Ajaz Ashraf / Scroll
Modi’s persona has three principal elements – development, Hindutva, and OBC status. His strategy has been to remain silent on the Hindutva issues which the Sangh periodically raises, and focus his rhetoric on development. But his idea of development doesn’t include overcoming the inherent inequality of the caste system, which determines unequal access to, and gains from, growth. This is why the OBC facet of his persona can’t be said to represent social justice. It is, in reality, an electoral card the BJP and Modi play deftly to cobble together a majority.
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The BJP’s allusion to Modi’s OBC status minus the idea of social justice suits the interests of the upper castes, which hope to snatch the lever from Kumar and Yadav to make theirs after a gap of 25 years. For, to talk of social justice, long projected as being synonymous with caste politics, would risk alienating sections of the upper caste. Yet references to Modi’s OBC status, subtly or brazenly, could deter numerous OBC castes from consolidating behind the Janata Parivar. more
Modi’s persona has three principal elements – development, Hindutva, and OBC status. His strategy has been to remain silent on the Hindutva issues which the Sangh periodically raises, and focus his rhetoric on development. But his idea of development doesn’t include overcoming the inherent inequality of the caste system, which determines unequal access to, and gains from, growth. This is why the OBC facet of his persona can’t be said to represent social justice. It is, in reality, an electoral card the BJP and Modi play deftly to cobble together a majority.
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The BJP’s allusion to Modi’s OBC status minus the idea of social justice suits the interests of the upper castes, which hope to snatch the lever from Kumar and Yadav to make theirs after a gap of 25 years. For, to talk of social justice, long projected as being synonymous with caste politics, would risk alienating sections of the upper caste. Yet references to Modi’s OBC status, subtly or brazenly, could deter numerous OBC castes from consolidating behind the Janata Parivar. more
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