singh and Mahendra Dayal passed the order on a public interest litigation filed by local lawyer Motilal Yadav, who had sought a ban on such rallies, saying they were against the basic concept of the Constitution.
In the last two decades, caste politics has played an increasingly crucial role in Uttar Pradesh, which has 80 lok Sabha seats — the highest in the country. There has been a spurt in caste rallies with an eye on the lok Sabha election due in 2014.
The BSP got off the blocks with 38 Brahmin conferences in May-June alone. This culminated in its major Brahmin rally in lucknow on July 7, which was addressed by Ms Mayawati. The BSP also held a series of what it calls Muslim Bhaichara conferences.
The ruling Samajwadi Party in the State held a ‘Backward Class Mahasammelan’ in Meerut on July 8. The party had also organised a Muslims’ conference and a Brahmin sammelan in the name of Baudhik (intellectual) meet recently.
In the absence of well-defined data, a rough estimate of Uttar Pradesh’s caste combination goes thus: Backward classes comprise 52 per cent (as per the Mandal report), Dalits log up to 18 per cent, Brahmins and Thakurs make up five per cent each, Muslims are 17 per cent, while the remaining constitute three per cent of the population.
Such was the quest for caste that in its name, all of a sudden, small parties cropped up in Uttar Pradesh. The Kurmis, a backward caste, formed the Apna Dal and even projected Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel as a Kurmi neta, taking him down from the pedestal of one of the biggest leaders of our country. Then the Rajbhars formed the Bharat Samaj Party and the Congress joined hands with the little known Mahan Dal.