by
Girish Nikam
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It is interesting to read and listen to the reactions of people whenever a Cabinet expansion takes place. “Oh, he has managed to get in only because of his caste, gender, region, language, etc.”, are touted normally, and most of the times all this is true. The latest is the case of Ambareesh, the film star-turned-politician. There is no doubt that if there were a better choice available among the Vokkaligas, he would not have found a place ever in the Union Ministry.��

And it is also a fact that he has been chosen, only because of the caste to which he was born in. As a Parliamentarian, in his third term, he has nothing otherwise to show, to merit a place in the Union Ministry. He has never ever opened his mouth in all these years inside the Lok Sabha. Whenever he has condescended to be present in the House, he has found himself at odds trying to figure out what is happening.

But in all fairness to him, he is not the only one in the Union Ministry today, who has such a “distinction”.
And you can bet that many of those who have been occupying those coveted seats have managed to come into the Cabinet only because of it.

But again there have been a few such ministers of “distinction”, who have managed to overcome all the odds and performed much above expectations, once they were provided the opportunity. NTRs’ daughter, Purandeshwari, in the present Ministry, is one who immediately comes to mind. Brought in to fill the women’s quota and also to appease the powerful kamma community in Andhra Pradesh, and also to cock a snook at her brother-in-law and TDP Chief Chandrababu Naidu, she turned out to be a revelation. Her handling of the Human Resources portfolio, has given her senior Minister Arjun Singh a lot of confidence to allow her to reply to many a parliament questions. And she has managed it aplomb and has impressed everyone with her understanding of the subject and articulation.

One can only hope that Ambareesh will also re-invent himself, now that he has been given this opportunity and make an impression, which has so far been elusive. Hopefully he will not follow in the footsteps of one of his close friends and fellow-Mysorean, V.Srinivasa Prasad. Prasad, who had been elected to the Lok Sabha more than half a dozen times before he became a Union Minister of State in the previous NDA Government, and stayed all along, frittered away the opportunity. His tenure was marked by his invisibility and inactivity.

Coming back to caste and region-based appointments in the Ministries, it is a reality one cannot and should not run away from. The typical middle class argument that “merit should prevail”, holds no water in a country as vast and as diversified as ours. All those who tend to snigger, fret and fume, over such appointments, fail to understand the importance of empowerment in a democracy.

They also fail to come to terms with the fact that blood is indeed thicker than water, when it comes to the question of sharing power.

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One cannot quarrel with this fact in a country where caste is a reality, and any pretensions to overlook it, is a futile exercise.
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Interestingly, all those who make demands for only the merit criteria in public sphere and vociferously ask for disregarding caste and such considerations, however have a completely different set of rules in their private lives. Most of these trumpeters of anti-caste and religion, when it comes to quotas in educational institutions, jobs or even in Ministerial appointments, do not bat an eyelid when it comes to marriages in their families. They would then want to look for a bride or a groom not only from their own religion, not only from there own caste but also even from their sub caste. Any boy or girl, whose parents or family who are looking for such “matches”, falls in love and marries outside these considerations, all hell breaks loose, in most families.
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I am told that the family of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi is an exception to this sad rule and the ‘champion of social justice’ has in-laws from different castes, ranging from the Brahmins to the Dalits.��

Every other week newspapers are full of stories of how young boys and girls have been either killed or kidnapped or threatened, for having dared to marry outside their caste or religion. One question, which comes to mind, when faced with these sad incidents, is “do these parents/families think that there is no other “merited” groom or bride, outside their caste?

If caste is the main criterion therefore in marriages, how can caste not be a factor in politics and everything else connected to it? A few decades back there was a movement of sorts lead by the socialists to encourage inter-caste marriages, to overcome casteism in the society. But it lost its momentum somewhere along the way, as society became increasingly “tolerant” of the castes, and the politicians realized the benefit of pandering to this baser instinct.

Coming to representations in the Union Cabinet for the two communities, which claim dominance in Karnataka, Vokkaligas and lingayats, the record is pretty abysmal. In all these 54 years of representational democracy, there have been only two and three Cabinet Ministers each, among these communities. Kengal Hanumanthaiah in the seventies, followed by H.D.Deve Gowda who was Prime Minister for 11 months, among the Vokkaligas. And Veerendra Patil, M.S.Gurupadswamy and S.R.Bommai, among lingayats. No wonder the two communities have had an axe to grind for decades. And no wonder the vokkaligas were rejoicing so much when even an Ambareesh was “catapulted” to the Ministry, even if it was just as a Minister of State.

Representative politics is all about giving representation to all sections of the society, and as long as society is distinguished on the basis of caste and religion, they will continue to be the major criteria for such appointments. Whether one likes it or not!
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30-10-2006