In the recently concluded assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, the BJP defeated Congress with comfortable margins. Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) analysis showed that a significant section of the Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) helped vote the BJP into power. This is an important development given that just a decade ago, the BJP was often cornered by the Opposition as the party that served the interests of the ruling classes. This has changed significantly with the BJP innovating effective strategies of social engineering to mobilise the worst-off communities into the Hindutva fold. The new BJP is placed as the party that engages with people through Vikas (development) and Virasat (heritage), offering new hope to the subaltern. The aspirational classes amongst the socially marginalised groups are the crucial votaries of the right-wing ideology.
With political parties that had raised slogans for social justice effectively in the recent past (especially the Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh) greatly diminished, it became easier for the BJP to introduce new strategies to engage with marginalised groups. The Opposition is yet to develop effective methods to challenge the BJP’s new model. The INDIA bloc may counter the BJP’s growing hegemony over the subaltern by raising the issues of substantive economic justice. By bringing to the table claims of Dalits, Adivasis and EBCs for equitable participation in the neo-liberal market economy, a new agenda can be set for social justice, one that challenges the right-wing juggernaut.
BJP’s strategy for the subaltern
In the last two decades, the BJP has successfully mobilised the Hindu lower strata through innovative political strategies and emotive cultural events. Its mobilisation strategies aimed at the Dalit-Bahujan masses are often three-pronged.
First, it is impressed upon people that marginalised groups will benefit through general welfare measures (for example, freebies, loan waivers, women-centric benefits) and the government will provide basic amenities to the poor (for example, cash transfers, free food grains) without identifying them based on caste. Such an agenda remains silent on the state’s reservation policy — one that assures the entry of marginalised communities into middle-class positions and mainstream life through government jobs. The BJP often provides space to “anti-reservation” voices and backs the claim that the general welfare of the poor is possible through rapid economic development and free market enterprises.
Second, the BJP complicates policies by alleging that the dominant OBC castes (like the Yadavs in UP and Bihar) have exploited the reservation policy and therefore bifurcations within the category are required to ensure Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs) can receive the needed benefits. On the other hand, the BJP also supports the demands for reservation made by the dominant agrarian castes (like the Jats and Marathas). This shows that the BJP seems to offer calculated postures to engage with different agrarian castes and promises them “quotas” mainly to influence their political choices. The party hardly has anything to gain from building a discourse examining the need for more social justice measures.
Third, the BJP engages the lower strata by curating emotive narratives about their history, icons and caste pride and invites them to join various religious events and cultural fronts influenced by right-wing ideology. Here, the cultural attributes of certain sects within the Dalits and Adivasis are celebrated to create social fissures. For example, in Bihar, the Ati-Dalits (the worst-off SCs) are exclusively mobilised against the dominant Dalit caste (especially the Paswans) and demands are raised for a sub-quota within the SCs. The state is pressured to offer exclusive policy benefits to the newly-crafted sections within the scheduled group. These class aspirations and socio-cultural tensions within the SCs are further exploited during electoral battles. The BJP’s election strategy seems to reap the benefits of these divisions.
Are the marginalised better off?
These strategies have influenced the political choices of these groups. A significant number of subaltern sections have rallied behind the ruling party. However, a cursory analysis of the current socio-economic status of the groups would reveal that a vast majority of them are still in precarious economic conditions and the basic entitlements for a good life are unavailable to them. The current government must engage with substantive questions of land distribution for the landless communities and ecological safeguards for the Adivasis. For a long time, these questions have been raised but an effective policy framework has not been offered.
It is prudent to ensure that Dalit-Bahujan groups also ensure their presence in the high echelons of power, especially in crucial public institutions like the judiciary, security agencies and public sector industries. The power equations in these institutions shall be democratised with a tilt in power towards the non-social elite groups. Finally, it is high time to introduce policy initiatives that ensure the participation of Dalits and Adivasis in the neo-liberal economy as equitable shareholders. These concerns are not discussed much within the BJP’s social engineering programme. Instead, the actual benefits of economic development and political change are overtly controlled by the conventional social elite. The Opposition has an opportunity to politicise these issues, enlightening the deprived social groups about economic injustices they’re faced with and reprimanding the current regime for its oversight on the matter.
The writer is assistant professor, Centre for Political Studies, JNU
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