How Congress plans to boost its social justice, Save Constitution campaign

With the poll planks of social justice and “save Constitution” having propelled its revival in the June general elections, the Congress party is keen on bolstering the twin narrative in the coming months in coordination with its INDIA bloc partners.

Congress leaders and members of various organisations working among Dalits, tribals, and backward castes have been in talks to finalise a calendar packed with events – conferences, protests, rallies, public consultations, leadership training programs, et al – to juxtapose the Narendra Modi government’s “assaults on the Constitution” with the Congress’s “commitment to the Constitution and social justice”, The Federal has learnt.

Samvidhaan Samman Sammelan

Sources said the “Samvidhaan Samman Sammelan” organised by the Congress in Allahabad on Saturday (August 24), and addressed by Lok Sabha’s Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, was “one of many such events” that are being chalked out by the party. The Congress high command is of the view that though the INDIA bloc made huge gains by pivoting its Lok Sabha campaign around the narrative to protect the Constitution from BJP’s alleged assaults, it was now “extremely essential to ensure that the momentum is not lost”.

Rahul Gandhi’s vision

“The election result showed that our campaign for protecting the Constitution from regular assaults by the BJP struck a chord with a vast majority. The only counter that the BJP has had to it so far is to remind people of the Emergency; an admittedly dark chapter for which Indira Gandhi had herself expressed regret and remorse. The BJP may want India to live in the past but our leader, Rahul Gandhi, wants to offer a vision for today and the future which is why we are talking about safeguarding the Constitution, demanding a socio-economic caste census, and for the 50 per cent ceiling on reservation to be lifted so that every section of the country can move forward together,” a senior Congress leader said.

The leader, who is part of the Congress’s team that is coordinating activities with organisations and public intellectuals working among oppressed communities, said, “While our campaign may sound repetitive to some, what we are trying to do is to fine tune our narrative moving forward so that evolving political, social, and economic challenges are also addressed... the Congress high command realises that to sustain our current momentum, we can’t talk only about the things we raised during the Lok Sabha campaign; we have to stay current and respond to emerging issues also while ensuring that social justice and the Constitution remain at the centre stage.”

The two narratives

It is in keeping with this strategy that, at the Samvidhaan Samman Sammelan in Allahabad, Rahul not only reiterated his party’s demand for a socio-economic caste census but also asserted that “we do not accept the 50 per cent cap on reservation... it has to go”. The Lok Sabha LoP also pitched the Congress and INDIA bloc’s demand for a socio-economic caste census as an essential pre-requisite for “saving the Constitution”; thereby marrying the two narratives that the Opposition has been relentlessly hammering the BJP with.

Presenting the socio-economic caste census as an “absolutely necessary” means to ensure that “90 per cent of India’s population (dalits, tribals, backward castes, religious minorities, and economically-weaker sections) are not deprived of their constitutionally-given rights”, Rahul said, “the only way to save the Constitution is to give representation to this 90 per cent” in various spheres of life, including the government and corporate sectors.

‘2024 Lok Sabha polls – watershed moment’

Ashok Bharti, chairman of the National Confederation of Dalit and Adivasi Organisations (NACDOAR), who is one of several people helping the Congress in its ‘Save Constitution’ outreach programmes believes that the 2024 Lok Sabha polls were a “watershed moment in the history of Indian elections”.

“It was the first election in which the Constitution of India became the central agenda. This had not happened even in the post-Emergency election of 1977. The challenge for the Congress now is to build on that campaign because you can’t keep saying the same thing for the next five years... what happens if the Narendra Modi government, only to stunt the Opposition’s campaign, agrees for a caste census tomorrow just like it has indicated recently that it will reform lateral entry recruitment by introducing reservations?” Bharti told The Federal.

