Why the BJP has become cautious on matters of caste
Anxieties among Dalit and Adivasi voters that the ruling party is anti-reservation has forced it to take the social justice line.
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Between 2018 and May 2023, the Narendra Modi government inducted 63 specialists as mid-level bureaucrats through lateral entry, bypassing the established recruitment system where a designated number of posts are reserved for members of the Scheduled Castes and Tribes. This sparked some resentment among the Dalit and Adivasi middle classes but the Bharatiya Janata Party ignored it.
This month, however, after the Opposition and the BJP’s own allies in the National Democratic Alliance criticised its decision to issue an advertisement seeking to recruit 45 bureaucrats through lateral entry, the government lost no time withdrawing it
On Tuesday, Jitendra Singh, the minister handling the portfolio of personnel, asked the Union Public Service Commission to retract the notice. He told the recruitment body that the absence of reservations in lateral entry appointments must be “reviewed and reformed”.
What prompted the change in the government’s position?
Political observers say this is directly connected to the outcome of the 2024 Lok Sabha election where the BJP lost ground in seats reserved for both Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Campaign speeches by BJP leaders asking voters to give the Hindtuva party a large majority in Parliament so that it could amend the Constitution had sparked fears among Dalits and Adivasis that the party intended to dismantle the...
