New Delhi: Much was made in the run-up to the Congress presidential elections of Mallikarjun Kharge’s 55-year association with the party, but a fact that did not get much consideration is that Kharge is only the third Dalit to hold that post in the party’s history of 137 years.
Party insiders said Kharge is not keen on that description of himself. He is learnt to have said in many conversations that in his long political career, he achieved what he did on “merit and not on caste identity”, adding, “Indira Gandhi made me the block president”.
That, however, does not alter the fact that prior to Kharge, the party that was once seen as the natural choice for the poor and the backwards had only two other men from the scheduled castes at its organisational helm.
The first Dalit ever to become Congress president was Damodaram Sanjivayya, former Andhra Pradesh chief minister, who held the post twice. Following the split of the Congress in 1969, Jagjivan Ram became president of Congress (R), the faction headed by Indira Gandhi.
Incidentally, Kharge counts Sanjivayya as one of his inspirations in politics.
Kharge was a last-minute entry into the presidential race after the original “favourite”, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, dropped out, causing much embarrassment to the party. Gehlot’s withdrawal was preceded by a rebellion in Rajasthan spurred by who would succeed him as CM if he is elected the president, should the party abide by the “one man, one post” norm adopted in the Udaipur declaration earlier this year.
That is when Kharge came in as the “choice” of the leadership though the official position is that the Gandhi family has not taken any sides in the contest. Kharge describes himself as a candidate put up by PCC (Pradesh Congress Committee) delegates, the very constituency that votes in the Congress presidential elections.
“This [Kharge’s election] is very significant for the party. It comes at a time when Rahul Gandhi is traversing the country on his Bharat Jodo Yatra with his message of unity and on the other hand, we are getting a Congress president who belongs to a disadvantaged caste himself. This will connect Dalits, backwards and the poor once more with the party. Politically, we will reap the benefits of this move,” said P.L. Punia, former Rajya Sabha MP and ex-chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes.
There is, however, also an alternative viewpoint within the party about whether or not efforts should be made to highlight the caste identity of its new president.
“India is a young country. Our average age is 25 years and one thing about young people is that they have aspirations. They want to achieve things in life and they want to do that on their own steam, not because of the caste they were born into. We should understand and respect those aspirations instead of slipping into the temptation of doing politics as it has been traditionally done,” said a senior All India Congress Committee (AICC) functionary who did not wish to be named.
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Man who never became CM
Kharge has twice been leader of opposition in the Karnataka Assembly, in 1996 and 2008. He was also among the contenders for the post of chief minister in 1999 — when it went to S.M. Krishna instead — and in 2004, when the party chose to go with Dharam Singh.
His aides said that several times during the Congress presidential campaign, Kharge joked: “I wanted to become chief minister. But they are making me Congress president.”
Kharge was a protege of former Karnataka chief minister Devaraj Urs in whose cabinet he became a junior minister for the first time in 1976. He subsequently became a state minister and a Union Cabinet minister but never the chief minister.
That is among the facets of political history that newly re-elected Communist Party of India (CPI) general secretary and former Rajya Sabha MP D. Raja talks about when tracing the relationship of the Congress party with Dalits, the other being the fact that Jagjivan Ram never went on to become prime minister even though he did serve as deputy prime minister.
“Who they [Congress] elect as president is their prerogative but in Indian society, there are three basic issues: class, caste and patriarchy. As Ambedkar said, wherever you go, caste is a monster that crosses your path. So, Kharge’s election will definitely send a message. There may be a conscious effort by the Congress party to use it,” he told ThePrint.
Immediately after filing his nomination for the Congress presidential elections, Kharge resigned from the post of Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha in consonance with the “one man, one post” rule.
“In the last eight years or so since the BJP government came to power, Dalits have been feeling isolated and targeted. This [election] will give them moral strength, a voice, and also give Congress some advantage in gaining back votes which in many cases, it lost to regional parties across the country,” said a senior Congress leader on condition of anonymity.
Dalit political space opening up
With the Bahujan Samaj Party’s political footprint receding — it has only 10 MPs in the current Lok Sabha — and interventions of supremo Mayawati becoming few and far between, many feel there is room in Dalit politics for a mainstream party and Kharge’s ascension may give Congress the right profile.
Smaller parties with a Dalit base like Chandra Shekhar Azad’s Bhim Army or Prakash Ambedkar’s Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh have limited and localised bases. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) have traditionally taken the stand that caste is not something that needs to be overtly highlighted in political discourse, with RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat calling for the caste system to be discarded.
However, political analyst Sudha Pai points out that, in the run-up to the presidential elections, Congress or Kharge himself have made no effort to highlight the Dalit identity of its foremost contender.
“It has not been mentioned much. I do not think anybody is putting great importance to that. Kharge is very much his own man; he has been a minister, a leader of opposition. He has a standing in the party, a very tall leader from Karnataka who is respected by all. If Congress chooses to highlight it at some point, that may give them some advantage but it all depends on how Kharge wants to play it once he becomes president. We have to wait and watch, I suppose,” Pai told ThePrint.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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