- Congress delayed in playing OBC card
- This time, BJP is playing not only OBC but extremely backward card also
Milind Muzumdar, Indore,
The BJP of the present era is not the party of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani era, but the BJP of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, which is not Kamandal in response to Mandal, but is trying to cultivate both Mandal and Kamandal. BJP is not only following the strategy of temple construction and its revival, but is also making all efforts to woo the backward and extremely backward people. To break BJP’s OBC vote bank, opposition alliance INDIA has played the card of caste-based census.
After Nitish Kumar and Akhilesh Yadav, Congress has also included the promise of caste-based census in its manifesto of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. Rahul Gandhi had made a similar promise in Karnataka also. Recently, during his Sagar Yatra, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge has reiterated this announcement of Congress. Congress got success in Karnataka because the current Chief Minister Siddaramaiah himself is an OBC.
Even in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, Congress has OBC Chief Ministers, but in Madhya Pradesh, Congress is led by Kamal Nath and Digvijay Singh. Therefore, the possibility of the OBC vote bank going to Congress in Madhya Pradesh is less. One reason for this is that BJP has OBC leaders like Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Apart from this, BJP has kept the trump card of Rohini Commission with itself in response to the caste census. The Rohini Commission was constituted to determine the quota for the most backward within the OBC reservation.
This time BJP is playing not only OBC but extremely backward card also. In the name of OBC, Yadav, Gurjar, Kurmi, Bishnoi and Jat communities, who are already resourceful powerful castes, have mostly benefited in the Hindi states. Because of these powerful backward castes, injustice was done to the extremely backward people. BJP is mobilizing these very backward castes. It has done this in Uttar Pradesh. The party has achieved success in two Lok Sabha and two assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh only because of extremely backward people. BJP is going to try this formula in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. Even in Maharashtra, BJP is doing social engineering to target the most backward castes.
Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi belongs to the OBC community, the party is also comfortable in this. The purpose of the Vishwakarma and Lakhpati Didi schemes announced by the Prime Minister in his address from the Red Fort is to target the extremely backward people. On average, there is 42 percent OBC population in the country. Of these, 65 percent are extremely backward.
In politics, in the name of backward classes, people from Yadav, Kurmi, Jat, Gurjar, Bishnoi communities are becoming Chief Minister, Minister, Union Minister, MLA and MP. Whereas extremely backward are expected. BJP is targeting them only. Recently, in the program organized in Aligarh in memory of former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Kalyan Singh, Union Minister Amit Shah had discussed the context of these communities. If we look at the Padma awards in the last 9 years, it becomes clear how much effort the BJP is making to woo the OBC categories. OBC category currently has the highest share in the Union Cabinet. BJP is also continuously doing social engineering in governors and other political appointments. The aim of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious Vishwakarma Yojana is also to woo the most backward.
BJP now has both Mandal and Kamandal
As far as Kamandal i.e. temple is concerned, projects like Ram Temple in Ayodhya, Kashi Vishwanath Corridor, Mahakal Lok are enough to prove BJP’s commitment towards Kamandal. Due to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and family organizations, BJP is not worried about Kamandal whereas due to Narendra Modi, it is no longer worried about Mandal either. Therefore BJP now has both Mandal and Kamandal. Political pundits of the country believe that the Congress took too long in playing the OBC card. Congress always neglected OBCs during its golden period. Congress’s attention was more towards Brahmin, Muslim and Dalit equations. As a result, the OBC class of the Hindi states went into the socialist and BJP camps. The parties of socialist ideology kept drowning in familyism and corruption. As a result, there was a weakness in them, which BJP took advantage of by doing social engineering.
Effort to woo backward people
For the last 9 years, BJP has been trying to woo the most backward people. Under this, the Rohini Commission in 2017 and on August 15 this year, the Prime Minister focused on Vishwakarma Yojana. Under the Vishwakarma scheme, a loan of up to Rs 2 lakh is being given to the beneficiary workers at an interest rate of 5 per cent, along with an allowance of Rs 500 per month along with training. Castes belonging to the Vishwakarma community will benefit from this scheme. Such as Badhel, Badigar, Bagga, Vidhani, Bhardwaj, Lohar, Carpenter, Panchal etc. Under the scheme, artisans will also be given training for their work and the government will also provide financial assistance to those who want to start their own business. Apart from implementing Vishwakarma Yojana, BJP also has the card of Rohini Commission.
