Sangh Parivar Chief Mohan Bhagwat has put BJP in an embarrassing position that has the potential to spoil its entire poll effort. His statement calling for an apolitical committee to review who needed reservation and for how long has caused a major stir among the NDA alliance partners, majority of which represent the Dalit, Mahadalit and OBC sections.
To complicate matters further Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has come out in support of Mohan Bhagwat’s statement saying that even Dr Ambedkar had stated that reservations needed to be reviewed after 10 years. The statements come at a time when BJP and RSS have been going all out to reach out to Dalit, Mahadalit and OBCs for the first time, so much so that its alliance partners in Bihar today form a major chunk of the population for whom the reservations were introduced in the first place.
BJP has traditionally been a party with support from the upper castes forming its backbone. However, in Bihar, they are less than 14% and therefore, any statement before elections in a caste sensitive state like Bihar is bound to negatively impact NDA’s poll effort. Needless to say, the opposition, which includes the Mahagathbandhan allies and the Third Front, are likely to take advantage and will go to town highlighting the BJP doublespeak. To counter this, both BJP and RSS have gone into damage control mode. Coming days will unravel to what extent the damage has been done.
Sangh Parivar Chief Mohan Bhagwat has put BJP in an embarrassing position that has the potential to spoil its entire poll effort. His statement calling for an apolitical committee to review who needed reservation and for how long has caused a major stir among the NDA alliance partners, majority of which represent the Dalit, Mahadalit and OBC sections.
To complicate matters further Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has come out in support of Mohan Bhagwat’s statement saying that even Dr Ambedkar had stated that reservations needed to be reviewed after 10 years. The statements come at a time when BJP and RSS have been going all out to reach out to Dalit, Mahadalit and OBCs for the first time, so much so that its alliance partners in Bihar today form a major chunk of the population for whom the reservations were introduced in the first place.
BJP has traditionally been a party with support from the upper castes forming its backbone. However, in Bihar, they are less than 14% and therefore, any statement before elections in a caste sensitive state like Bihar is bound to negatively impact NDA’s poll effort. Needless to say, the opposition, which includes the Mahagathbandhan allies and the Third Front, are likely to take advantage and will go to town highlighting the BJP doublespeak. To counter this, both BJP and RSS have gone into damage control mode. Coming days will unravel to what extent the damage has been done.
