I have seen two prominent critiques of Mallikarjun Kharge becoming Congress president. Interestingly, both the critiques came from the Scheduled Caste/Bahujan section. One points to how eroding institutions suddenly wake up to the need of diversity; and the other is about how the Congress is aiming to poach Dalit votes from regional parties.
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati launched a scathing attack on the Congress following Kharge’s appointment as party president. “The Congress does not care about the safety and prestige of the Dalits in its good days, but makes them scapegoats in bad days.” She criticised the Congress for ignoring Dalits when it was in power. “Isn’t this politics of deceit?” she asked.
1. कांग्रेस का इतिहास गवाह है कि इन्होंने दलितों व उपेक्षितों के मसीहा परमपूज्य बाबा साहेब डा भीमराव अम्बेडकर व इनके समाज की हमेशा उपेक्षा/तिरस्कार किया। इस पार्टी को अपने अच्छे दिनों में दलितों की सुरक्षा व सम्मान की याद नहीं आती बल्कि बुरे दिनों में इनको बलि का बकरा बनाते हैं।
— Mayawati (@Mayawati) October 20, 2022
Another critique came from journalist-turned-scholar Sujat Ambedkar. Looking at Kharge’s appointment and the way Bharat Jodo Yatra is mapped, he asked in a Facebook post if the Congress “has conceded a total defeat in being able to break into the BJP’s vote share” and whether the party’s “next natural course of action would be to break and capture all smaller independent Dalit-Bahujan-Adivasi-Muslim forces along with regional parties”.
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Congress game plan and its discontents
In September 2021, the Congress picked Charanjit Singh Channi, a leader from the Scheduled Caste community, for the post of chief minister in Punjab. But Channi was never allowed to run the state as per his wishes, even though he had barely three months before the Election Commission’s model code of conduct for the 2022 assembly election came into effect in early January. The anti-incumbency against the previous Amarinder Singh government was also very strong. Channi was destined to fail. Unsurprisingly, the Congress lost the election to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), its tally coming down from 77 to 18 seats in the 117-member assembly.
Even in Uttar Pradesh, where the Congress isn’t even the main challenger, it has appointed former BSP MP and Scheduled Caste leader Brijlal Khabri as the president of its state unit.
And now, once again, the Congress is betting on a Scheduled Caste leader to steer what is seemingly a ‘sinking ship’. But there is more to it. The party is also desperately looking to win back its Dalit voters who, along with Muslims and Brahmins, once used to form its core support base. In post-independence India, these three socio-religious groups became the mainstay of Congress’s electoral politics. The party did get support from other sections as well, but the trio of Dalits-Muslims-Brahmins remained with the party until the great socio-religious churning of the 1990s changed the course of Indian politics. Large sections of the Scheduled Castes and Muslims in north India became alienated from the Congress. Brahmins too switched sides. These trends have been documented by the Lokniti-CSDS post-election surveys in various north Indian states.
These three groups have shown distinct political and electoral behaviours over the course of Indian politics. A broad mapping of each of these groups would look something like this:
1. Muslims: Their political behaviour largely depends on a simple calculation—which party is the most potent competitor of the BJP. In Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu, Muslims have been voting for regional formations or non-Congress parties that have stood the best chance of defeating the BJP. The Congress is often relatively weak or plays second fiddle in such states.
2. Brahmins: This social group switched sides during the 2014 Lok Sabha election. Brahmins dumped the Congress and embraced the BJP. The BJP strengthened its bond with the Brahmins by taking a series of actions such as implementing EWS quota, revoking Jammu and Kashmir’s special status by abrogating Article 370, paving the way for the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya, and completing the work on Kashi Vishwanath Corridor among others.
3. Dalits: In Uttar Pradesh, despite many upheavals, the BSP is their preferred party. It polled nearly 13 per cent vote share in the assembly election held in February-March this year. Despite its efforts of outreach, the BJP has failed to build a sustained support base among the Scheduled Castes mainly due to its legacy and also because of incidents like the suicide of Rohith Vemula, the Una flogging incident, the non-implementation of reservation policy in various government departments, and the government’s position on the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act in the Supreme Court.
Congress strategists know that it won’t be easy to break Brahmins and other dominant castes’ association with the BJP. As a group, they may dump the BJP if the economic situation deteriorates to such an extent that this socially empowered class can’t figure a way out; they may also switch sides if the Congress or some other party shows the potential to dislodge the BJP. Muslims can return to the Congress only if the party garners enough support to become the most potent challenger to the BJP.
In this political logjam, the only option left for the Congress is to reach out to the Scheduled Castes. The BJP won’t immediately feel the heat because the core of its support base—dominant castes as well as large chunks of OBC and other intermediate castes—will remain intact and keep voting for the party. Hindutva politics is still a powerful glue that unites various sections under the broader identity of ‘Hindu voters’, especially in north India.
Also read: Kharge, Tharoor won’t matter, it’s the definition of Congress politician that must change
Congress and Bahujan politics
The Congress, though, can hurt non-BJP parties through its Dalit outreach. Mayawati and Sujat Ambedkar’s reaction to Kharge becoming Congress president should be seen in this context. And the Congress can’t hide the fact that it has indeed handed Kharge the reins of the party when its stocks are at an all-time low. The last time the party had a Scheduled Caste president was in 1970-71 when Jagjivan Ram was entrusted with this responsibility.
Founder editor of Bahujan website Velivada, Pardeep Attri, sees this as a tactical move. “Congress is a sinking ship, so who better to blame for the demise than a Dalit? With downfall, however, it carries the dangers of perpetuating stereotypes against Dalits that Dalits are incompetent leaders,” he tweeted, drawing parallels with US where, research shows, members of minority groups as well as women are more likely to be promoted to leadership positions when the teams or firms aren’t doing well.
Are we going to witness a similar scenario with Kharge now holding the reins of the Congress or will his appointment trigger the process of revitalisation of the Congress? Moreover, will the Congress cut into the votes of non-BJP parties and weaken Dalit-Bahujan politics in the process? The 2024 Lok Sabha election will likely give us the answers.
Dilip Mandal is the former managing editor of India Today Hindi Magazine, and has authored books on media and sociology. He tweets @Profdilipmandal. Views are personal.
(Edited by Prashant)