The Die Is Caste

Voter Count

• 15% Upper castes

• 16% Mahadalits

• 16% Muslims

• 51% OBC/EBC (Yadavs: 11%, Koeris: 8%)

• 2% Tribals & Others

(OBC: Other backward caste

EBC: Extremely backward caste)

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In the rough and tumble of Bihar’s caste-ridden electoral politics, the Dalits have historically played the most important part in determining the fate of parties in the fray. And yet, they have also been the most targeted population group, often attacked and killed over personal and political rivalry. All parties have failed to stop the selected killings though all have had some help from the Dalits in forming the government. It’s a soft spot around which parties have built their poll narratives over the years. And chief minister Nitish Kumar is the latest in line to have found a way to woo the Dalits.

But Kumar’s move to assuage the marginalised community, by offering a government job to the next of kin of a slain Dalit, has kicked off a political storm in Bihar ahead of the assembly elections due in October-November. With the Election Commission announcing that the polls will not be deferred because of the coronavirus pandemic, Nitish Kumar is the first off the block to target the traditional vote bank of Dalits, or Mahadalits as they are known in Bihar.

The Mahadalits, comprising 22 different castes, account for about 16 per cent of the total voters in the state. Out of the 243 assembly seats in Bihar, 38 are res­erved for SC and two seats for ST. But the Dalit vote’s impact is felt beyond just these seats, as Laloo Prasad Yadav once showed with his brand of social engineering that catapulted him to power.

Nobody probably understands it more than the battle-scarred veteran of Mahadalit politics Nitish Kumar, who is eying his fourth successive win this election. “We are running several schemes for the uplift of the community in order to bring it into the mainstream,” Kumar told officials at a recent meeting of the state-level vigilance and monitoring committee constituted under The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1995. “Think of other schemes and projects. We will do whatever is needed to ameliorate their lot. The uplift of SC-ST will lead to the uplift of society,” he added as he asked the officials to dispose of pending cases under the law by September 20. Besides, he also ordered framing of rules for providing immediate employment to a family member on compassionate grounds in the event of an SC/ST member’s murder.

But the Opposition has accused Nitish of playing the Dalit card blatantly ahead of the polls. RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav was caustic in his attack. “Nitish Kumar has announced government jobs…since elections are around the corner. This is like encouraging the murder of SC/ST people. Why should not jobs also be given to kin of people from OBC or general category who are killed?” Tejashwi avers that Nitish’s priority should have been to ensure that nobody from the SC/ST community is killed in the first place. “May I ask where the chief minister was when there was a move to dilute the SC/ST act? It was only after protests across the country that the act was kept intact,” he adds.

Echoes of Nitish’s move were heard in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh where Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati alleges that the JD(U)-BJP government in Bihar is enticing SC-ST people for their votes. “If the Bihar government was actually so serious about the welfare of this section of society, why did it sleep over their demands and needs (for so long)?”

Curiously, it is not only opposition leaders who are taking pot shots at Nitish. Lok Janshakti Party president Chirag Paswan, too, has let his displeasure known in a letter to Nitish. Chirag termed the move as “nothing but an election-related announcement” while stressing the need for fulfilling all the promises he had made to the Dalit community in the past. “If the Nitish Kumar government is sincere, it should have given jobs to the kin of those from the SC-ST community who lost their lives during his 15-year rule in Bihar,” Paswan argues.

Though the LJP remains part of the NDA, Chirag has been hitting out at the chief minister for quite some time, triggering speculation that he might quit the ruling alliance. JD(U) leaders, however, have made light of his announcements, saying their party does not have any electoral alliance with the LJP. Political observers believe that Chirag’s frequent criticism of Nitish is part of the LJP’s posturing to wrangle more seats within the alliance. Chirag is also said to be miffed with the re-entry of former CM and Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) leader Jitan Ram Manjhi into the NDA. It is said that Nitish facilitated Manjhi’s comeback to neutralise the bargaining power of the LJP.  Chirag’s father and LJP founder Ram Vilas Paswan remains the most popular leader of the Dusadh (Paswan) community, which is the most dominant caste among the Dalits in Bihar. His party has been getting six to seven per cent votes in every election for many years.

Manjhi has, not surprisingly, backed Nitish, and trained his gun on Tejashwi for raising questions over the move. “There is already a provision under the SC/ST act which provides for jobs to kin of those killed from the weaker sections. Those opposing it should read the act carefully,” he said. Manjhi’s rapprochement with the chief minister is considered to be a shot in the arm for the ruling coalition. The 75-year-old leader from the Musahar caste is an icon for the Mahadalits, largely because of the populist schemes announced during his eight-month-long tenure as CM.

The grand alliance of RJD and Congress—mahagathbandhan, as they call it—however, remains unfazed over Manjhi’s return to the NDA. “Manjhi-ji has forgotten the humiliating treatment he was meted out in the NDA,” says RJD spokesperson Mritunjay Tiwari. “He was also unceremoniously removed as the chief  minister. He will receive the same treatment again.”

But still, the RJD is not oblivious of the importance of the Mahadalit vote bank, as it has already been trying to fortify its base by projecting its own leaders such as Shyam Rajak, former assembly speaker Uday Narayan Choudhary and former minister Ramai Ram as its prominent faces from the community. Rajak, a cabinet minister in the Nitish government, recently quit the JD(U) and returned to the RJD.

The ruling coalition has not wasted time in turning the opposition criticism to its advantage. Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi says that demands for giving jobs to the kin of a slain Dalit person have often been made. “Why is it being opposed when the government has made an announcement in this reg­ard?” he asks. “Can the RJD declare that it will stop all kinds of ex gratia and jobs on compassionate ground if it gets the opportunity (to govern)?”

The deputy chief minister says those who have been protesting against the quota for the upper castes on economic grounds are now advocating for equality in providing jobs based on compassion. “Dalits and the people from general category will teach a lesson to the RJD for its stand,” he adds.

How important the Dalit vote bank is can be gauged from the fact that every party appears to be eyeing a slice off it. Let alone the local players, it is drawing rank outsiders like Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad “Ravan”, who has already jumped onto the Bihar election bandwagon by declaring that his party is preparing to fight the polls on all seats in the state.