BJP goes for caste census with an eye on Bihar polls

NEW DELHI: The Modi government announced a plan on Wednesday to include caste identity in the next census, something that has been Rahul Gandhi’s demand. And thereby hangs a tale.

It is, of course, abundantly clear that whoever carried out the massacre at Pahalgam or whoever backed the hideous killing of men by identifying them by their religion, helped the BJP’s divisive agenda under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s watch.

This was just as true of the killing of 40 troops in Pulwama in 2019. It too was turned into a communal incident.

A division of Indians along Hindu-Muslim lines inevitably helps negate the predominant social reality of caste, not only among Hindus but also for minorities, including Muslims. The killing of 27 men in Pahalgam, predominantly Hindu, by suspected Muslim gunmen, premeditated or not, was quickly turned into a Hindu-Muslim slugfest.

Pahalgam incident seen as helping ‘BJP’s divisive agenda’; quickly turned into ‘Hindu-Muslim slugfest’

“They didn’t ask one’s caste. They asked about their religion.” Pamphlets were put out on TV post haste within moments of the slaughter. The opposition said it was the BJP at work.

This was the currency that works sure footedly for political mileage. In Gujarat, too, almost moments after the burning of the train coach in Godhra in 2002, the Indian government blamed Pakistan before quickly turning its finger at well-to-do Muslims who had recently won the municipal elections in Godhra.

The “Mian Musharraf” slur continued to describe Gujarat Muslims to extract the last drop of political elixir. But poll-bound Bihar doesn’t respond quite so well to Hindu-Muslim mischief given its more entrenched, centuries-old social reality around caste.

Nitish Kumar and Lalu Yadav were part of the JP Movement, but belonged to different castes. (Nitish Kumar is the current chief minister of Bihar while Lalu Yadav is a predecessor).

The BJP too needs to move along the caste ruts while seeking to keep the religious pot boiling. When it overlooks the caste angle, its poll arithmetic is likelier challenged. That’s how a Dalit politician from the opposition could defeat the BJP candidate in Ayodhya in the general election last year.

Change of tact

When the full cabinet met under Mr Modi’s watch on Wednesday, the discussion was expected to be entirely on the India-Pakistan tensions. But the headlines were unexpectedly different, suggesting a more politically savvy preparation for Bihar than the Hindu-Muslim cliché.

No timeline was given and polls are due in the politically crucial state in October. The promise was made but the timeline was not provided about when the promise would be honoured. That’s what the newspapers focused on.

“With an eye on the Bihar elections, the Union government on Wednesday announced that a caste census will be conducted along with the decadal census,” The Wire reported.

Information and broadcasting minister Ashwini Vaishnaw made the announcement at a cabinet briefing. “However, he did not provide any timeline for when the decadal census or the corresponding caste census will be conducted,” the report said.

The last population census was conducted in 2011 and the 2021 census, which was delayed by the pandemic, is yet to be conducted.

“Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the cabinet committee on political affairs (CCPA) has decided that caste enumeration should be included in the forthcoming census. This demonstrates that our government is committed to the values and interests of society and country.

“Like in the past, when our government had introduced 10pc reservation for the economically weaker sections (EWS) of society without causing any stress in any section,” said Vaishnaw.

A nationwide caste census has been a long-standing demand of the opposition parties and was a central issue during the Lok Sabha elections last year. Vaishnaw, while making the announcement on Wednesday, accused the INDIA alliance of using the caste census as a “political tool” and said that Congress governments have “always opposed caste census”.

The cynicism hasn’t abated on the communal front, though. Reports are coming of assaults on and beating up of Muslims in BJP-ruled states.

In Kashmir, where the police are controlled by New Delhi, the people helped arrest the slide. But, as Mirwaiz Umar Farooq noted on Wednesday, Kashmiris are being assaulted elsewhere.

“The physical and verbal assault on Kashmiri shawl vendors in Mussoorie (a hill station in Uttarakhand state), who had to flee when police refused to guarantee their safety, is very disturbing,” he said in a statement. “After large-scale detentions, demolition of homes, and crackdowns inside Kashmir, ordinary citizens, students, and small traders outside of J&K are being attacked and forced to return.”

Mirwaiz slammed the communal upsurge and the killings in Pahalgam in the same breath.

“Being themselves at the receiving end of all forms of violence and subsequent suffering for decades, Kashmiris’ condemnation, empathy, and grief for the victims of the Pahalgam bloodbath is straight from the heart, yet they are being vilified and targeted. I appeal to the people of India not to fall prey to hatred and media propaganda creating mistrust of Kashmiris, and reciprocate in ensuring their safety, as they have always done in times of crisis towards all visitors and tourists.”

Pahalgam has set a political agenda, however, in which caste calculations have surged to the fore. The delicate manoeuvre requires a balance between keeping the India-Pakistan border hot and not losing the state polls.

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2025