“Caste census is not politics for me, it is my life’s mission, and I will not leave it. No power can stop the caste census. As soon as the Congress government comes, we will first conduct a caste census. This is my guarantee,” said Rahul Gandhi at Samajik Nyay Sammelan – ANI.
Congress party, through Rahul Gandhi’s utterances and its manifesto, has made the ‘caste census’ and removed the constitutional provision related to the 50 percent cap on reservations. While speaking at the 139th Foundation Day for the Congress in Nagpur, Gandhi assured that a caste census would be conducted if Opposition’s INDI Alliance came to power. Prior to that, Rahul Gandhi made the slogans of “Jitni ABadi Utna Haq” following the results of the Caste Based Census in Bihar.
The Gandhi Scion has a proven track record of making statements aimed at promoting disharmony among the sections of the Indian Society. But, if we go through the history of Congress Party’s track record on the OBC reservation issue, the perception of backward communities towards the Congress and the stand former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had taken on the Mandal Commission report pertaining to the OBC reservations, we get a different picture.
Pandit Nehru did not act on the first attempt to introduce reservation for the Backward Classes as per the Kaka Kalelkar Commission report of 1953. It is a well-known fact that Congress was always perceived to be the party of dominant castes since independence along with the Muslims. Since 1967, the rise of regional leaderships and parties has been largely considered as a reaction to the Congress’ inability to give space and representation to the backward classes in the organisation or legislatures. The demand for a Commission arose out of the same frustration and Janata Government under the leadership of Moraraji Desai address the issue of social and educational backwardness by constituting the commission under the chairmanship of B P Mandal. Though the caste discrimination was the core concern, identifying social and educational backwardness of various communities based on various indicators was the real reference point of this commission.
Though the Mandal Commission report was submitted in December 1980 itself, first Ms Indira Gandhi and later Rajiv Gandhi put the recommendation of introducing reservations for OBCs in the cold storage. In the August 1990 V P Singh government announced its legal implementation in his Independence Day speech two days later leading to nationwide protest. Then Rajiv Gandhi criticised and opposed the reservations in the parliament.
If anyone checks the newspaper archives from the 1980s till the days late Rajiv Gandhi steered the Congress Party, he would come across striking dissimilarities between the father-son as their takes on the Backward Communities, particularly, the OBCs, stand at confrontation.
The former PM stood up against the VP Singh Government while the latter made a pitch for the reservations of the OBCs in the Parliament. Rajiv Gandhi started his statement by reminding Ms Indira Gandhi’s slogan ‘Na Jat Par Na Pat Paar’. Rajiv Gandhi asserted that the Congress envisioned a casteless society for India contrary to the Mandal Commission’s idea. “The PM does not have the guts to stand up and say whether he believes in a casteless society or does not believe in a casteless society”, said Rajiv Gandhi in the parliament. The former PM and the then LOP also asserted that the commission’s recommendations would drag the nation into caste-wars that could lead up to the balkanisation of India. Rajiv Gandhi said, “…the manner in which you have implemented the Mandal Commission, to me, it is breaking up my country. Even at this late hour, there is time to pull the country back from this caste division.”
In his speech delivered in 𝐋𝐨𝐤 𝐒𝐚𝐛𝐡𝐚 on September 6, 1990, 𝟔𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟎, Rajiv Gandhi in the role of Leader of Opposition came down heavily on the Mandal Commission report and said, does the Government subscribe to the Mandal Commission view that political constituencies should be carved out on the caste basis? Are we going back to the Round Table Conference for having separate electorates? That was designed to break our country”. While questioning the BJP and Left party members, he asked, “Can you stand by idly and allow this gentleman sitting here to have caste based electorates as Mr. Mandal recommends?”.
‘𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘥𝘨𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘴 .. We have problems if the weakest amongst the classes are not helped and if the weakest among the minority religions are not helped. We have problems if caste is defined to enshrine casteism in our country. We have problems if casteism is going to be made a factor for parliamentary and Assembly Constituencies. The Congress cannot stand by and watch this nation being divided for the political convenience of one individual,’ thus Rajiv Gandhi attacked Vishwa Nath Pratap Singh, the old bettenoire, while subtly suggesting to introduce even religious angle of reservation.
The OBC reservations were implemented with the fifty percent cap as per the court directive. This led to the rise of many regional parties with strong OBC base, while in many states like Uttar Pradesh and Mandhya Pradesh, several OBC communities became the backbone of the Hindutva movement. One cannot forget the fact that Prime Minister Modi also comes from an OBC caste, and his government created a separate OBC commission.
While playing around the caste-based reservations, Rahul Gandhi is forgetting the track record of the Congress party when it comes to the OBC question and also questioning the argument of his late father that “(by implementing Mandal Commission), this Government (of V P Singh) is creating a vested interest in casteism”.
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