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Signalling that the Congress is working out a social justice plank for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, senior party leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday made a forceful push for the removal of the 50% cap on reservation for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), and Other Backward Classes (OBCs), and asked the BJP government to release the caste-based data from the socio-economic and caste census conducted by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.
Hoping to splinter the BJP’s Hindutva consolidation, the Congress has been working on a plan to reach out to the SC, ST and OBC communities. It unveiled a new social justice package at its All India Congress Committee (AICC) plenary session held in February, promising, among other things, private sector quota, setting up of a separate OBC Ministry, reservations for SCs, STs, and OBCs in the higher judiciary, and a caste census.
The Congress, which once had a formidable OBC vote bank, has been desperately trying to regain its influence among the backward communities. The party’s grip on the OBCs in the Hindi heartland started loosening after the implementation of the Mandal Commission report in the 1990s unleashed a wave of OBC assertion. It led to the emergence of several leaders such as Mulayam Singh Yadav, Lalu Prasad, and Nitish Kumar.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindutva consolidation did the rest of the damage. Addressing an election rally in Kanataka’s Kolar, Gandhi took the OBC question head-on. It was at the very same venue where a speech he delivered in 2019 led to his disqualification as an MP last month. The BJP has been accusing him of having insulted the OBCs with his “Modi surname” remark in Kolar during the 2019 general election campaign.
“Let’s talk about OBCs. They say I insulted OBCs. Let’s talk about OBCs today … When we talk about OBCs, Dalits, people of Hindustan … what is the biggest question? The biggest question is ‘kiski kitni abaadi hai (what is the population of each community)’. We know that only 7% of the secretaries of the Government of India come from Dalit, tribal and OBC communities. So the biggest question is how many OBCs, tribals, and Dalits are there in India. When we talk about the distribution of wealth, distribution of power, the first step should be to find out the population of every caste,” he said.
Gandhi said the UPA government had conducted a caste-based census in 2011. “That census has the data of every caste in India. Modiji you talk about OBCs, then make that data public. Let it be known how many OBCs, Dalits, and tribals are there in the country. If everyone is to be involved in the country’s progress and be made equal partners, then we should know ‘kaun kitne hai (how many are there)’. So Modi ji, release the caste census data and let the people of the country know how many OBCs, Dalits, and tribals are there in the country. If you don’t do it, it will be an insult to the OBCs. You spoke about OBCs, show the country what the population of the OBCs is,” he said.
Gandhi then argued that reservation quota for SC and STs should be proportionate to their population. “Remove the 50% cap on reservation. Then we will talk about who is insulting the OBCs,” he said.
The signal from the Congress is that the social justice plank will be at the core of its 2024 campaign. The party knows well that the road to Delhi is not possible without winning back the support of the OBC, SC, and ST communities. In 2009, the Congress won 53 of the 131 Lok Sabha seats reserved for the SCs and the STs. This number plunged to 12 in 2014 and 10 in 2019, even as the party’s overall tally plummeted to unprecedented lows.
In Raipur, at the AICC plenary, the party passed a resolution that, if voted back to power, it would enact a special Act named after Rohith Vemula to protect Dalits, tribals, and OBCs, safeguard their right to education and dignity, and provide equal access to jobs for them in the private organised sector. The party also talked of conducting a Socio-Economic Caste Census along with the decennial Census.
