Shekhar Gupta / BS
Mandal's children are the key players in this Bihar election, and their victory - and that of caste politics - lies in the fact that even their challengers, the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have to also speak the same language. On the secular/communal issue, Narendra Modi still persists with his original "who is the enemy you want to fight, the other religion or poverty" line. But he is now repeatedly reminding voters of his humble caste origins. His partymen, including the senior-most state leader Sushil Modi, hail him as a leader from "Extremely Backward Castes", or EBCs.
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The RSS's objective is an old one: to unite with faith what caste divided. The children of Mandal are not atheists or iconoclasts like the DMK of the past. But they want to use caste to dismantle political hierarchies it created in the first place. That is why backward/lower-caste politics is such anathema to the RSS. But Narendra Modi and Amit Shah know their politics. That is why the alarmed switch to reservations, and raising the threat from "vote bank" politics.
I shall risk saying that caste is winning in this tussle with faith, in spite of the fact that the BJP now has power at the Centre with a full majority, rules more states than it ever has in India's history and its main rival, the Congress, lies decimated and in terminal decline. But its prime minister belongs to an EBC and finds it important to keep underlining that, with pride. more
Mandal's children are the key players in this Bihar election, and their victory - and that of caste politics - lies in the fact that even their challengers, the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have to also speak the same language. On the secular/communal issue, Narendra Modi still persists with his original "who is the enemy you want to fight, the other religion or poverty" line. But he is now repeatedly reminding voters of his humble caste origins. His partymen, including the senior-most state leader Sushil Modi, hail him as a leader from "Extremely Backward Castes", or EBCs.
--- --- ---
The RSS's objective is an old one: to unite with faith what caste divided. The children of Mandal are not atheists or iconoclasts like the DMK of the past. But they want to use caste to dismantle political hierarchies it created in the first place. That is why backward/lower-caste politics is such anathema to the RSS. But Narendra Modi and Amit Shah know their politics. That is why the alarmed switch to reservations, and raising the threat from "vote bank" politics.
I shall risk saying that caste is winning in this tussle with faith, in spite of the fact that the BJP now has power at the Centre with a full majority, rules more states than it ever has in India's history and its main rival, the Congress, lies decimated and in terminal decline. But its prime minister belongs to an EBC and finds it important to keep underlining that, with pride. more
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