The Rise and Fall of India’s Dalit Queen.

 The outbreak of Covid-19 has posed a serious threat to the Nation with varied impacts from region to region but politics has always been its epicentre. Ongoing Pandemic and its mismanagement has deep- rooted consequences among the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, women and other vulnerable sections of the society that has raised the issue of social justice. All political parties are gearing up for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly election 2022. A common phenomenon that run through in all political parties’ manifesto is “social Justice”. BSP claims to be a party of Bahujan and champion of social justice but recent developments within the party are indicating that all is not well.

Recently many prominent leaders have left the BSP party and joined either SP or BJP and they made allegations of her bureaucratic style of working, monopolization, unapproachable, arrogance, and not upholding the legacy of Kanshiram Ji. As these leaders said “   kab kisko hata diya jaaye kya pata”. For instance, MLA Aslam Rashid, in an interview, mentioned that 11 BSP MLA trying to form their own party and would seek support from others as well. In the past R. K Chaudhary, Indrajeet Saroj, Naseemuddin SIddiquie, Swami Prasad Maurya and Brijesh Pathak etc. have left the BSP party.

Source: Trivedi Centre for Political Data

The above graph shows the trend of constant decline in the voting percentage of the BSP party but still, the BSP has managed to secure 20% of votes in all consecutive assembly elections. Overall, the BSP’s performance has improved but each constituency-wise it has lost its ground considerably. The rise of young Dalits icon Chandra Shekhar Azad and his connectivity with common masses (predominantly Dalit youths), using all means of communication, raising the issue of social justice, and visiting places where atrocities against Dalits being reported and so on have made him a key player in upcoming U.P state assembly election 2022.  

Source: Trivedi Centre for Political Data

As above-trend shows that the BJP party has been successfully transferred SC and OBC votes     considerably due to its social engineering strategy, by capturing the political vacuum created by other political parties, making alliances with small regional parties giving them tickets and portfolios, and also targeting Dalits and MBC i.e. most backward castes such as Mallah, Bind, Rajbhar, Chauhan, Kumhar, Luhar, etc.

The vision of Kanshi ram was to put forward the idea of identity-based representational space for the communities in the Indian Political system and absolute equality, opposed to dynastic control over the party and opportunistic politics. Sadly Mayawati did it all that being avoided by the Kanshi Ram and consequently, BSP has lost the elections and also reducing vote bank particularly among the Balmikis who were traditionally associated with BSP but now shifting to BJP considerably. Therefore BSP requires immediate self-introspection, building good teams of youths, the delegation of power, decentralization, and democratization in the working of party, building trust among the party workers, and gain the faith of common voters. 

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Congress Free India: How Far From Reality

The ongoing Covid-19 Pandemic has posed unprecedented challenges in our lives. The effects of demonetization, mismanagement of covid-19 in many parts of India, Job crisis and the low number of sitting in the parliament where vital issues are being discussed and debated and above all the role of opposition parties in raising the voice of voiceless people are the major cause of concern. The recent developments in Indian Electoral Politics have changed the narratives and our perspectives too about the style of leadership, hereditary nature of Indian leadership, the role of coherent ideology, the manner in which decisions being made and implemented and political parties approach towards reaching the various social groups, etc.  As many political experts say that despite having declined in electoral politics since 2014, one cannot imagine the Indian politics without the Congress party and it still plays a pivot role.

This article has focused on the current state of Indian politics and the speedy decline of the Congress party from National politics particularly after 2014 and the possible ways forward.

 Glimpses of INC performance in the general election from 2004 to 2019  

From 2004 to 2014 the congress party with help of other regional parties was able to form a govt. by defeating the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the BJP.

However, there are many theories, as propagated by political experts, around the decline of the Congress party. Many political pundits have argued that it has created a space for political entrepreneurs that led to various corruption scams such as the earlier Bofors scam, 2G scam, Sahara Scam, and poor governance system while others believed that lack of charismatic leadership, connectivity with masses, and social engineering of caste groups, etc. Many political observers even including ex-congress leaders (now in BJP) have mentioned that their personal growth has stagnated and decision-making process has been hijacked by a few veteran leaders that led to suffocation. For instance, referring to Rahul Gandhi, “Our once and future king” tweeted by a senior leader of the Congress party on the death anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi. What does it show? Do we believe in democracy or chamchagiri?  While on other hand pursuing president Pranab Mukherjee and giving a warm and emotional farewells to senior leader Gulan Nabi Azad was another political gesture of BJP.

Politicians Who Thought to Left the INC

370. Milind Deora who thought to left the INC as INC didn’t like his idea on Article 370. Since he supported the BJP’s strong decision on the suspension of Article 370 but congress party simply opposed his ideological stand.
371. Sachin Pilot was another politician who was quite in news for going against the INC. The simple reason going against the party in Rajasthan was all hard work and Party campaigning was done by him but CM candidature offered to Ashok Gahlot.

All is not well in the Congress

Here is the list of prominent leaders who were earlier in the congress party but now have left and joined BJP as if   

1. Jitin Prasad
2. Jyotiraditya Scindia
3. Chaudhary Birender Singh
4. Rita Bahuguna Joshi
5. Tom Vedakkan and the list goes on.

Many political scientists believe that lack of consistency in policy decisions and policy actions, no coherent ideological commitment, growing Left-Congress synergy, and of course lack of personal growth of leaders, etc. are the possible reasons. For instance, Left-Congress Synergy has been unproductive as well as confusing for common party workers. In West Bengal they (Congress and Left together) fought election against Mamta Banerjee but what about in Kerala where Congress and Left parties were contested against each other.

Way forward

In the 2019 general election Rahul Gandhi was defeated by Smriti Irani in the Amethi Lok Sabha seat but manage to get elected from Wayanad (Kerala). In August 2020, G-23 i.e. 23 senior leaders of the Congress party have expressed their concerns to interim party Chief Sonia Gandhi. They have expressed their views on the poor performance of the Congress party in two consecutive general elections, bringing all structural reforms, self-introspection, and strategizing for upcoming elections. Even the post of Congress party president is still waiting for a full-time president. It was a clear political gesture to the congress party to rethink or purnavichar, restructure its party composition and bring fresh and young people to the party. But as being acknowledged by BJP-RSS senior leaders that still the congress party is the biggest challenger to the BJP party despite having a continuous decline. It is because it has managed to secure approx. 20% of total votes in two general elections i.e. 2014 and 2019 while the rest of the parties (excluding BJP) were not able to cross double-digit. It means at the bottom side it has maintained the status quo. Any increase in this percentage will surely affect the BJP vote share and would have led to a coalition government as well. Gandhi’s Family is still key to the Congress party that’s why Modi-Shah led BJP party keeps on attacking Gandhi Family. The Congress party needs to focus on

1. To understand the changing nature of young voters, their aspirations and demography dividend and do all needful accordingly
2. Innovative political Strategies and to communicate the masses at a large scale by judicious utilization of ICT platform.
3. To provide some paces to local/regional parties and help them to form stable government where the Congress party is not in majority. Do not become power-hungry but adaptive according to the prevailing political scenario.
4. Of course restructure its political organization or even vacating various seats as well otherwise many more leaders are waiting to join the BJP.