Castecracy or Democray
“In India one is likely to vote for one’s own caste party… the caste psyche in the world of politics in India at least shows no signs of withering away.”
Recent past saw many elections w. Every party is going into the polls campaign mood and working out their strategies with great jest and confidence. Ask any politician or party each one has made his strategy and is confident, atleast outwardly of winning the elections. Part of the strategy is to dish out the regular slew of promises ranging from corrupt free governance, free power, to usual slogans of helping the poor and underprivileged. Attacking the rival politicians manifesto and credibility is also on the agenda of many to garner the rivals vote bank. There are also those who bank on the celebrity status of film stars to win votes. All politicians and parties have their own strategy, based on the “horses for courses” ideology. The shades of various strategies and calculations will be too many to enumerate. There is one underlying strategy which all politicians cutting across all party lines have adopted with very good success spanning across all corners of India, and that is the “Caste Equation”. Post independence era of India has seen the caste, or birth or religion formula so widely being misused by all that it has become very much a part of the psyche of the Indian electorate. In the initial phases of post independence the caste factor influence was more in the background but as they days have progressed many of them have unashamedly, blatantly misused the caste equation for their political ends.
One of the congress party leaders, Harsh Bajpai, who shifted his loyalty to Bahujan Samaj Party(BSP) just before the in one of the assembly elections in UP has this to say about why he shifted his loyalties and why he was confident of winning the elections: "The BSP gives me a strong Dalit base. And as the son of Allahabad's oldest Brahmin family I am assured of the nearly one lakh Brahmin votes in this constituency. Since we are the Congress here, I also get that vote. Add to this the fact that the BSP is winning across the State and I am through." The statement was made in a press conference! Irony is that the very same politician claims that he will unite India under one umbrella! It would be wrong to point fingers only at one particular party. But as mentioned earlier cutting across all party lines everyone has used the caste oriented choice of the Indian electorate for their political ends. Some like Harsh Bajpai have stated the obvious openly where as others are boiling the caste pot covertly.
The politicians are expert at highlighting the fact that your caste deserves the best of the resources of the state and he projects himself as their savior and provider for the simple minded electorate. Although the leaders promise heaven to the voters in the ultimate end the beneficiaries of our politician coming to power will be only himself and a coterie of few of his followers. The caste equation has been whipped up so often that many intellectuals feel that this could lead to balkanization of India. Although it may not be imminent but the seed for a division and competition for resources based on caste or religion has been sown and it is being watered by favoritism of the politicians. Natural consequence of this favoritism is that the oppressed now turn oppressor later when they are in majority. This ever changing cycle of the oppressed and oppressor keeps repeating and ultimately no one is satisfied. The politicians are so adept at this play of “divide and rule” that they do not want to break this division, they wish to widen the division and highlight to the electorate that their caste has not progressed enough. They fear that if they break this division then one may not come to power at all. Just as waves created on surface of a pond from two different centers are bound to collide it is only natural that a caste based grouping of electorate is only going to foster divisiveness and not unity. But it is a pity that our politicians who cannot see beyond their immediate electoral victory are least bothered about this. They wish to divide people and want these divisions to be maintained at any cost. “Divide and rule” is the policy strictly adhered to by not only Indian politicians alone but by politicians world over have perfected this art. The basis of division may be different. In essence there is no real democracy which is supposed to mean a government by the people and for the people. We are currently having rule based on division of people and for division of people.
Vedic system of governance is based on a broader principle of uniting everyone under one common umbrella. Everything in existence is but a creation of the Supreme Lord and He is the father of all living entities. We being children of the same father deserve to partake the resources of the world equally. Every living entity born in the state (praja) is to be treated as such by the government. Even an ant is to be looked upon by the government as one’s own son and appropriate care given to him so that he can live of the nature peacefully. Only acceptance of this absolute truth can bring about a solution to this ever changing musical chair of the ruler and ruled and exploiter and exploited. Indian electorate should embrace the all encompassing governance principle of scriptures, and not divisive and short term self interest based governance principle. But the pity is that that no politician or party espouses the same. It is time that the mass people shift their focus from divisiveness to all encompassing unifying principle-“sarva yonisu kaunteya aham bija pradah pita”.
Hare Krishna.
