By implementing 27 per cent reservation for the OBCs in government jobs, V.P. Singh tangibly helped the intended beneficiaries. Mr Modi’s move was defeated before it could create even a single beneficiary. V.P. Singh lost power despite Mandal but changed the political terrain of India for good. Mr Modi’s gambit has changed nothing structurally
The Narendra Modi government’s resounding defeat in Parliament on Friday night over implementation of women’s reservation shows that a clever move is not always a winning move. The gambit was essentially for the delimitation of constituencies to change the political terrain of the country, taking the cover of women’s empowerment. Much before Narendra Modi, another Prime Minister, Vishwanath Pratap Singh, had risked a gambit with the issue of reservation when under political pressure. His minority government was under pressure both from his own deputy Devi Lal and the BJP, which supported it from outside. To ensure that Mulayam Singh Yadav did not cross over to the Devi Lal camp, V.P. Singh sprung OBC reservations to ensure that he stayed by his side.
Mr Modi’s own parliamentary majority is weakened after the 2024 general election. He had hoped that women’s reservation would help him reshape the political landscape of the country before the next general election in 2029. Like V.P. Singh, Mr Modi believed that he would gain far more from reshaping the political narrative irrespective of the legislative outcome of his move. The structural differences between the two situations, however, are crucial.
By implementing 27 per cent reservation for the OBCs in government jobs, V.P. Singh tangibly helped the intended beneficiaries. Mr Modi’s move was defeated before it could create even a single beneficiary. V.P. Singh lost power despite Mandal but changed the political terrain of India for good. Mr Modi’s gambit has changed nothing structurally. V.P. Singh lost power because he triggered a Hindutva upper-caste counter-mobilisation of tremendous ferocity. Its momentum led to the rise of the BJP. It is unclear for now whether Mr Modi’s failed move will provoke a similar counter-mobilisation and counter-narrative.
The Opposition has pointed out that the Modi government’s real intent was to carve out extra legislative constituencies before data from the caste census became available. That could have led to the demand for reservation for OBC women. If the Opposition can create a convincing narrative that the BJP’s women’s reservation was essentially an anti-OBC move, it can puncture the BJP’s self-projection as the only party promoting women’s empowerment….
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After the truth-shower 