Just before the Lok Sabha elections 2024, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi was openly batting on the pitch of casteism.
Sometimes he would search caste in the list of ‘Miss India’, sometimes he mentions the absence of Dalit, tribal and OBC people in the ‘Prana Pratishtha’ ceremony of Ram Mandir and sometimes he takes an aggressive stand on the issue of caste census.
In this episode of caste politics, a statement of Rahul Gandhi was a matter of discussion.
On the occasion of ‘Samvidhan Samman Sammelan’ in Kolhapur of Maharashtra, the Congress leader said, “I have neither read the history of Dalits nor the history of backward classes in schools.”
Attacking the state government, he said, “Today the opposite is happening, whatever little history is left is also being erased.”
Does Rahul consider the education policies of Congress wrong?
The most reasonable question that arises after this statement of Rahul Gandhi is that if he did not read the history of Dalits and backward classes in schools, then who is responsible for this?
Rahul Gandhi’s schooling was done from Delhi’s St. Columbus and Dehradun’s Doon School.
According to his election affidavit, Rahul Gandhi passed his 12th class examination in 1989. Broadly speaking, Rahul Gandhi was completing his schooling in the 1980-90 decade.
During this time, his grandmother Indira Gandhi and father Rajiv Gandhi were in power at the center. So does Rahul Gandhi believe that what was being taught in schools at that time made the Dalits and backward classes disappear?
‘This is the crime of Indira and Rajiv Gandhi’
Dalit thinker Dilip Mandal has raised strong questions on Rahul Gandhi’s caste policies.
Mandal wrote about Rahul’s statement on Instagram, “When Rahul Gandhi was studying in St. Columba and Doon School, (1980-1990) Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi were in power. The fault of there being nothing about Dalits and backward classes in his school books is that of his grandmother and father.
‘Rahul ji, lying is a sin’
In another post, Mandal has called Rahul a ‘liar’ by mentioning the major programs and events related to Dalits between 1977 and 1990. Mandal wrote, “Rahul Gandhi is lying that when he was studying, he did not know anything about Dalits and backward classes.”
He wrote, “When Rahul Gandhi was growing up, Mandal Commission was formed in India in 1977, OBC reservation was implemented in UP and Bihar in 1978 and major violence took place.”
He has also questioned the governments of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi for not implementing the Mandal Commission recommendations. Dilip Mandal writes, “From 1980 to 1989, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi sat on the Mandal Commission with their heads bowed down.” When Rahul Gandhi was in school, Dalit massacres took place in Velluppuram and Karamchedu. The newspaper must have reached Rahul Gandhi’s house!” Apart from this, Mandal mentioned many other points in his post.
‘Rahul’s attachment to castes is foolish’
Senior columnist and writer Tavleen Singh has written an article in the Indian Express titled ‘Rahul Gandhi’s attachment to people’s castes is not only shocking but also foolish’.
Tavleen has analyzed the caste-related questions raised by Rahul Gandhi during Miss India and the Prana Pratishtha of Ram Mandir. Tavleen writes, “Rahul Gandhi needs to pay attention that sometimes he seems very hypocritical. If he was so concerned about caste inequalities he could have uplifted the lower castes decades ago when his family was ruling India.”
What does Rahul want to achieve with the help of caste politics?
Political analysts believe that the reason behind BJP not getting absolute majority in the Lok Sabha elections 2024 is the statements of BJP leaders related to changes in the Constitution and the narrative of the opposition like ‘BJP will end reservation if it comes to power’.
What reservation means for Dalit, backward and tribal communities is not hidden from anyone. The axis of BJP’s politics is Hindutva, BJP comes on the political pitch of Hindutva to bring together all the castes apart from the beneficiary class and this has proved to be a profitable deal for it in the last few elections.
At the same time, leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav adopt the formula of coming to power by uniting the votes of backward castes and Muslims. Rahul’s goal also seems to be the same. It is widely believed that Congress has resorted to castes to counter the wave of Hindutva that arose after Ram Mandir. BJP does not get the vote of Muslims except sporadically and at the national level, Congress has been their favorite party for a long time.