The dalits of today- The Brahmin.......

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