As religion is deeply rooted in the politic of the nation even before we go to polls, it is highly unlikely that the landmark judgment will yield much result
It is most unlikely that the recent Supreme Court verdict that outlawed campaigning for votes in the name of religion, caste and other identities, will prove effective in any way. The reason for this is that religion and caste have become so integrated with our electoral system that no court or election commission, howsoever powerful they are in view of constitutional powers vested in them, can control the parties and persons from using it to garner votes.
Deterrent it is not
On the second day of this year, the Supreme Court delivered a landmark majority verdict that held as “corrupt” the practice of candidates appealing for votes on the basis of these identities.
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Why will the Apex Court not prove a deterrent? Let’s see how caste and religion come into play much before a candidate starts appealing for votes. It is a known fact that the process of selecting a candidate for a constituency is largely based on caste and religion. There could be exceptions to this, but in majority cases, the parties go for a candidate who belongs to a caste that is dominant in that sector. The government may not have a caste or religion census conducted every time, but political parties do their own surveys and have a statistical ready reckoner for selecting candidates.
When a situation does not polarise votes on the basis on religion, the voters belonging to dominant caste get polarised instead and help a candidate belonging to them emerge as winner. And when there are more candidates from the same caste contesting, other factors such as their respective parties, personal profiles, money and muscle power decide the winner. In local self-government polls, the caste lines are marked prominently because of caste reservations. Women get a 50 per cent reservation in these polls, but then their electoral wards too are given caste quota. So, the planning starts well in advance. And once reservations are announced, the game revolves around caste and religion.
Quotas come in play
Political quota gives underprivileged castes and tribes seats to contest in the Lok Sabha and Assembly. In Maharashtra’s 288 Assembly seats, 29 are reserved for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes get 25. In Lok Sabha’s 48 seats, the SCs get 5 and STs get 4. Here, both religion and sub-castes play a major role because the SC candidate could be a Hindu, a Buddhist or a Muslim (generally, Muslims get representation only in areas were their community is dominant). There have been instances of good candidates getting beaten badly in the contest only because they did not belong to a sub-caste of a dominant community in their segment.
No subtlety
The caste-religion politics does not happen subtly. The people interested in knowing nuances of this age-old practice may look at what is going on in Uttar Pradesh, which goes to polls soon. In Maharashtra, we have the Shiv Sena and BJP combine that make Hindutva a poll plank and say that Hindutva binds them even when they are fighting each other. The Sena even went to the extent of challenging the SC’s verdict ahead of the BMC polls, saying that it would not stop raising the Hindutva issue whenever needed.
The BJP has its own ways of executing a religion/caste-based politics. It defied the notion that only a Maratha can make the CM when in 2014, it put a Brahmin — a miniscule minority — in the hot seat. The BJP that had reaped a rich harvest post-Babri demolition and the Rath Yatra, may now appear subtle in its approach, but some of its elected representatives and its ideological fountain, the RSS, do not shy away from making the real agenda public.
The Congress is increasingly accused of wooing and exploiting the Muslims for vote politics, but it has perished badly in Maharshtra and states where Muslims are politically significant. The NCP is termed as a party of a politically dominant community of Marathas.
AIMIM, yet another political party that believes strongly in religion as a poll plank, is expected to take the fight to an unforeseen level in Maharashtra’s mini-Assembly polls — the civic and ZP elections to be conducted in the next two months. To begin with, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi has demanded that Mumbai’s Muslims should be given a share of the city’s annual budget in proportion to their presence in the total population. With over 25 lakh Muslims in the city, every fifth Mumbaikar is from this minority community. The leader has been reported to the election commission.
It may sound hopeless, but we, as a nation, continue to fail in eradicating social and political evils. The Supreme Court verdict will not do much, but it will surely see an increase in the number of cross-complaints being filed by political parties, candidates and activists in days to come.
Dharmendra Jore is political editor, mid-day. He tweets @dharmendrajore. Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com
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