Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar along with an all-party delegation met PM Narendra Modi in New Delhi pressing for caste census which is way important than anything else. A few months ago a celebratory Bhartiya Janta Party was all up over the inclusion of scheduled caste leaders in the union cabinet putting and pasting hoardings around what actually literally limits them from putting a word of assurance on caste census.
Don’t we know how most of the bills get legislated in the house amid all the ruckus and chaos in the Parliament by both the ruling and opposition on key areas and issues which are in itself contentions demanding clarity and consensus? Why it isn’t being allowed in the first place and what makes the government with a brute electoral majority afraid of people’s queries and questions? Tagging, targeting, and tarnishing those in disagreement with their ideological whims and fancies qualifying as detractors and anti-nationals.
The last seven years of their rule have brought us closer to this part of the reality with us being muted in our reaction and response to events and episodes shaping around us. Taking sides and positions was once a privilege in a democracy where dissent was at the heart and soul of constitutional principles and values.
Totally telling and traumatic in a true sense as for the conduct of a caste census would see BJP dimming and diminishing its prospects in the Hindi heartland where its stakes are always high given the reproduction and rotation of inequalities and hierarchies in multiple forms offering fertile soil for consolidating Hindutva. Regional parties are jittery to this fact and may start acting on their impulses for awarding roles and representations to those who have systemically secluded, discriminated against, oppressed, and exploited for long. I am not sure if Modi Ji will ever show up.