‘Educate, Agitate, Organise’

“In my view, the way forward for the Congress and its allies is to adopt Dr Ambedkar’s talisman of “Educate, Agitate, Organise” along with the added element of “Take Command”. By this, I mean, the Congress needs to keep educating the masses about its campaign – why the Constitution is under threat, which will then agitate the minds of the people to fight for their rights, be it for reservation or for socio-economic well-being.

Mobilisation has always been the Congress’s weak point and so it needs to do a lot more to ‘organise’ itself, and finally it needs to push forward people from the Dalit, tribal, backward caste, and minority communities into command positions so that the common citizen doesn’t see the campaign as just another poll rhetoric. Once these four things are in place, the Congress will have a Magna Carta on social justice that, in my view, the BJP’s Hindutva will find very difficult to go up against,” the NACDOAR chief added.

Variety of events

Professor Ravikant, a Dalit activist, who has also been working closely with the Congress’s outreach efforts among the Dalits and backward communities, says there is a “conscious attempt by Rahul to keep his narrative simple so that it reaches a larger audience” and that the Congress is “keen on organising a wide variety of events” to ensure the success of its leader’s campaign.

“I believe the Samvidhaan Samman Sammelan is just one such example and more of these will be held across various states in the coming months. There have also been some discussions about leadership training programs for Dalit, adivasi and backward caste youth who have no background in politics but I do not know what has been the progress on that front right now; the idea behind these, of course, is to deliver on the Congress’s promise of ensuring bhagidari (participation) of all sections,” said Ravikant.

“Basically, he (Rahul) wants a multi-pronged approach that involves public intellectuals as well as common people, conferences as well as large public events like protests and rallies, interactions with select groups of people from various walks of life as well as larger public consultations on key issues of politics and policy,” said the professor.

Kharge to evolve consensus among INDIA bloc partners

Congress sources said while Rahul, at least for now, is expected to take charge of the public outreach efforts, party president Mallikarjun Kharge will do the heavy lifting of evolving consensus among INDIA bloc partners on key issues that are linked with the overarching themes of social justice and saving the Constitution.

“As Congress president and the Rajya Sabha LoP, Khargeji has already been coordinating the political response of the INDIA bloc on various issues. Given his experience and seniority, and the fact that he himself is a Dalit, it is only natural that he should lead the party’s discussions with allies, or even the government if needed, on these issues. He firmly believes that these discussions and consultations must be a regular affair and not be limited to strategy meetings during Parliament sessions or when elections are round the corner. He wants the collective senior leadership of the INDIA bloc to have regular interactions and conclaves so that we have a coordinated response to all evolving situations,” a senior Congress functionary said.

SC’s judgement on sub-categorisation

Sources said the recent Supreme Court judgement allowing states to sub-categorise scheduled caste communities enumerated in the Presidential List exposed the fragility of consensus over social justice within the INDIA bloc. While the alliance saw the controversial judgment as an endorsement of its demand for a socio-economic caste census, the response of its constituent parties to the moot issue of sub-categorisation has been varied. The RJD and the SP have stridently rejected sub-categorisation while the Left parties have welcomed it. The Congress too has been divided on the issue and though Kharge strongly condemned any effort to introduce a ‘creamy layer’ within the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribe communities, he is yet to explain where his party stands on the basic question of sub-categorisation.

It is learnt that a bulk of the social organisations and public intellectuals that the Congress leadership has so far consulted on the issue of sub-categorisation have advised the party to oppose any such move.

‘Tricky subject’

A party leader privy to the consultations said, “Though two of our chief ministers (Revanth Reddy and Siddaramaiah) as well as several central leaders have favoured sub-categorisation, the overwhelming feedback we have received is that though in certain states, sub-categorisation could be explored due to state-specific social factors, such an effort cannot be countenanced nationally.”

This leader added, “It is still a very tricky subject and we are trying to finalise a nuanced stand that doesn’t prove counter-productive to the cause of furthering social justice... once we have clarity on where we as a party stand on the subject, the high command will discuss the same with other INDIA partners but rest assured, whatever our final response will be to the issue, it will be unanimous”.