Modi’s Caste Census Flip-Flop: A Yogic Contortion Gone Awry
PM Narendra Modi chairs a meeting on cleaning of Yamuna River in Delhi (Image credit PMO)
Modi’s Shock Caste Census U-Turn: BJP’s Yogic Flip-Flop Stuns India
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, May 1, 2025 – Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) has greenlit caste enumeration for the next census, a decision so abrupt it resembles Sirsasana — the yogic headstand where one’s head is pressed firmly into the ground, upending all sense of balance.
With International Yoga Day, Modi’s brainchild, looming on June 21, this extreme contortion in statecraft might just cement his legacy as India’s political yogi-in-chief.
The BJP’s sudden embrace of the caste census caught its own television warriors — those ever-loyal spokespersons — flat-footed, forcing them into intellectual somersaults. Overnight, they swapped their anti-caste-census rhetoric for strained defences, their verbal gymnastics rivalling a circus act.
A BJP media handout, the first clue of this policy pirouette, scrambled to paint the Congress as the historical villain of caste-based reservations, dredging up a decades-old quote from Rajiv Gandhi opposing VP Singh’s Mandal Commission rollout in 1990.
The dossier felt like a rushed homework assignment, lacking any fresh ammunition.
The second sign of this capitulation’s haste? The BJP trotted out Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to sell the decision, but from Bhopal, addressing Madhya Pradesh journalists. Why not a Delhi presser with Modi or Amit Shah? The optics screamed improvisation.
Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi, lounging confidently at Congress HQ in the capital, played his caste-census ace like a seasoned chess grandmaster, leaving the BJP’s knights and bishops in disarray.
The Congress, which has worn the caste census like a badge of honour, pounced. Its social media bulls stormed X, mocking the BJP’s flip-flop with memes sharper than a barber’s razor.
In contrast, the BJP’s bellicosity felt raw, its leaders retreating to the safety of Modi’s evergreen mantra: Sabka Saath, Sabka Vishwas. It was a flimsy shield against the Opposition’s onslaught.
Social media wits had a field day, joking that the caste census U-turn was a desperate ploy to distract BJP’s war-hawk pundits, who’ve been busy crafting thumbnails for an imagined India-Pakistan war.
Some diehards, undeterred, are still churning out clickbait predicting apocalyptic showdowns.
As Thursday dawned, both parties unleashed their heavyweights to claim credit for the caste census, turning the issue into a political tug-of-war.
A former editor of a leading English daily, despairing over journalism’s pulse, wondered aloud: If the press is still alive, why hasn’t anyone asked Home Minister Amit Shah when the census — already delayed by four years — will actually happen?
The BJP’s caste census capitulation, marked by haste and half-baked spin, has left Modi’s government in a precarious headstand. Whether this yogic misadventure stabilizes or topples remains to be seen, but for now, the nation watches as India’s political circus performs its most daring act yet.
(This is an opinion piece with touch of humour; views expressed solely belong to the author, who has covered Indian politics for more than two decades)
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