Indian
politics has definitely undergone many revivals and grave changes from the
years 1947 to the year 2014. Many saw upheaval while on the other hands other’s
dreams were shattered into the ground. Many castes were uplifted while many
were left to care for their own. One such caste which has been awfully snubbed
by the people in the temple of democracy is the “Brahmin Caste”. Mayawati,
former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, lately played an avant-garde by
allocating most number of party tickets to Brahmin for the Lok Sabha 2014
elections. It is paradox to see Mayawati from BSP (Bahujan Samaj Party), a
party completely based on the Dalits and lower caste people , giving 21 UP
seats to Brahmins to contest and this propelled me to pen down about the present
condition of Brahmins in the Indian politics.
It’s
not a covert fact that the proportion of Brahmin leaders in the lower house of
Parliament as well as the legislative elections of different states has
observed a sharp and stiff downfall. There used to be a time when the
participation of Brahmins in elections and their representation was
exceptionally high. In the year 1984 when Brahmin used to constitute 19.91% of
the population of the Lok Sabha but now there are only 50 Brahmin MPs in the
Lok Sabha. Most of the master strategists of all the key parties of the nation
are Brahmin but still they have a pitiful share in the present Lok Sabha. Jairam Ramesh, the election coordinator of Congress is
Brahmin. The Chief election strategist of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Arun Jaitley.
Orissa chief minister and president of the Bharatiya Janata Dal Navin Patnaik's
chief advisor is Pyarimohan Mohapatra, a Brahmin. So is the spokesperson of the
Janata Dal-Secular, Y S V Dutta. Even the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has a
Brahmin, Satish Chandra Mishra, as its chief strategist. Brahmins’ presence in Bureaucracy is
significant but the attendance of Brahmins in the electoral houses of India has
dismayed the whole community. Brahmin’s presence is still there but in South India
it has plunged to an embarrassing nadir. Besides J Jayalalithaa, there are
hardly any Brahmin leaders in Southern India.
Brahmin’s condition in the present-day politics is somewhat
vexing. If we look at the facts then we could very well envisage the condition
of Brahmins in the electoral world of the nation. Since 1989, UP has got no
Brahmin leader. ND Tiwari was the last Brahmin leader to hold the post. Bihar
is in the same condition. Bhagwat Jha was the last Brahmin CM of the state and
no other Brahmin leader has ever come up to become the CM of the state. Since
2005, Madhya Pradesh hasn’t got any Brahmin leader. Rajasthan has not been
leaded by a Brahmin leader since 1990 and Odisha has not made any Brahmin
leader to sit on the ruling chair after 1977. Mamata Banerjee in Bengal,
Jayalalithaa in Tamil Nadu and Manohar Parrikar in Goa are the only Brahmin
Chief Minister in the nation presently.
Why the number of Brahmin leaders in the nation dwindled so
much? There could be many reasons behind the grave numbers but one of the most
prominent one is the strategic politics being played by the top brass of the
Indian politics. Today the politics of
the nation has changed very much. BJP (Bhartiya Janata Party), INC (Indian
National Congress) and all the major parties of the nation are playing the
Dalit and Lower caste card in which parties give more and more tickets to the
aspiring candidates of lower caste so that they could garner more votes from
the lower castes. This is the main
reasons why most of the parties choose their strategists as Brahmin but
their Chief Ministers from different castes. This is just to woo the voters and
that’s why today the whole nation is watching such a plummet in the numbers of
Brahmin leaders.
The other thing which must be noted here is the side-effect
of reservations on Brahmins. Tell me one thing. Are Brahmins not poor? Today
Brahmins fear whether their children will ever get a job or not.
Brahmins are the
dalits of today.
Brahmins are poor too but still they are getting no benefit.
Today many poor people hate being a Brahmin because they can’t get benefit of
any scheme just because of power greedy politicians. Brahmins are also poor.
Their children also don’t have enough money to study and survive in high
institutions. So why they are not being given any benefit of government scheme.
In Delhi’s Patel Nagar around 50% of the rickshaw pullers are Brahmins. Would
you not consider giving them any special status just because they were born in
upper caste? 400,000
Brahmins of the Kashmir Valley, the once respected Kashmiri Pandits, now live
as refugees in their own country, sometimes in refugee camps in Jammu and
Delhi, in appalling conditions. Their vote bank is negligible and that’s
why they would not get any special benefit. Because they are Brahmins.
Seventy five per cent
of domestic help and cooks in Andhra Pradesh are Brahmins. But they won’t
enjoy any help from the government just because they are Brahmin.
A study of the Brahmin
community in a district in Andhra Pradesh reveals that today all
Purohits live below the poverty line. But they are not going to be helped just
because they are Brahmins.
According to the Department
of Endowments statistics, lakhs of Brahmins in India are priests and
unfortunately their family just survives on a monthly income of Rs. 500. But
still they are not going to be helped just because they are Brahmins.
At Tamil Nadu's
Ranganathaswamy Temple, a priest's monthly salary is Rs. 300
and a daily allowance of one measure of rice. The government staff at the same
temple receive Rs. 2,500 plus per
month. But still they are Brahmins who are supposed to be born uplifted and
that’s why they are not going to get anything to sustain themselves in this
harsh world.
Today people of lower
castes earning even up to lakhs per month are enjoying the benefits of
reservation but Brahmins today are dying. Why is not anyone ready to understand
and unravel the plight of the upper caste people? Brahmins are poor too. They
are impoverished too. They are also not having enough money to pay the fee of
their children. They are also not having enough money to make their children
enrolled in coaching institutes which demand more than two lakhs in a year. They
are not having enough money to get their wives, mothers admitted in good
hospitals. And all this just due to being a Brahmin.
Brahmins today are
being exploited. They are exploited by politicians who are just not ready to
listen to them because people of other castes are going to vote for them. Today
in many villages Dalits have their own institutions where they help each other
get jobs but Brahmins are having nothing. Brahmin votes are taken but nothing
is done for them.
People today accuse
Narendra Modi of not being secular. Today let me ask SP, BSP, Congress, AAP and
all other parties on thing. Have not they all abetted the caste system to come
forward as the worst problem of India? Are not they responsible for such a
despairing condition of people of others castes?
They all are
collectively involved in all these. But such matters are not discussed by them
because they all know that when they will discuss all these they would become
vulnerable to losing their vote bank.
I am sorry I raised
this matter. But above mentioned things regularly happen with me.
I am sorry I talked of
equality.
I am sorry that I am
talking about good politics.
I am sorry that I am
talking about Motherland rather than casteism and vote-bank politics.
I am sorry that I have
revealed the real intention of all those who exploit the “dalits of today” The
Brahmins.
I am sorry.
Jai Hind, Jai Bharat
Jai Ma Bharti