Caste census | Why the BJP played the caste card

After sustained ambivalence connected the issue, the enactment pivots to greenlight the caste enumeration exercise. It's a high-stakes gamble, suggesting a strategical displacement successful the Hindutva 2.0 strategy

A CASTE MULTITUDE: The country from a governmental rally successful Lucknow

The BJP-led Union authorities has performed a stunning pivot connected the question of the caste census. After years of remaining ambivalent connected the issue—and adjacent deriding the thought arsenic divisive—Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s authorities present says it volition enumerate the nation’s myriad castes successful the overmuch delayed decadal census. The unexpected crook is the effect of a analyzable interplay of issues—electoral calculus, state-level pressures and a designation that caste realities tin nary longer beryllium ignored, adjacent for a enactment that built its marque connected the committedness of a ‘casteless’ Hindutva nationalism. There’s besides a bevy of authorities elections coming up, astir importantly successful Bihar, wherever being connected the close broadside of the caste cohort statement could wage affluent dividends. Indeed, galore spot the caste survey arsenic a governmental gamble aimed astatine outflanking Mandal-era parties connected their location turf, blunting the Congress’s societal justness pitch, and recasting the BJP arsenic the caller custodian of the Bahujan samaj.