00:00If there's one issue that's really setting the narrative for the Lok Sabha elections
00:06next year, it is the issue of a caste census. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar made a smart
00:12political move this week by making public a caste survey done by the Bihar government
00:17over the last few months. And that has now really set the tone in a sense for what the
00:23opposition's attack on the BJP government is going to be like. The opposition for months
00:28now and for a long time in fact led by the RJD and the JDU and now supported by the Congress
00:34have been demanding a national caste census saying that you need that in order to create
00:38policies to ensure justice to the weakest groups. Now despite the fact that the BJP
00:43has actually done well amongst other backward caste groups or OBCs as far as general elections
00:48are concerned in recent years, they are reluctant to have a national caste census because they
00:53are worried it will open up a Pandora's box and lead to all kinds of new demands for quotas
00:58and reservations and perhaps upset their core upper caste vote base as well. So it will
01:03be interesting to see how the BJP counters this narrative because it seems then that
01:08the twin planks of Hindutva and hyper-nationalism alone may not be enough to see the BJP through
01:15in 2024. They probably do have another card up their sleeve. We'll have to see what that
01:21will be.
Comments