With Lalu as mentor, Congress goes whole hog on castes
CWC Meeting
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, October 9: Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi was seen asking for guidance from former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav over a dinner of ‘Chamaparan Mutton’ for the political recipe to stop the ruling Bahartiya Janata Party. Within a short span of time of Rahul Gandhi bonding with Yadav, the Congress is going whole hog for caste census in the country.
The Congress Working Committee (CWC) has resolved to go for the kill on the social justice plank, lending its weight for caste census at the national level. The CWC has also resolved that the 50 per cent reservation ceiling in the country should go. To pre-empt the BJP ploy to set the cat among pigeons with the sub-categorisation of the other backward castes for which the Rohini Commission submitted the report in May this year, the CWC has also lent its weight for the sub-categorisation.
Addressing a presser, Rahul Gandhi asserted the OBC credentials of the Congress, saying four chief ministers of the party-ruled states hail from the backward castes in contrast to just one of the BJP. He also told reporters that the Congress governments in the states where the party is in power would commission caste surveys.
The Congress, stressing on ‘jitni abadi, utni haq’ has also hit upon the proportional representation of the reserved categories of the OBCs, SCs, and the STs in the country. The main opposition party is also seeking quota within quota in the women reservation in the legislative bodies, including parliament.
The aggressive caste pitch of the Congress is clearly an attempt of the party to embark on a social engineering, taking inspiration from the proponents of the identity-based politics. Yadav in Bihar had stitched the MY (Muslim-Yadav) social engineering to gain social base for the RJD, which largely stayed with him, even after the advent of the BJP-JD (U) alliance in the Bihar politics.
While the Congress is yet to taste success in caste-based politics, the party is drawing confidence from Bhupesh Baghel of Chhattisgarh, who is stated to have consolidated the support base of the party among the backward castes along with tribal to blank out the BJP in the state politics.
Under Ashok Gehlot in Rajasthan, the Congress is also hoping to stay ahead of the BJP with the support base among the backward castes. The Congress is also emboldened with the success of the Karnataka campaign where Siddaramaiah being the face of the party among the OBC vote base swung the election in favour of the party.
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