The INDIA Alliance Has a Caste Conundrum

With a polite whisper in Delhi’s political circle about the possibility of having a Dalit prime minister, the media jumped to the conclusion that the current Congress president, Mallikarjun Kharge, will be the opposition’s prime ministerial candidate for the 2024 general elections.

A sudden resurgence of energy was felt within INDIA, the opposition alliance, looking at it as a wonderful opportunity to show their concern about the marginalised social groups. Kharge is a popular mass leader, impressive organiser, committed to the values of secularism and social justice and due to his ‘Dalit’ social location, one can assume that he can represent the aspirations of the majority of the socially marginalised communities better.

Political pundits have also hinted that the Congress party may regain its lost Dalit trust, especially in Uttar Pradesh, and will re-emerge as a powerful party at the national level. On the flip side, however, Kharge’s candidature will not necessarily provide any additional advantage to INDIA. Instead, knowing the political history of caste-based social antagonisms, such an announcement may polarise the landed and agrarian castes in favour of the right-wing party.

Congress and Dalit leadership

The Congress party’s track record with Dalit leaders at the national level is not very impressive. In its early days, Congress promoted leaders like Jagjivan Ram to challenge the growing popularity of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar amongst the Dalit community. After some years, his granddaughter, Meera Kumar, tried to raise alternative leadership amongst the Dalits, challenging the emergence of Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP’s) Mayawati. However, both the attempts were no match to the independent and assertive political leadership that Ambedkar and later the Dalit political movement created.

Watch: What Happens When Caste Enters Mainstream Media?

It is the intellectual charisma and statesmanship of K.R. Narayanan that provided a sort of dignity to the Dalit leadership within the Congress, as he was elevated as the President of India. Otherwise the Dalit leaders in Congress are visibly dependent upon the organisational strength of the party. Leaders like Mukul Wasnik, Sushil Kumar Shinde and P.L. Punia hardly gained prominence in national politics, while others like Bhalchnadra Mungekar remained comfortable in the domain of policy consultations.

Similarly, at the regional level too, the Congress failed to promote impressive Dalit leadership. In Andhra Pradesh, the Congress appointed Damodaran Sanjivayya as the first Dalit chief minister of any Indian state. However, he remained in power only for two years (1960-62). In Rajasthan, the party appointed Jaganath Pahadia as the chief minister for less than a year (June 1980 to July 1981). In Maharashtra, the veteran Congress leader Sushil Kumar Shinde was elevated as the chief minister just before the 2004 assembly elections, again merely for 20 months. Similarly, in Punjab, the party selected Charanjeet Singh Channi as the chief minster just before a year of the assembly elections in 2022. During the 2023 assembly elections in Telangana too there was hope that a Dalit leader may be sworn in as the chief minster after Congress’ victory but it did not materialise.

In states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, Dalits have deserted Congress and adopted regional leaders. However, the presence of Dalit leaders at crucial political positions have helped the party to retain a significant Dalit vote base in states like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Gujarat and Haryana. Kharge’s elevation as the president of the Congress party has further encouraged Dalit voters to retain their faith in the grand old party. However, the Indian democracy hasn’t yet matured to accept people from socially marginalised sections as their leaders. Especially the social elites and the dominant agrarian castes that don’t appreciate Dalit leaders in powerful positions.

For example, in Punjab, the Congress lost power to the Aam Aadmi Party, as the dominant agrarian castes, especially the Jats, had deserted the Congress, looking at Channi’s appointment as a challenge to their conventional political authority. It was the remarkable political inning of Mayawati in UP that showcased the possibility of independent Dalit-Bahujan political calibre. BSP formed a winnable social engineering formula and ruled the state effectively. However, in the recent times, BSP has been relegated as the Jatav-dominated party, while the other subaltern caste groups found new parties (including the Bharatiya Janata Party) to raise their social and class concerns. Even in Maharashtra, though the state celebrates a grand tradition of social reform movements and anti-caste struggles, Dalit political leaders are not appreciated or accepted as the leaders of the general mass.

