‘Social Engineering’ Worries Some In Congress
The Congress’ emphasis on “social engineering” may push the upper castes towards the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and regional parties, feared a section of the party.
The recent appointments of the PCC chiefs in Bihar, Orissa, Jharkhand and Mumbai made it clear that the party wants to reconnect to the dalits, backwards and tribals.
According to the party insiders, the Congress will come back to power at the Centre on its own on the support of minorities, dalits, backwards and women besides projecting Mr Rahul Gandhi as the leader. This will attract youth across the country.
But the party leaders are silent on whether people vote for a party, its ideology, candidates or influenced by castes.
The Congress has appointed Ashok Chaudhary, Sukhdeo Bhagat and Jayadev Jena as the Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa PCC chiefs respectively and made Janardan Chadurkar the head of the Mumbai regional Congress.
While Dr G. Parmeshwar is the Karnataka PCC chief, Kantilal Bhuria is the Madhya Pradesh party chief.
But the party’s social engineering has not been working in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Gujarat for the simple reason that the opponents have more credible leaders than the Congress.
In Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party and the BSP are competing with each other to keep brahmins in good humour while RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav has realised that his anti-upper caste strategy has proved counter-productive and made Mr Nitish Kumar the leader in Bihar.
In Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena-BJP combine consolidated OBCs, urban middle and lower middleclass and attracted youth.
Brahmins are deserting the Congress after realising that it has no future in the party.
While the Congress-NCP combine government kept brahmins away from the Cabinet, the Congress has not even made a single legislator from this community in the state.
The Congress had made a Muslim (Salman Khurshid) the Uttar Pradesh Congress chief twice but that did not work.
Courtesy: The Asian Age
