By Sushil Kutty
Delhi’s New York Times-accredited Education Minister Manish Sisodia is the latest cult figure to invade our minds. And whoever knew Manish Sisodia is a “kshatriya” kept the secret to himself, which was fine because now that we all know, we can look down at the Delhi Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal, who, if the almanacs are not wrong, is lower down in the caste-tree; most definitely a “Vaishya”.
How that’s going to help the Aam Aadmi Party win Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh isn’t clear, but AAP supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal wants his deputy Chief minister to get the Bharat Ratna. The point to make is, caste will not exit the Indian psyche. And if we thought, Jawaharlal Nehru University would help in the annihilation of caste, we must have been “to the Brahmin born”!
For, these days of continued reservations, if any caste feels rightly or wrongly oppressed, it is the Brahmin. The other day, JNU Vice Chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit said that “anthropologically, scientifically…please look at the origins of our gods. No god is a Brahmin. The highest is a Kshatriya. Lord Shiva must be a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe. Because he sits in a cemetery with a snake…they have given him very little clothes to wear. I don’t think Brahmins can sit in the cemetery. So, if you see, clearly, the gods anthropologically do not come from the upper caste.”
The fact is, social media is full of Brahmin sob stories, which aren’t very different from Dalit and other oppressed sob stories. Brahmins lament their descent into poverty and joblessness. Feeling sorry for the impoverished Brahmin comes easy. The Brahmins’ hurt pride after centuries of inherited superiority is a thing to watch. There are awfully rich and entitled Brahmins, but the odd beaten Brahmin we come across brings tears to the eyes of some people.
We are told that the Bharatiya Janata Party is the party of the Brahmins, and then somebody comes along and corrects that with “the BJP is the party of the Baniya”! Of all the cruelest jokes played on the Brahmin, this one takes the plum. The UP-assembly elections earlier this year saw everybody, from Mayawati to Akhilesh Yadav, saying that the Brahmin vote will decide who will rule UP. But when the results rolled out, the kingmaker was the Muslim “laabarthi”, a brand-new sub-caste bought over to the BJP’s side with free rations and the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana.
Let’s congratulate ourselves for the many ways and means we find to win elections. The next round of elections will be in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, with the Aam Aadmi Party promising to give tough battle to the BJP in Modi’s home state, Gujarat. And while freebies will engage the voters, Gujarati “asmita” wouldn’t lag. That said, if anybody thinks caste will not have its say that person must be an outcaste! The Gujarati may look like they’re a consolidated company, but they’re as caste ridden as the Swiss cheese is riddled with holes! Ask Hardik Patel.
The other day Delhi Deputy Chief Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, the New York Times’ favourite child, declared that he was a “Kshatriya”, and with Sisodia’s current popularity rivaling that of Kshatriya king Maharana Pratap, Arvind Kejriwal and the AAP consider Gujarat already theirs for keeps; another sweep for the broom-vroom party.
Every election has its USP. Gujarat’s USP will be SOP, and Modi’s standard operating procedure in Gujarat is to hark to Gujarati Pride. With Modi’s ‘Gujarat Model’ running the risk of being beaten hollow by the ‘Freebie Model’ of Delhi and Punjab, the BJP will have to look to every trick in the trade. The last time during an assembly election the BJP felt cornered, and Modi was called “neech”, Modi invoked “Gujarati Pride”. The BJP that time slipped through the cracks for a slender victory.
This time round, the foe is younger, and hardier, and not loathe to play fast and dirty. Kejriwal’s freebie model is a powerful crowd-puller, and the man behind the muffler, a self-proclaimed “anarchist”. Add “Kshatriya” to the “anarchist” and all you need is a bagful of freebies with the clean-cut features of a Raghav Chadda on the bag to sell Delhi and Punjab to Gujarat! The Aam Aadmi Party even if it becomes the main opposition party in the Gujarat assembly would be a victor.
The BJP-AAP fight for Gujarat is being fought in Delhi. And for some reason, Kejriwal has given charge of the army to Manish Sisodia. Don’t be surprised if Sisodia isn’t named AAP’s chef ministerial face for Gujarat a la Bhagwant Mann for Punjab. Therefore, the Modi Government’s total onslaught on Sisodia, the complete focus on obliterating Sisodia’s standing, his character assassination given to the central agencies, the Kshatriya who could be the giant assassin in Gujarat 2022. (IPA Service)
Politics In Himachal And Gujarat Heating Up Before Polls 