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The ruling BJP hopes to take the sting out of the opposition clamour that it is opposed to backwards and Dalits by latching on to the caste census demand
BJP leaders say that by announcing the decision suddenly, when the whole country was awaiting some big announcement on the Pahalgam terrorist attack, the Narendra Modi government has tried to put its stamp all over the caste census and avoid the opposition claiming any credit.
(Representational Photo: News18)
Caste and votes go hand in hand in Indian politics, especially in the cow belt of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
The BJP-led NDA government’s sudden decision on Wednesday evening to conduct a caste survey along with the next population census has once again brought forth the importance of caste in politics.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party hopes to take the sting out of the opposition clamour that it is opposed to backwards and Dalits by latching on to the caste census demand. The opposition parties, especially the Samajwadi Party in UP and Congress nationally, had been raising the issue of a caste census, increased representation of OBCs and Dalits in government quotas, and the alleged threat to the Constitution in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls of 2024. The image of Congress’s Rahul Gandhi and SP’s Akhilesh Yadav holding copies of the Constitution in every rally they held in the 2024 parliamentary polls became one of the lasting images of the elections and helped sharply increase the Lok Sabha seats for the opposition in UP.
“By announcing the caste census, the BJP hopes to allay any impression that it was avoiding the issue. The BJP wants to avoid any sort of label being stuck on it, be it the threat of being anti-farmer, which led to the withdrawal of the controversial farm laws, or being dubbed anti-backwards or anti-quota by announcing the caste census,” says retired professor Ravi Kumar of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).
BJP leaders say that by announcing the decision suddenly, when the whole country was awaiting some big announcement on the Pahalgam terrorist attack, the Narendra Modi government has tried to put its stamp all over the caste census and avoid the opposition claiming any credit.
Akhilesh Yadav said as much: “It is our 100 per cent victory. It was the collective pressure by the PDA (Pichda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak – OBCs, Dalits and Minorities) that forced the government’s hand to announce the caste census. An honest caste census will help all castes get their dues in proportion to their population.”
But a BJP strategist pointed out that it was a well-timed decision as the matter was hardly part of the national discourse right now, and the party has claimed ownership of the issue by announcing the caste census suddenly. It would also help blunt the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Congress campaign in the Bihar polls, due shortly, where the pending caste census issue would have given the opposition an easy issue to target the BJP, said the strategist.
UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath, while calling the decision historic, posted on social media site X that the decision would help in social justice and data-driven good governance practices. In fact, even UP’s deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya had been raising the demand for a caste census inside the assembly and outside for a long time now. “It will help society become stronger socially and economically. The Congress government had in the past conducted a census but only announced the population of SCs/STs. They did not give the figure of OBCs and other castes, which was a grave injustice,” said Maurya, who is seen as the BJP’s OBC face in UP.
The politics around the caste census stems from the fact that it is widely believed that it will throw up figures showing OBCs have increased in large numbers and therefore lead to renewed vociferous demands that they be given a bigger chunk of power and quota in government jobs. The last caste census of 1931 put the OBC population at 54 per cent. The caste survey conducted by the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government in 2023 had also indicated a sizeable increase in the number of OBCs.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has already raked up the demand. He said on Wednesday, “The caste census was our vision. The first step has been taken. We will now pressure the Modi government to increase the job quota beyond the 50 per cent cap”.
The opposition Samajwadi Party, fresh from its Lok Sabha success, had also been trying to label the Yogi government as anti-backwards and Dalits. Akhilesh Yadav has been regularly dishing out figures of how OBC and Dalit officers are being denied good postings in the police and administration and only a few castes are being favoured.
He has been projecting Kurmis, a big OBC caste, and Dalits in the second rung of leadership in the SP, and that helped shore up the party’s numbers in the Lok Sabha polls.
In fact, the bid to show him as pro-Dalit led to an enthusiastic party leader merging Akhilesh’s photo with that of Dr BR Ambedkar, which led to much controversy recently. The BJP, which sensed a shift of Dalits towards the SP in the Lok Sabha polls and was looking to stem the tide, was quick to lash out against Akhilesh for comparing himself with an icon and statesman like Ambedkar, causing much embarrassment to the SP.
But now, with one stroke, Prime Minister Modi, himself an OBC, has put his stamp all over the caste census, and the BJP hopes it will pay dividends not just in the coming polls in Bihar (by when the census is expected to start and create a fresh buzz) but the 2027 assembly elections in UP too (by when the census results are expected to be ready).
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