The INDI Alliance has declared its intention to hold a caste census if it comes to power. How will the caste census be held if people are not asked what caste they belong to? And yet, SP leader Akhilesh Yadav expressed outrage in Parliament about how one could be asked one’s caste. Quite obviously, the opposition wants to have its cake and eat it too. The fact is that caste has been made so central to obtaining a government job in the country that fake caste status is even being manufactured by aspirants – the latest case being that of IAS probationer Puja Khedkar.
The opposition is all riled up because speeches in Parliament by Union Ministers Anurag Thakur and Nirmala Sitharaman exposed the hypocrisy of Rahul Gandhi’s caste census pitch. There has been more than one instance of Rahul Gandhi inquiring about others’ castes, including at press conferences, in the attempt to prove the hold over power by dominant castes. It was ironic that, on being identified as one without caste, he chose to take it as an insult.
It is being implied that caste consciousness is good for some sections of society and bad for others. Ideally, whatever may or may not be written in the Constitution about support for sections of society that have faced discrimination of various kinds, the objective understood by all has been to become a ‘caste-blind’ society, like the colour neutral effort in western nations. This has also been achieved to some extent, leading even to difficulties in determining caste for various purposes. Rahul Gandhi is just one example.
Unfortunately, conversely and perversely, there has built up a strong vested interest in keeping the caste cauldron brewing. One reason is to retain advantages reservations supposedly provide. This is particularly in the case of politicians who have turned certain caste groups into family fiefdoms. Reservations were supposed to be temporary. Instead, not only are they being extended but also expanded to include new groups, creating fresh friction in societies. Individuals are getting elected by provoking identity issues among groups that are well integrated in society. There is no doubt that caste trumped religious identity in UP during the recent Lok Sabha elections. It is not the need so much to provide ‘justice’ to ‘backward’ castes that the opposition is so excited about, it is the electoral benefit that may come from more intensely playing the caste card. That’s part of Indian politics, but at least play it well. Don’t complain if the façade proves frail.
