Despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call on Friday that Bihar should rise above caste politics for its development, his own party leaders in Bihar participated in a caste-based political function on Saturday.
“You cannot rule with the help of one or two castes … if you don’t rise above caste, Bihar’s social development will suffer,” said Mr. Modi while reading out a letter of noted Hindi poet Ramdhari Singh Dinkar at a function in Delhi to mark the golden jubilee celebrations of the poet whose works were marked by patriotic flavour and fervour.
But, within 24 hours, his party’s senior State leaders participated in a caste-based political function, Goswami Sammelan, on Saturday. Along with BJP national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi, senior State leaders Sushil Kumar Modi, State party chief Mangal Pandey, Nand Kishore Yadav and a host of BJP leaders were present at the function organised in Patna.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Akhil Bhartiya Goswami Mahasabha had organised the function. Goswami in Bihar is an upper caste entity and in the poll-bound Bihar, the BJP is believed to be heavily dependent on about 15 per cent upper caste support to come to power. In the last Lok Sabha elections, upper castes had supported the BJP en bloc which had largely made its scintillating performance possible in the State.
“Elections are knocking at the doors of Bihar and every party is busy to correct its caste arithmetic by holding such caste-based political functions and meetings,” political analyst Nawal Kishore Chaudhury told The Hindu .
Ahead of the Assembly poll, it was, however, not the first time that the BJP’s presence was felt in a caste-based political function. Of late, it has also invoked names of eminent historical figures by identifying them with a certain caste group.
ADVERTISEMENT
King Ashoka
Recently, the BJP leaders celebrated the 2320th birth anniversary of the great Mauryan King Ashoka and projected the emperor as a member of the Kushwaha, an Other Backward Class group in the State. Scholars and academicians had raised objections over the BJP’s effort to project king Ashoka as a member of Kushwaha caste.
“There was no historical evidence to prove that King Ashoka was of Kushwaha caste, rather the historical records said the King was Kshatriya by caste,” Kumar Anshuman, History Professor of Bihar University, said.
The State BJP also organised the birth anniversary celebrations of another historical legend, Maharana Pratap, to woo the upper caste votes of Rajputs.
Earlier, even the BJP president Amit Shah had kicked off his election campaign in the State holding a rally in Patna in memory of the former Chief Minister Karpoori Thakur who was from the extremely backward caste.
Reacting to caste-based political functions organised by the BJP, ruling Janata Dal (United) leader Neeraj Kumar charged that “caste has been in the DNA of Narendra Modi and his party will do all sort of such caste politics to come to power.”