By Sushil Kutty
Congress spearhead and INDI-Alliance’s only hope Rahul Gandhi’s hoarse voice is what’s giving hope to those praying Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not get a third term. The Wayanad MP is asking people lining up to receive his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra and listening to his speeches at the halts to “think hard”. He is asking the “low castes and the OBCs” in the electorate to deny Modi “Abki baar 400-paar”.
“Think Caste” is Rahul Gandhi’s election-winning slogan. His focus on “oppressed castes” and “OBCs” is part of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra route to achieving power through the ballot-box. Rahul Gandhi’s search for “low castes” in the judiciary, media, civil services, India Inc., has so far drawn a blank, which is good news for Rahul Gandhi ‘s campaigning strategy.
It can be said that Rahul Gandhi is keeping the Congress still in the race and the INDI-Alliance more or less intact, despite the odd rumblings, with this “Think Hard-Think Caste” line of campaigning. With “caste” in the lexicon, Rahul Gandhi is speaking the lingo of many opposition regional parties who make up the INDI-Alliance including the Samajwadi Party of Uttar Pradesh and the Rashtriya Janata Dal of Bihar.
For sure, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar must be nostalgic about his Caste Census, which is now not his to flaunt. Rahul Gandhi owns the concept now and it is Rahul’s proposal for a nationwide Caste Census. Rahul Gandhi single-handedly eradicated Nitish Kumar from the Caste Census and Nitish’s Caste Census is Rahul’s strategy to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Hindutva.
In India, people identify with castes. Identity politics will never disappear. The feeling one gets is Lord Rama knows better than any of his bhakts that the Sangh Parivaar stopped thinking after the January 22 ‘Pran Prathistha’. The BJP-RSS wants a casteless society, but it is a fact that even after 75 years, caste identities dictate life; and voting the most.
So Rahul Gandhi is gambling with his political career. If even one “low caste” individual in the crowd at a Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra halt stands up and shouts “I am a Dalit in the Civil Services…”, Rahul Gandhi’s election-campaigning strategy to present “low castes” as victims would go for a toss.
Rahul Gandhi is taking a risk with questions like “Is any of you a Dalit and in the media?” and “Is there even one low caste in any of India’s top 200 companies?” Rahul Gandhi asked: “Why are you all asleep? Don’t you see you’re being fooled…you are 73% of the population. What kind of society is this where you don’t make any decisions?”
Searching questions, probing enquiries. Has Rahul Gandhi made people understand his intent, why is he asking such questions? Rahul Gandhi can directly pose questions to the hoi polloi for now, but one more Modi victory, this time with the “Abki Baar 400 Paar” slogan, and Rahul Gandhi will be taking a long vacation.
Rahul Gandhi’s previous two campaigns to oust Modi have been failures. This is the third time in 10 years that Rahul Gandhi is going after Modi with a vengeance. Is Modi’s persistence in ending ‘Parivar Raj” coming to a close or will Modi close the “Parivar” down? The Congress hopes that Rahul Gandhi’s hoarse voice is telling more than one tale.
A “Caste Census” will identify people of varying means and standards, it will be a stark reminder of who wears foreign-made designer jeans and who the “Killer Jeans” merchandize sold at the weekday bazaars in India’s small towns? Yup. Think hard and ask questions. Is the Gandhi scion’s election strategy working, or did the man start too little, too late to make a difference?
There are those who are calling Rahul Gandhi crazy for some of the questions he’s throwing, and some of the statements he’s making. But even mentioning Aishwarya Rai serves an election purpose. Gandhi is using all sorts of examples to highlight his point that Modi leads and works for an elite India and it’s for the non-elite deprived Indians to “think hard” and vote accordingly.
Are current Indian rulers rattled? Gandhi’s message is simple: The Caste Census will disclose how much of India’s wealth does the low castes of India own? His question, “why was Amitabh Bachchan and Ambani and Adani at the Ayodhya Pran Pratishtha and not you?” was to make the majority of the electorate, those who weren’t sent invitation cards, to “think hard”?
It is no secret that the Indian system has failed to address the plight of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The “affirmative action” since Independence hasn’t worked. There was a Caste Census in 1931. Then one in 2011. But the findings remain hidden. In 2023 there was a Bihar Caste Census – two-thirds of Bihar was “backward castes”.
Rahul Gandhi says the national picture wouldn’t be different. Therefore, his demand for more clarity; for people to “think hard” and ask questions; to vote with their thinking hats on. For far too long the real state of the castes has been kept hidden. The fact of the matter is, do people trust Rahul Gandhi for being the real deal or just another Gandhi-Nehru? Will Rahul Gandhi’s “Think Hard-Think Caste” strategy win the INDI-Alliance the House? (IPA Service)