Caste fissures and BJP’s social engineering

Though various political parties have projected impressive Dalit leaders at the national platform, many of them are belittled as sectarian ‘Dalit leaders’, unfit to provide good leadership to the general people. The traditional social and class relationships between the agrarian castes and the Dalits have remained hierarchical, often exploitative towards the Dalits, and their economic and political empowerment is not appreciated by the dominant castes. The community’s assertion through political positions, class mobility or even their dignified presence in the public sphere, on occasion, has resulted in their social boycott, violent clashes and murders.

The average social life, especially in the non-metro cities and in the rural parts, is still contaminated with distrust, animosity and jealousy between various caste groups. Within the familial sphere, the three major fragments of the society – social elites, lower castes and Dalits – still operate according to their conventional caste-based cultural norms, often showcasing distrust towards each other. The Dalits and the agrarian castes can hardly be seen to forge close social associations, familial ties or engaged in cordial cultural events.

Also read: Majoritarian Politics and the Plight of Dalits

Different political parties, including the Congress, hardly supported any substantive movement to build social harmony, ensuring fraternity amongst the various castes or promoted radical social reforms that could have elevated the social stature of the Dalits and Adivasis as equal. Instead, in the recent past, the BJP has exploited such social fissures more prudently to win electoral battles.

Conventional social differences between caste groups based on past icons, social rituals and customs are consciously manipulated into stiff social and political rivalries. The BJP has utilised various caste associations and their cultural and ritualistic symbols for political mobilisation. In UP, for example, it provided a new political voice to different caste groups and mobilised them against the politically assertive castes (especially the Yadavs and Jatavs), emerging as party of the subalterns.

The current right-wing dispensation does not wish to disturb the functional social normative. Instead, Hindutva proponents politicise caste division, encourage patriarchal social values and celebrate Brahmanical cultural assets. Such machiavellian tactics have redefined the conventional grammar of caste politics and re-emphasised the subversive relevance of Brahmanical caste system in democracy. The right-wing generates a communal social psyche that hardly encourage the arrival of Dalits as a powerful economic class or political leaders. Therefore, Kharge’s promotion as the prime ministerial candidate will overtly help the right-wing to play crude caste politics.

Congress needs EBC support

INDIA looks comfortable with the support that it gets from the Dalit, Adivasis and Muslim groups. However, such support is insufficient to win the democratic battle. To expand its social support, the Congress should introduce itself as a party concerned for the social emancipation and political empowerment of the Economically Backward Classes (EBCs).

In the recently concluded assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, though the Congress lost to the BJP, it retained a significant vote share in all these states. The gap between the Congress and the BJP in Madhya Pradesh is of 8%, in Chhattisgarh 4% and in Rajasthan it is a mere 2%. The CSDS election survey showed that a significant majority of the Muslims, Dalits and Adivasis have voted for the Congress, whereas its support base amongst the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) has declined. To win the 2024 elections, the Congress has to regain its OBC support. An additional shift of mere 5% among OBC voters in the favour of the Congress can be a game changer.

The BJP has overtly consolidated support amongst the social elites – with almost 70% amongst them voting for the BJP – creating a solid ‘Upper Caste Vote Bank’. On the other hand, BJP’s engagement with the socially marginalised groups is recent and these groups are yet to receive substantive profits for their association with the right-wing party. Especially, for the political and economic concerns of the EBCs, the BJP has not offered effective policy framework or promoted a national leadership amongst them.

The Congress can engage with the EBC issues with more prudence and sincerity. The alliance should promote young and dynamic leadership amongst the aspirational EBC groups and promise them substantive policy packages for their rapid economic and political empowerment.

Importantly, it should work to build social cordiality and political alliances between Dalits, Adivasis and the EBCs for effective political and social change. Such dynamic platform of unified subaltern caste groups, may allow an enlightened leadership amongst the Dalits to take the centre stage.