Amit Shah’s direction to Nitish Kumar not to allow Rahul Gandhi to interact with the Dalit and OBC students at SC hostel in Darbhanga during the Congress leader’s visit to Bihar on Thursday, has proved to be counterproductive. Not only the dalit and OBC students, even the students from upper castes have deplored this action and expressed the view that since Rahul does not speak nonsense there was no need for obstructing him from entering into hostel.
This attitudinal change amongst the upper caste students has simply unnerved the BJP and JD(U) leaders. They had not dreamt of upper caste students extending their support to Rahul. These students even shared the sarcastic comments of Rahul that the two FIRs filed against him were like two medals gifted to him by Nitish Kumar and Amit Shah.
The upper caste students strongly hold the view that the BJP leadership, especially the top two, have turned the Bihari students and youths in mercenaries and zealots. Pointing to the economic miseries suffered by the upper caste students, they point out that their condition is no better than Dalits and backward caste students. They decry the centre’s strategy to use them as vanguards for saffron ecosystem’s violent activities. They deprecate the BJP and JD(U) leadership for not taking steps to ameliorate their economic condition and make available education to them. They also point out it is only the youths and students belonging to rich section, landlords and feudal elements get the benefits from the administration.
They are not opposed to Rahul Gandhi championing the cause of Dalits and his assertion that given their numerical strength, the time has come when they assume leadership roles in every institution. Rahul had said; “I want to see Dalits in leadership role in every institution. This is exactly what Baba Saheb Ambedkar always dreamt of. But at the same time they nurse the view that a large section of the upper caste which has virtually relegated to the position of dalit and poor, should be treated at par with dalits and backward castes students. They also point out that in recent times practically the upper caste students are dropping out from schools and colleges as they lack financial support to pursue their studies.
Undeniably Rahul’s frequent visits to Bihar aims at gaining the support of the dalits, SC and backward castes in the 2025 assembly election, its political implication has been wider and more important. Rahul’s outreach to SCs, STs in Bihar will help him revive Congress, but more than that it aims at putting a check on the rise and spread of the rightist forces which will endanger and finish the Indian culture, social traditions and its democratic institutions. Once they get well entrenched it would be a tough challenge to fight them and weed them out of the social structure and body politic.
It is imperative that for accomplishing this mission, Rahul needs their support and vote too. It would be wrong to construe that Rahul was reaching out to them only for the electoral gains. In a significant move, Rahul Gandhi interacted with people from the Dalit, SC backward communities in Darbhanga and watched the film ‘Phule’ in Patna. The Dalit and backward students could not be empowered unless they are educated and made conscious of their social responsibilities and liabilities. With this aim in view, Rahul launched the ‘Shiksha Nyay Samvad’ campaign in Bihar’s Darbhanga and interacted with students from SCs, Tribals and ST in an effort to reach out to the community.
Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and Nitish Kumar had perceived the importance of Rahul’s move which coincides with the RSS design to convert these people into hardcore Hindus and strengthen the ranks of the Hindutva zealots. This was basically the reason that Shah and Nitish resorted to every tactics to obstruct Rahul from interacting with the students at the Ambedkar hostel.
If at all Modi and Shah have been really sincere and serious about empowering the Dalit, Sc and ST students, they must not have stopped the scholarship which was sanctioned by the UPA government of Dr Manmohan Singh. While Rahul accused Nitish government of denying funds to them under the SC-ST sub-plan, meant to ensure the communities receive a proportionate share of development benefits, he raised three demands: “conduct a caste census in the country, reservation for OBCs, EBCs, SCs and STs in private institutions and ensuring funds for SCs and STs under the government’s SC-ST sub plan”.
Notwithstanding Rahul’s desire to win over the Dalits, SCs and STs support during the 2025elections, his move is also meant to resurrect the party across the country. Since Dalits, SCs, STs constitute a sizeable segment of population in Bihar, he also desires to completely transform the support base. He is aware that in future these castes will play a decisive role in the decision making process and governance, therefore, the state must have a strong dalit support base.
He is also aware that Chirag Paswan, though is the son of dalit icon Ram Vilas Paswan, would not be able to emerge as the face of the Dalits and represent their aspirations. He virtually represents the class of the nouveau rich imbibing the cultural ethos which are completely alien to the traditional dalit, SCs and STs values.. He will be public face of the creamy section of the Dalits.
Rahul’s visits to Bihar sent out a clear message that the Congress was rearing to go all out to defeat the BJP in alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). CPI(ML) and other left parties. His sustained emphasis on caste census is a major challenge to Nitish Kumar.. . Significantly Rahul has accused Nitish Kumar of not carrying out a foolproof caste survey, though Congress was a member of the government which carried out the survey. Rahul said; “Nitish government should take a leaf out of Telangana if a caste survey has to be done. The Telangana regime has shown how meticulously it has conducted the survey and brought to the fore how the downtrodden and weaker sections have been marginalised in power structure despite being numerically strong. The time has come for the beginning of a nationwide caste census.
Rahul reaching out to the Dalits, SCs and ST has also emboldened castes other than Yadavs to put their views more assertively. So far the Yadavs have been dictating the terms, but this election may witness surfacing of other caste voices. Rahul’s consistent work may give dividends in the coming assembly polls by year end to the benefit of INDIA block. (IPA Service)
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