Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) general secretary and Bihar in-charge, Vinod Tawde’s statement that the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) would snatch reservations from the backward classes to give them to the Muslims if elected to power, and the Uttar Pradesh government’s directive to display shop owners’ names on the Kanwar Yatra routes are both part of the saffron party’s “hate campaign” against the minorities.
But more than the RJD, the BJP’s model of Hindutva-laced political rhetoric will embarrass its ally, the Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) JD (U).
JDU chief spokesperson, K. C. Tyagi spent no time in criticising the official order to display the shop-owners’ names on the Kanwar Yatra routes.
“It did not align with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishwas (friendship with all, development of all and confidence of all),” said Tyagi.
What drove Tyagi to spurn the divisive idea of displaying the owners’ name on shops, was the reality of socio-religious life in Bihar. Each year, lakhs of Kanwariyas fill their pitchers with the holy water of the Ganga at Sultanganj (Bihar) and undertake a foot march on the 112-kilometer stretch from Sultanganj to Deoghar (Jharkhand) to offer the same to Lord Vaidyanath all through the month of Sawan.
The Kanwar Yatra is a unique spectacle of the Hindu-Muslim bonhomie with many Muslims engaged in sewing special clothes for the Kanwariyas , selling wares, and serving water and shelter to them through the arduous journey. Same is the story in Uttar Pradesh.
While the JD (U) has been swift in opposing the Uttar Pradesh government order, BJP general secretary Tawde’s claim about the reservation for backward communities doesn’t augur well for the saffron party either.
Instead of taking the steps to incorporate 65% reservation to the backward classes, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes – which the Nitish Kumar-led Mahagathbandhan government in the state implemented ahead of the Lok Sabha polls – in the 9th schedule of the Constitution, Tawde has resorted to fanning fear among marginalised classes of the Hindu community against their Muslim brethren.
Tawde’s statement came at a time when despite switching over to the BJP, the JDU has consistently been demanding the Union government to incorporate the increased reservation in the jobs for the less privileged sections which also include the marginalised sections of the Muslims in the 9th schedule of the Constitution to avoid objection from the courts.
Moreover, the JDU at its national executive meeting in New Delhi, reiterated its demand to accord special category status to Bihar.
The party has also repeatedly demanded the “review” of the Agniveer scheme which is believed to have alienated the youths from the Narendra Modi government, which is a reminder for the BJP to not take the JD (U) for granted.
Disquiet in JDU
Over two months after the return of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to power for a third term—this time on the crutches of the JDU and Telugu Desam Party—a sense of disquiet seems to be setting in, particularly in the backward class leaders of the JDU against the BJP’s playing to the gallery on their issues.
Several JDU leaders—belonging to the backward castes—are heard saying openly that the “BJP would have been out on zero in the state had it not been with Nitish”.
The JDU’s backward class leaders’ claim is not far from the truth. According to the caste survey conducted by the Mahagathbandhan government ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the EBCs constitute 36.6% of the state’s population. The EBCs largely shifted to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and voted for the alliance’s candidates, which led them to bag 30 seats.
Fed by the Sangh Parivar’s input, a large section of the media carried the stories of how the BJP had won over all the non-Yadav and non-Jatav castes in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh. Based on similar inputs, it was rumoured that Nitish’s party would lose its existence after the Lok Sabha polls as these sections have shifted over to the BJP in the state too.
But the Lok Sabha poll results in Uttar Pradesh amply demonstrated that the non-Yadav backwards and non-Jatav dalits voted overwhelmingly for the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance, as is evident in the poor show of the BJP in the most populous state.
Moreover, the JDU had a better strike rate against the BJP when the results were declared. It became obvious that there was no “Modi magic” in Bihar and if at all there was a magic it was a “Nitish magic” with the EBCs largely staying with him.
Observers of socialist politics believe that the BJP would have met a dark fate in Bihar as in U.P had Nitish not switched over to the NDA ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
Now, the extremely backward classes who constitute a decisive vote bank to tilt the electoral balance in the state will expect the JDU-supported Modi government to implement the 65% quota for them which Nitish promised in the campaigns besides addressing their pressing issues of unemployment, shrinking of job opportunities, price rise and growing socio-economic disparity at the grassroots level.
The RJD leader, Tejashwi Yadav has announced to undertake a yatra across the state on these issues from mid-August.
Prospects of Nitish getting back to INDIA
Gopal Mandal, a JDU MLA belonging to the EBC, called on Lalu Prasad Yadav on the pretext of gifting mangoes to the RJD supremo. Some JDU leaders, belonging to the EBC have praised Lalu’s vision of social justice. The developments have spurred some sections of the local media to speculate about the possible switchover of Nitish to the INDIA bloc.
It seems premature at the moment.
But the BJP will have to work sincerely to implement the promises of Nitish Kumar to the people instead of going back to its Hindutva-driven divisive agenda which didn’t work in 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
There is nothing new in Tawde’s statement that the RJD would snatch reservation from the backwards and give it to the Muslims. PM Modi had repeatedly made similar allegations with the use of coarser words like machhli, mutton, mangal sutra and mujra.
Modi, by keeping the similar set of ministers, ignoring the demand of inclusion for 65% quota for the marginalised sections in the 9th schedule and special category status to Bihar, might be showing that nothing has changed.
But it is a classical example of living in a denial mode. The things at the grassroots level have changed which might drive Nitish to eventually lose his patience in the run up to the assembly elections, still one and half years away.
