Lalu’s Yadav Liability, Nitish’s Kurmi Frailty

Patna, February, 8 : Agle Sawan-Bhado Mein, Gore Hanth Kado Mein. (The delicate hands of the upper caste women will be forced to till farmland in the next monsoon months of Sawan and Bhado). This was the slogan of Soshit Samaj Dal leader, Jagdeo Prasad, who was killed in Kurtha block of Jehanabad district in mid-1970s, allegedly by upper caste henchmen.

February 2 last this slogan rent the air during his birth anniversary organized by Janata Dal United with none else but the chief minister, Nitish Kumar, chairing the show. Other provocative anti-upper caste slogans were also raised in this era when there is hardly any scope for such polarized politics. And that too at the instance of the man, who till a couple of months back, used to talk about inclusive growth and who came to power with the support of the same upper castes.

For those living outside Bihar this development sounds unbelievable, nevertheless it is the sour fact. Provocative sloganeering was common in the early 1990s, when both anti- and pro-Mandalites were at the daggers drawn position. But two decades later teenagers, who have never heard of them, are a befuddled lot.

Is Bihar back to square-minus-one position, that is, thrown back to 1990 or even earlier period? But then how justified it is to raise the slogan like above or shout from the same stage that anyone who opposed us will be strangled? True backward castes have a long way to go before they can actually match the upper castes, yet there is no denying the fact that in the last two decades their clout in the political executive has certainly increased, if not in the permanent executive, that is, bureaucracy. The three top political personalities are Lalu Yadav, Nitish Kumar and Ram Vilas Paswan––the third being a Dalit. In the last two decades the upper castes failed to produce any leader of their stature, though their presence in the bureaucracy, judiciary and media is still strong.

After losing control over political executive the upper castes, since mid-1990s, hitched hope on what they thought a more gentle faced backward, Nitish Kumar, who incidentally too was a hero of the pro-Mandal movement. Who can forget his presence in the Kurmi Maharally, the first of such caste rallies of early 1990s. But having rebelled out of the shadow of Lalu Yadav he initially joined hands with the CPI ML in 1995 assembly election. After having failed in his move he then jumped the BJP bandwagon, which by then started attracting upper caste votes.

The upper castes adopted forgive it and forget it approach as they wanted to get rid of what they feel Yadav Raj. Almost 14 years down (1996-2010) everything seems to be topsy-turvy now.

Among others the Congress is trying to win back its upper caste support while Lalu and Nitish are battling for the rest. With Nitish perhaps deliberately rubbing salt into the wound of the upper caste psyche the big question is who will be able to cash in on their resentment. The rejuvenated Congress had no leader while the other alternative is Lalu Yadav, who now enjoys the support of Ram Vilas Paswan.

But the problem with the upper castes is that it is difficult to forget the 15 years. Yes they overlooked the five years (1990-95) of Nitish’s ‘misdemeanour’ for obvious reasons.

What is more: while Nitish comes from numerically much smaller Kurmi caste, Lalu obviously is a Yadav, whose total strength is almost equal to the entire upper caste population. But Kurmis, though small, has more strong presence in the permanent executive as they are much more educated than Yadavs. On the other hand Lalu knows his weaknesses. Since Yadavs have little presence in the top bureaucracy––Gorelal Yadav being the only officer of the caste to reach the Commissioner-Secretary rank in 15 years––Lalu tried to compensate it by acquiring more political power by bringing in more Yadavs in panchayat to Parliament level.

Since Nitish was never under pressure to accommodate Kurmis in the political executive, as their number is much small, he was relatively free to forge alliance with other castes. Initially he did it with the upper castes. However, the struggle for Kurmis for seeking more power in the permanent executive and other related fields such as technocracy, academics etc started after Nitish’s advent to power.

The upper castes have fallen between two stools. With at least, for now, there is no leader and no party to rope them in they are finding themselves in a difficult situation.

Lalu may try his level best to win at least a section of support of the upper castes. But he has a problem. If a person (or group) rules for too long s/he had to pay the price for too long as well. For Lalu, there is another problem, and that is his caste. True the numerical superiority of his caste helped him forge alliance with Muslims and Dalits to remain in power for so long. Now the numerical asset has become a liability of sort for him.

In this situation there may be many upper caste individuals prepared to give benefit of doubt to Lalu, but the aggressiveness of Yadavs during the post-Mandal years still haunt them. Besides, Yadavs have more clash of interest with the landed upper castes as well as landless Extremely Backward Cstes and Dalits, than Kurmis, who are found in certain selected pockets of the state.

The politics of Bihar is in a state of flux and predicting anything is nothing but frightening.