On 11th October, Chinese commentator Hu Xijin expressed confidence that India would be unable to beat China in the long run due to caste conflicts. Xijin, who was earlier editor in chief of Chinese mouthpiece Global Times, was quoting a report related to the arrest of Chinese company Vivo executives in a money laundering case.
Hu Xijin said, “India’s attitude toward foreign companies is like a rogue state. I assert that India’s rise will not go far if it goes on like this. Extreme nationalism, arrogance, racial & caste conflicts will hinder or even destroy India’s modernisation construction.”
Interestingly, his statement came when Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been pushing caste politics in every public meeting in poll-bound states. Notably, India will have Lok Sabha elections next year, and it seems caste politics will remain a hot topic for Congress during the campaign for the Lok Sabha elections.
Rahul Gandhi started pushing caste politics on the day when the Woman Reservation Bill was being discussed in the Lok Sabha during the special session. He insinuated that the Indian government is not doing enough for the ‘marginalised’ communities, especially the SC/ST and OBCs, as their representation is minimal in civil services. However, he forgot that reservations in civil services were introduced in 1996, and most of the secretaries in ministries are from earlier batches.
Gandhi’s push for caste politics became intense after Bihar released the caste census, pointing out that SC/ST and OBC make up a large portion of the population in the state. Interestingly, the Congress leader started pushing the idea of “Jitni Aabadi, Utna Haq”, which means the right to the country’s resources should be decided according to the community’s population.
In counter, PM Modi emphasised that for him, the poor are the largest community in the country irrespective of caste, religion or any other factor.
Congress’ idea of distributing resources based on population will only create problems as there is no fixed population of any community in the states. While the SC/ST and OBCs comprise a large section of the population in Bihar, it will be completely different in the case of Punjab, where Sikhs are in the majority. Similarly, in Meghalaya, Christians are in the majority and in Jammu and Kashmir, Muslims are in the majority.
The distribution of the resources must be based on the requirements of the country’s people irrespective of caste, religion, gender or other factors. If someone belongs to the general category and lives below the poverty line, that person or his family must have the right to get support from the government, in the same way a BPL family belonging to an SC/ST or OBC community gets.
Earlier, when in 2006, Dr Manmohan Singh was Prime Minister, he famously said that the minority communities have the first right to the resources of the country, and among those, Muslims have the first claim. Though the left-liberals and Congress often try to whitewash his comments, saying then-PM Singh never said so, there is video proof of the same. His exact words were, “We will have to devise innovative plans to ensure that minorities, particularly the Muslim minority, are empowered to share the fruits of development equitably. These must have the first claim on resources.”
After almost 17 years, Congress’s stand on who should get the first claim on the resources has shifted to the population of the communities. The poor, however, find no mention in the thought process of the Congress party.
Furthermore, it is notable that dividing the country over caste and religion lines only creates hurdles in development. India’s most fierce competition, China, will prefer to see India facing trouble in reaching its goal of becoming the third largest economy. The statement by the Chinese commentator fits perfectly with the propaganda to divide India on the lines of caste-based population being pushed by Congress. Not to forget, Congress has a memorandum in place with the Chinese government signed in 2009, whose details are still opaque.
It will be interesting to see how well Congress pushes caste-based politics as the Lok Sabha elections approach closer. Furthermore, Chinese mouthpieces and commentators are expected to have their own share to push the propaganda further.
Congress-China MoU
In 2008, during UPA1, the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Congress party signed an agreement for the sharing of high-level information and collaboration. The memorandum of understanding (MoU) also gave the two parties the “opportunity to consult each other on important bilateral, regional and international developments”. Notably, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have been trustees of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation since 2005, while Sonia Gandhi is the foundation’s chairperson.