The monsoon session of Parliament has been going on for the last 9 days. Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi is continuously attacking BJP. And they are also cornering BJP by making issues on those points for which BJP’s record is better than Congress. BJP is not able to understand how to break that narrative of Rahul. Whatever BJP is doing, it is getting entangled in it. For example, when BJP MP Anurag Thakur asked the caste of Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday, there was an uproar. Whereas Rahul Gandhi himself is quoting on caste and caste lines. Have been asking journalists about their caste. Secondly, Akhilesh Yadav is getting more angry than Rahul Gandhi as if he has never asked anyone about caste. Akhilesh has also been humiliating journalists by asking them about their caste. And Akhilesh’s entire politics is based on caste. Kamandal came into existence only to combat the casteist politics of Mandal.
But it also has to be acknowledged that the narrative is continuously being set against BJP. Congress and its allies are talking about caste census, if BJP had talked about caste census then it would have been alleged that it is doing so with the intention of discriminating. Today BJP has lagged behind in setting this narrative. Why this is happening can be a matter of debate.
BJP has been in support of caste census, but the narrative is being set different.
Even before Rahul Gandhi, the issue of conducting caste census has been the issue of Nitish Kumar, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadav. There was a demand for caste census in 2010 during the UPA government at the Centre, but Congress refused. Just last year, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar raised the issue of caste census and the Bihar government got the caste census conducted. Not only this, the census report was also brought before the public. Based on the report, Bihar government also increased the reservation limit to benefit various deprived castes. Bharatiya Janata Party was in opposition in Bihar at that time. But Bharatiya Janata Party supported every step of caste census. BJP was also included in the all-party delegation demanding caste census. Meanwhile, efforts were also made to stop the caste census. The matter reached the Supreme Court. The court sought the support of the Central Government, and the caste census became possible only after the BJP government at the Center gave its OK.
Not only this, big BJP leaders from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra have also supported the caste census. Keshav Prasad Maurya in Uttar Pradesh, Devendra Fadnavis in Maharashtra etc. have always supported the demand for caste census. Not only support, these leaders have also been demanding caste census. As far as caste census is concerned, neither the Congress ruled states nor the BJP ruled states took the initiative. When caste census was being conducted in Bihar, Congress was in power in Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. But never even thought about caste census. Not only this, Rahul Gandhi, who demands caste census every day, never even asked the Congress government of Karnataka why they do not put the caste census report before the public. It is noteworthy that caste census has been conducted in Karnataka but the Congress government is deliberately not bringing it before the public. Just as the Congress government suppressed the caste census report conducted in 2011 till 2014.
Actually, Congress has brought changes in itself with time. The way BJP changed itself in 2014 and got success. Now the process of change in BJP has come to a standstill. BJP first worked on the concept of IT cell. Got a lot of success. Now others have also adopted that concept. BJP will have to think something different. Congress has changed its strategy. She is thinking beyond all these things, what is, what is not. Like the slogan of Congress was caste will be stamped on the hand. Now Congress is saying that caste and caste will also be stamped on the hand.
BJP worked more for backward people and Dalits than Congress but the narrative is being set differently.
The Congress Party has always been accused of neglecting the backward people and Dalits. Congress got little support from the backward classes but it ruled India for decades only on the votes of Dalits. Whereas it is well known that Baba Saheb Ambedkar had left Congress for Dalit rights. Not only this, Congress also had a hand in stopping Jagjivan Ram from becoming the Prime Minister. The country’s first PM Jawaharlal Nehru and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi were staunchly anti-reservation. Rahul Gandhi asks today how many Dalit and backward officers were there in the Halwa ceremony? Whereas during the era of Congress governments, leaders of backward classes, leave alone officers, were not even considered eligible to become MLAs and MPs. Congress kept the Mandal Commission report suppressed for years. Former PM Vishwanath Pratap Singh implemented the report. After that the entry of backward people in politics and administration started. Those who know the history of Indian elections after independence know that the vote bank of Congress was Brahmins, Dalits and Muslims. The votes of the backward classes have always been anti-Congress. After the coming into existence of Mandalist regional parties, Bharatiya Janata Party was the first national party where backward leadership was accepted. Kalyan Singh in Uttar Pradesh, Uma Bharti in Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chauhan etc. were its flag bearers. Later, the credit for making a backward person the first PM of the country in the form of Narendra Modi also goes to BJP.
As far as Dalits are concerned, Congress definitely kept taking their votes but did not do anything for their welfare which was outside the Constitution. Reservation for Dalits was talked about in the Constitution. That’s why they were getting reservation. Apart from this, nothing was ever done for the upliftment of Dalits. The Bharatiya Janata Party took strong steps to strengthen reservation in promotions and the Harijan Act, while it had to face opposition from the Samajwadi Party on both these issues.