Caste, Revdis and Sloganeering Once Again

Four of India’s states have just concluded their assembly elections in two instalments when they should have been held together in one shot. Besides the schedule reeking of unprofessional PR agency idiot bosses’ meddling and colluding with the central government, the media reporting too suffers from the same interference.

Coming soon after the general elections which threw up a fractured mandate in the sense that the incumbent BJP couldn’t manage a large majority on its own, one ought to have known or at least anticipated the mood of the electorate. For a change, the electorate focused on inflation, jobs and economic development, rather than voting on emotive issues alone such as religion and caste. Or is it? Only time will tell.

From the two state elections that went before, Jammu and Kashmir as well as Haryana, it appears that economic issues are not the only ones that matter. In J&K particularly, the main issues appear to be statehood – which the Union government has promised, strangely after turning it into a Union Territory – as well as reversing the abrogation of Article 370 which seems to be wishful thinking in my opinion. Yet, this is what led to the National Conference returning to form the government, though BJP did win in their bastion of Jammu.

As far as Haryana is concerned, I have thought for many years that the state functions like a satellite to Delhi, especially since it is an important part of Delhi-NCR. Therefore, quite expectedly it continues to benefit from the expansion of Delhi-NCR and the real estate sector boom, as well as suffers its pitfalls such as land-grabbing, corruption and the politician-real estate baron nexus. The other large and significant industry in the state is automobile manufacture, but here its recent growth has been somewhat limited with more of the new expansion-related investment going to Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. I think these auto-hubs might be attracting new investment because of their proximity to ports, thus enabling exports. Haryana suffers a disadvantage in this respect, and must diversify quickly to other industries that do not depend on heavy imports or exports. With the development of Gurgaon as an important corporate and business centre housing many tech and tech-related companies among other MNCs, Haryana can aim to become a larger tech hub especially in software and services just the way Bangalore and Pune have grown. It can also look to become an important logistics hub for companies serving North India, including e-commerce giants. That said, Haryana’s infrastructure especially power and water supply are woefully inadequate. On the agricultural front which is still an important sector for Haryana’s economy, it seems to be going Punjab’s way, with growing the wrong kinds of crops such as paddy, farmers demanding legal guarantees of MSP (minimum support price provided by the government) and the awful paddy-stubble burning, that along with three other states, chokes all of North India every year. People expected an upset in Haryana because anti-incumbency was felt to be high and yet, the BJP managed to retain hold over this state and it appears that once again caste had everything to do with it.

None of the issues and challenges that I have mentioned for Haryana seem to be relevant at election time, or at any other. And this is a regular feature of all our elections, in the sense that economic policy has little to with campaign pledges; freebies and sops are enough to do the trick.

Now, we have Jharkhand and Maharashtra in the next round of state elections for this year. And caste is back on the boil and in election campaigns. In Jharkhand which has a large tribal population, caste and reservations are dominating the elections once again. Here, I must mention an observation of mine, regarding a column piece by Swaminathan Aiyar sometime ago, in which he said that states such as Bihar and Jharkhand – I suppose one could add Chhattisgarh and parts of Odisha – continue to be backward because of the large numbers of tribals and lower castes. I suppose he meant that they do not have access to proper education, but I was taken aback by the direct connection between low castes and tribals and the backwardness of a state. It wasn’t even a correlation that he was drawing, but a cause that he was attributing to backwardness.

Now, I don’t have any data to either agree with or refute Mr Aiyar’s theory, but I thought that this is clearly a reflection of the failure of the entire reservation system in India if years after following the reservation quota system, lower castes and tribals are still unable to make progress. On the other hand, I could also argue that if tribals and lower castes are dominant sections of the population in Jharkhand, what is the need for caste reservations at all in the state? Reservations only become relevant when there is intense competition for the few seats in educational institutions and the few jobs available, and where upper castes or the more privileged might enjoy an unfair advantage. Besides, Jharkhand or Bihar for that matter, are not the kinds of states that have an influx of people from outside seeking better education or jobs; if anything, these states see a net outflow of people precisely because they are economically backward and opportunities are few.

And yet, the election campaigning is full of caste and reservation rhetoric, with each party accusing the opposition party of snatching away people’s reservation and rights, planting fear in the electorate’s hearts and minds. This suggests that our political leaders haven’t given the issue of caste and reservation any thought. To my mind, caste and reservations require a rethink and perhaps a new, reformed approach because these also tend to be very state-specific.

Maharashtra, for all the recent drama of political parties splitting and dealing with dissidents, is sadly on the decline economically. This is what ought to occupy the minds of the political leaders, and ought to be the main issue for the electorate as well. There don’t seem to be enough jobs and employment being generated, farming is suffering a setback and smaller urban centres – of which the state seems to have many – are not attracting investment and skilled people. Maharashtra used to be one of India’s most economically developed and industrialised states along with Gujarat, but in recent years, it is not only slowing in economic growth, it is losing large investment projects to Gujarat. Here too, caste is an important factor, with the Marathas, a dominant caste, recently being given OBC status and a reservation quota.

Maharashtra suffers from the aggravation of another problem, especially with the Shiv Sena party (both factions) growing in power and status: that of greater attention being given to Bombay city – the traditional Sena stronghold – than to the rest of the state. And this will continue to be a source of conflict and tension because both of the large political alliances contesting the Maharashtra elections have a Shiv Sena faction leading them.

Bombay being such an important city economically for India – the business and financial capital – political parties contesting elections in the state must ensure political stability and policy certainty. Something that can’t be taken for granted in an era of parties splintering and large inconvenient alliances being formed just to stay in power.

As election results poured in a couple of days ago, it appears that Maharashtra might have chosen continuity, in facilitating a landslide victory for the incumbent Mahayuti Alliance, returning them with a thumping majority in the state assembly. Yet, it also signalled a break with the past, in that the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena suffered a crushing defeat along with the Sharad Pawar faction of the NCP and its Mahavikas Aghadi partners, the Indian National Congress. In Jharkhand, the results were along more expected lines, I think, with the regional party JMM-led India Alliance that includes the INC, winning absolute majority.

A new feature of state elections in India seems to be the release, on bail, of a party leader so that he may campaign for his party during elections, as has occurred with both Arvind Kejriwal and Hemant Soren. A more sustaining feature of all state elections is that freebies and sops are the order of the day, with not a care for economic policy. As I wrote in a previous blog post, elections are fought and won in India on the basis of freebies and sops in order to pander to various constituencies, and the rest of the political term is spent fulfilling election promises which are the same. Who cares about the economic future of millions of people, or indeed about long-term economic growth and policies? As always, politicians in India resort to identity politics, revdis and slogans in order to win elections, and it works like a charm every single time.

The animated owl gif that forms the featured image and title of the Owleye column is by animatedimages.org and I am thankful to them.?

This article first appeared on my blog on November 25, 2024.???????????