At Chintan Shivir, Cong mulls narratives to reboot ‘endangered’ social justice politics

It is widely acknowledged that the slide in the Congress party’s electoral footprint began as a direct consequence of its inability to effectively counter the politics of ‘Mandal’ (social justice) and ‘Kamandal’ (right-wing Hindutva assertion) that began in the 1980s. Over three decades later, as Narendra Modi’s BJP seeks to submerge the post-Mandal era politics of caste assertion among Dalits, adivasis and backward castes into its ever-growing Kamandal of Hindutva, the Congress is desperately hoping that a reboot of social justice politics will help it recover lost political ground.

At the party’s ongoing nav sankalp chintan shivir in Rajasthan’s Udaipur, various proposals envisaging a new narrative for social justice and empowerment are under consideration of senior party leaders. The party’s panel on social justice and empowerment, headed by senior leader Salman Khurshid, is in the process of formalising its recommendations to be submitted to the Congress Working Committee, on Sunday (May 15). If accepted, these suggestions will be part of the Congress Udaipur Declaration that the party hopes will reverse the tide of electoral losses and organisational drift in time for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Besides the issue pertaining to reservation for youth, SC, ST, OBC and minorities in party positions and the Congress’s socio-culture outreach, contentious issues such as constitution of a Parliamentary Board for collective decision-making, fixed five year term followed by three year cooling period for office bearers, capping the age-limit for RS, LS and assembly tickets at 75, reservation for youth, will all be up for discussion at the CWC. Convenors of the six coordination panels – Mallikarjun Kharge (political issues), P. Chidambaram (economy), Mukul Wasnik (organisation), Salman Khurshid (social justice & empowerment), Bhupinder Hooda (farmers and agriculture) and Amarinder Singh Raja Warring (youth empowerment) – have submitted their reports to Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

Focus on minority outreach

Of particular significance are suggestions that the party must not only unequivocally back the long-pending demand of a socio-economic caste census but also ensure that within the organisation a 50 per cent reservation is made for Dalit, adivasi, OBCs and minorities in appointments at all levels – booth upwards to the AICC and CWC.

Also read: Sonia calls for introspection, contemplation at Congress’s Chintan Shivir

Party leader K Raju, a close aide of former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, told reporters in Udaipur that the consultative panel on social empowerment is also of the view that the Congress must set up a “social justice advisory council” that would give regular feedback to the Congress chief on what the party needs to do for the weaker and traditional oppressed sections of society.

“Many organisational reforms are needed to show to the SC, ST, OBC and minorities that the party is committed to their cause… the setting up of a social justice advisory council, 50 per cent reservation for these communities across all levels of the party and a special session of the Congress every six months dedicated entirely to issues facing these groups are among some of the broad recommendations we plan to make to the CWC tomorrow,” Raju said.

Taking a leaf out the BJP’s strategy of not just reaching out to Dalits and backward castes at a macro level, but engaging with them through identification of sub-castes among these overarching blocs and then giving them representation, the Congress too wants to ensure that numerically smaller castes among Dalits, OBCs and tribals are also given proportionate representation with the Congress and in its governments.

At a policy level, Raju said the Congress must also begin a campaign to demand central legislative sanction for SC/ST sub-plans for allocation of funds for schemes meant for these communities and replicate the same in the two states it currently rules, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.

33 per cent reservation for women and more

Another significant suggestion that has come from the panel is that the party must back, with renewed aggression, its demand for passage of the women’s reservation bill. The UPA government had, in 2009, succeeded in getting the Bill passed through Lok Sabha, but its failure of evolve a consensus even among its coalition partners had led to the Bill being stalled in the Rajya Sabha.

Now, with women comprising a significant chunk of the BJP’s vote bank, the Congress wants to renew its demand for passage of the Bill that envisages 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and state legislatures. However, this push also comes with a major departure from the Congress’s own stated stand of 2009.

Back when it had brought the Bill to Parliament, the Congress was against introducing a ‘quota within quota’ to give proportional representation to women from the SC, ST and OBC communities. Khurshid said the party is now of the view that while renewing its demand for women’s reservation, it will demand a ‘quota within quota’. “This is not a U-turn or change in stance. Back then, we had compulsions of coalition and the view then was that we may not manage a consensus among allies or other parties on granting quota within quota so let’s first, at least, get the 33 per cent reservation cleared. Now, our situation is different as is the present political climate and we feel we can push for a quota within quota,” Khurshid said.

Social engineering formula to woo back caste groups

The BJP’s steady electoral rise has, as several elections of the past eight years have shown, succeeded in denting the fortunes not just of the Congress but also caste-based, Mandal parties by appealing to Dalits, tribals and backward castes not purely on the plank of their caste identity but by forcing them to think of themselves as Hindus.

The success of the saffron party in pushing this narrative was most recently visible in the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls where it managed a second consecutive term by demolishing the Congress, BSP (the natural choice of Dalits in UP for over two decades) and even outwitting Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s strategy of stitching together a coalition of caste-based parties and leaders that claimed to represent communities such as the Pasis, Kushwahas, Rajbhars and others.

Many of the SC, ST, OBC communities as well as the Muslims and other religious minorities had been the traditional vote banks of the Congress. However, over the past three decades, it steadily lost each of them to different political outfits. Now, as these outfits lose the same vote banks to the BJP because of their inability to present a new narrative of social justice, the Congress feels it has an opportunity to appeal to the electorally formidable caste groups through a social engineering formula that has social justice at its core.

The ‘pro-Muslim-anti-Hindu’ conundrum

Yet, amid this experiment, what stands out as a poor reflection on the party is also its ambiguity over how it wants to engage with the country’s largest religious minority – the Muslims. That the Muslims have been fiercely persecuted and selectively targeted under Modi’s Hindutva regime is common knowledge. However, the fear of being branded as a pro-Muslim, and thus, by the BJP’s well-spun argument an anti-Hindu, outfit has forced the Congress to not go beyond perfunctory expressions of solidarity with the community whenever its members face the wrath of vicious Hindutva elements or the state.

Also read: At Udaipur chintan shivir, Congress really needs to scratch its head

Sources said that during intra-party discussions over the past two days, leaders were still divided on how the Congress should reach out to the Muslim community. “As a party that calls itself secular, it is our duty to stand up for the rights of Muslims. Sonia Gandhi made it clear that they are equal citizens of our Republic and are facing persecution under the current regime. But then there is a sizeable section of influential leaders who believe that by strongly advocating the cause of the Muslims under the present vicious environment of communal hate, we will end up alienating the Hindu majority. So it’s a complicated thing for us and we have no clear answers on how to proceed at the moment,” a senior party leader told The Federal, adding that “for now, we will speak for rights of religious minorities, without singling out Muslims but let’s hope we can develop a more nuanced approach.”