Cash and carry systems

However, the caste scene is extremely fragmented. There are no large vote blocs based on caste any more: the famous Gujarati KHAM (Kshatriya-Harijan-Adivasi-Muslim and the AJGAR (Ahir-Jat-Gujjar-Rajput) alliances are history. Even the Patidar-Kshatriya bloc that the BJP tried to build was dealt a body blow by Shankarsinh Vaghela.

In North India in general and particularly in Bihar, the electorally formidable formation of the Other Backward Classes has also fragmented: the upwardly mobile Kurmis, led by the likes of Nitish Kumar, have got drawn into the Hindutva fold while the single caste of the Yadavas continues to back leaders like Mulayam Singh and Laloo Prasad Yadav. The Dalits do constitute a large and quite differentiated segment but among them too the shenanigans of Mayawati and Kanshi Ram have driven deep political fissures. And, as for the upper castes who mistakenly call themselves `Forwards’ unity of political purpose comes only in fighting a rearguard action on issues like Mandal. Thus, it is unlikely that a political coalition will arise out of the caste configuration and go beyond the fragments.

It is important to note a historical analogy in this context. Immediately after the Emergency, when the claim of Babu Jagjivan Ram to Prime Ministership was bypassed in favour of the Anavil Brahmin, Morarji Desai, it was reported that Jagjivan Ram was so disappointed by this mode of conducting politics that he exclaimed, “Is mulk mein chamar kabhi pradhan mantri nahi ban sakta hai (A backward caste candidate can never become Prime Minister in this land).” The rest is history.

India was perhaps then not ready for letting the subaltern castes occupy more than symbolic space on the political stage. The inequities of the caste system had been so internalised that, whatever be the pledge to republicanism, persons from the minorities and the Dalits could only become token Uncle Toms of the system. Indeed, the Establishment was so rigid that when in 1990, the government of the day announced the acceptance of the long-pending Mandal Commission recommendations reserving a small number of jobs for Backward Castes, the country was whipped up into a frenzy. Young boys were hyped into immolating themselves and learned political pundits proclaimed the end of civilisation itself.

Today, the situation has changed somewhat. Caste oppression continues and the Dalits are particular victims, as at Lakshmanpur-Betha where they were attacked by the Ranbir Sena, which is supported by landlords and rich farmers cutting across Bhumihar, Rajput, Yadav and Kurmi castes and across Samata-BJP, Congress, and Rashtriya Janata Dal politics. At the same time, there is a definite attempt by precisely that element of the political class which was opposed to Mandal to appropriate the benefits of reservations for Backward Classes and others. Thus, both the Congress and the BJP are today votaries of Mandalisation and strain every nerve to appear as friends of Dalits. The unseemly wooing of Mayawati by both the Congress and the BJP is sufficient indication of this. And the reason for this expression of affection is only that Dalits (and other segments of what Kanshi Ram calls the Bahujan Samaj) are thought to constitute important vote blocs. The attempt is to turn these electoral blocs into vote banks and to draw from them political currency for the benefit of those vying for power.The problem, however, in the actualisation of these well-laid plans is that today there are Dalit leaders, and of course OBC aspirants to high office, who feel that they have had enough of playing bridesmaid and would now become brides themselves. The time of Jagjivan Ram is history. This is the era of Mayawati: the symbolism of having a Dalit as a head of government is no longer unrealistic.

This is because the real rulers are secure in the knowledge that such Dalit or `creamy layer’ OBCs who join the rat race for political power can actually participate in it only if they become rats themselves. In short, the process of co-opting is very much on and it is vitiated even more by the fact that the game is of an extremely short duration and is being played by those who are motivated only by lumpen greed. Not for them even the administrative acumen or political sophistication of Jagjivan Ram. The ideological project of Babasaheb Ambedkar to restructure society through republicanism is even further from their thoughts. They are, like their upper-caste counterparts who dominate politics today, merely capable of presiding temporarily over cash and carry systems.

And yet, even this sorry scenario is not without its positive features. One of the positive aspects is that not only can Dalits aspire today to high political office but for the very stability of the system, they must. Howsoever symbolic their involvement, the fact is that in the imperfect system of Indian democracy, the hitherto oppressed, or at least their creamy layers, have acquired a stake in the system. Their numbers are such that they can no longer be taken for granted.

This is the phenomenon that explains the perceptible swing in the middle class, urban electorate towards the BJP and the swing of the likes of middle class heroes like Nitish Kumar and George Fernandes towards the forces of Hindutva. The fact that the BJP provides only the alternative of deeply dividing society and even dragging it further backwards is being ignored for the moment. And, it is this that strengthens the belief that the mountain of democratic labour will only yield the mouse of a hung Parliament.