Whose India?

“If you keep doing the same things, you will keep getting the same results,” Dave Ramsey said. It doesn’t matter who Dave Ramsey is. I don’t know, in fact. Albert Einstein could have said that as well.

From the time BJP came to power in Delhi, India has been doing more or less the same thing: sectarian politics which favours one particular community and marginalises all others. Since the majority of Indians belong to the community favoured by BJP, no other party could arrive at an effective strategy for winning elections. People obviously want favours from those in power. And BJP is giving those favours to the majority. The majority will then vote BJP. BJP continues to rule. Happily. Till date.

And so some genius in the other camp struck upon a strategy. Divide the majority community along caste lines. This is not a new strategy at all. This was effectively made use of in all the Hindi belt states earlier many times by many parties. What is new now is that almost all the non-BJP parties have come together under one umbrella named INDIA [Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance]. That was quite a masterstroke. So much so, Mr Modi decided to change the name of the country to Bharat! Did the opposition’s INDIA create a few cracks in Modi’s India? Modi wobbled, no doubt.

The Alliance called INDIA wanted caste-based census which made Modi’s wobble much more unsteady. Modi’s party is the party of the upper castes.

Just a few statistics.

Most of the top jobs/positions in India are held by upper caste Hindus. Out of the 89 central government secretaries [highest officers in the government machinery], there is only one SC [Scheduled Caste]. There are 3 STs [Scheduled Tribe]. There’s not even a single OBC [Other Backward Community].

Out of the 93 additional secretaries, 6 are SCs, 5 STs and no OBC.

Look at the top positions in the judiciary or the police force or the army or anywhere and you will find similar statistics.

Is there any OBC at the top of the RSS? [Read Bhanwar Meghwanshi’s book I Could Not Be Hindu to know more about the caste biases of RSS.]

Let me insert a very telling parable here. Last month Adani’s Vizhinjam Port in Kerala was inaugurated by the Prime Minister. Two days prior to the inauguration, the Managing Director Adeela Abdulla, who was doing a commendable job in the post, was replaced by Dr Divya S Iyer. Both are IAS officers. The former was doing such a great job that there was no reason for her replacement. But the replacement did take place. Why? Look at the names.

Only 12% of India’s population are upper castes. This small fraction of the country’s population has appropriated 80% of all the top offices in the country. A mere 4% of such jobs are held by the lower castes who constitute 52% of the population.

Let me bring in a contrast. Out of the 4 Chief Ministers of Congress, 3 are OBCs. Of the ten BJP CMs, only one is an OBC.

When the INDIA alliance was formed, Modi’s typical answer was the declaration of the Vishwakarma Yojana, which was meant for splitting the lower caste into two factions: those who benefit from the Yojana and those who don’t. Divide and Rule is not just a British strategy.

Of course, there are better strategies coming up. The Ayodhya Temple, for instance. It will be inaugurated in Jan 2024, just weeks before the Lok Sabha elections. It will take certain core sentiments to orgasmic levels which in turn will reap rich dividends in the elections.

Modi’s India keeps doing the same things. From 2014. And it keeps getting the same results.

Who benefits? You tell me.

PS. This post is provoked by Indispire Edition 459: "If the problems you have this year are the same problems you had last year, then you are not a leader. You are rather a problem on your own that must be solved." Israelmore Ayivor #ProblemLeader