Chaiwala vs Boston brahmin
"If the Congress team continues to be guided by ‘Boston brahmins’, there is a very real danger that Mr Modi will sweep the polls. But that would endanger even the future of OBCs along with minorities. This is my worry, Mr Aiyar."
But the arrogant statement of Mani Shankar Aiyar, “I promise you in 21st century Narendra Modi will never become the Prime Minister of the country… But if he wants to distribute tea here, we will find a place for him”, on the occasion of the All-India Congress Committee session on January 17, 2014, shocked me beyond belief. This casteist/classist comment is not meant to insult just Mr Modi as an individual, but all those who survive by selling tea across the country, people who mostly belong to Other Backward Classes. Narendra Modi the chaiwala and Mani Shankar Aiyar the anti-chaiwala come from diametrically opposite social backgrounds.
Let me just state what Wikipedia mentioned about their background. Mr Modi is from a grocer’s family (Ganchi caste, a lower Other Backward Class). “While a teenager, Modi ran a tea stall with his brother around a bus terminus. He completed his schooling in Vadnagar… He began work in the staff canteen of Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation, where he stayed till he became a full-time pracharak of the RSS. He completed his Master’s degree in political science from Gujarat University”, that too in the distance-learning mode.
According to the same Wikipedia, “Mani Shankar Aiyar is the son of Vaidyanatha Shankar Aiyar, a chartered accountant… He was born in Laxmi Mansion, Lahore, in British India which, as post-Partition refugee property, came to house the family of Saadat Hassan Manto.” He studied in Doon School along with Rajiv Gandhi. He completed his graduation from St. Stephen’s, Delhi, then moved on to the Trinity Hall, Cambridge University, to do his Masters. It is well known that Aiyars are the creamy layer of Tamil brahmins.
While it is a fact that neither Mr Modi nor Mr Aiyar chose their parents, the fact is that their caste background made a serious difference to their future.
Unfortunately, this country was ruled for a long time by “Banaras brahmins”. Now the Congress is full of “Boston brahmins” (a phrase used for intellectually arrogant people even in the US) who are out to destroy that party, including Mr Aiyar.
One does not know how many Harvard or Cambridge educated advisors Mr Modi has, but there are a number of them around Rahul Gandhi. Though the OBCs and dalits of India are learning their “Three Rs”, not many have had the opportunity to even see the walls of Cambridge, Oxford or Harvard. But they have one weapon that democracy has given to them to put their humiliators in their place.
When Mr Modi was repeatedly telling the nation, rather rhetorically — “Vote for a chaiwala as your Prime Minister” — he was subtly telling them, “O, OBCs of the nation, vote for a man of your background”. If only Mr Aiyar was to see the caste background of thousands of chaiwalas who got invited, with special VIP passes, for Mr Modi’s Mumbai meeting, he would have realised how his Cambridge education has made him blind to India’s reality.
As of now the Congress Party is in a mess. Having ruled the country for 10 years successfully, despite an unwieldy and difficult coalition, its Western-educated managerial team seems to have lost the ability to understand a rooted mass communicator from an artisan background. They could understand Atal Behari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani, but they cannot understand this absolutely ambitious but rooted man, Narendra Modi.
The Congress has been winning elections mainly with the support of upper castes, dalits, minorities (mainly Muslims and Christians) and tribals. The OBCs have never been its social base. The Congress seems to think that the OBCs in different states have formed their own parties and challenged its monopoly.
In Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the regional parties headed by OBC leaders irritated the Congress.
Hence it went on neglecting the OBCs in the elections and policy matters. What they forget, however, is that the OBC youth has come to understand this neglect. These young people no longer want to remain chaiwalas, vendors, labourers, washermen, woodcutters, ironsmiths, pot makers and so on, without education and dignified employment. They do not want to be humiliated in the manner our “Boston Brahmin” Mr Aiyar did.
The RSS and the Bharatiya Janata Party, while accepting the leadership of Mr Modi, assessed the possible mobilisation of the OBC forces around him. Most of the people, particularly youth, who are attending Mr Modi’s meetings, come from this background.
At a meeting to review the Congress’ electoral debacle in April 2012, Mr Gandhi claimed that he hails from a Brahmin background. This claim vis-a-vis the claim of Mr Modi that he is a chaiwala injects a new discourse into our election campaign.
With utter disregard for dignity of labour and professions of all varieties, Congress intellectuals like Mr Aiyar promote communal politics by default. Though Mr Modi is an OBC, he never stood for the OBC cause. Neither during the 1990 Mandal struggle, nor in the 2007 phase-II of Mandal, did he support the OBC reservation cause. Yet, across the country the OBCs of India feel that he should be given a chance. This is the reason why Mr Modi’s ratings in surveys are very high even in states where there is no BJP at all.
Given the Congress’ structure, it cannot put anybody other than Mr Gandhi in the forefront of the electoral battle. This election has acquired the character of presidential election. If the Congress team continues to be guided by “Boston brahmins”, there is a very real danger that Mr Modi will sweep the polls. But that would endanger even the future of OBCs along with minorities. This is my worry, Mr Aiyar.
The writer is director, Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy, Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad
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