Arjuna to His Krishna: How BJP is Embracing Madigas 'the Modi Way' in Telangana

How is the BJP addressing the caste question in Telangana? Let's decode.

(This story was originally publsihed on 24 November. It has been republished from The Quint's archives.)

"Krishna, you’re my leader and I am your assistant," said Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 17 November, referring to Manda Krishna Madiga, the founder and leader of the Madiga Reservation Porata Samithi (MRPS). The prime minister was addressing 'Vishwaroopa Mahasabha', a large public gathering of Madiga sub-castes in Hyderabad.

For many supporters of the MRPS, this statement is understood as the be-all and end-all for the prime minister of the country is proclaiming that he could be an "assistant and follower" of a Madiga leader, which could resolve the community's long-standing demand for democratising reservations (sub-categorisation) in Telangana.

But is the choice of words – of being an assistant and follower – new to Modi? Not really. One shouldn't forget the use of "chaiwala" and "chowkidar" that the Sangh Parivar in toto has used throughout election campaigns across the country. By claiming he would be Krishna's (Manda Krishna Madiga) assistant and follower, Modi, perhaps, wants to portray himself as Arjuna in upholding the dharma.

Modi had also said at the meeting that he had come to apologise for all the previous instances of how Madigas were "politically used" and "betrayed" by the Congress and the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).

Besides this, on 7 November, the prime minister had addressed a public meeting (BC Atma Gourava Sabha or meeting of self-respect for Backward Classes) as a part of the campaign for the ongoing Assembly elections in Telangana. It was organised to announce the party's decision to make a Backward Classes representative as the chief minister of the state. 

With these events unfolding, it is imperative to make sense of how the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is addressing the caste question in Telangana.

BJP-RSS Relationship With Caste

Earlier, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the BJP had collectively ignored the caste question, believing it would divide the larger Hindu monolith. For instance, when VP Singh announced the implementation of the Mandal Commission recommendations, the Hindu nationalists aggressively campaigned against the decision and called the move a bid to divide Hindu society and perpetuate casteism.

But at this ironic juncture, it is important to decode the version of social justice that the BJP endorses. For the RSS and BJP, the principle of social justice is an occasional (samayanukul) political and moral principle, contrary to what Dr BR Ambedkar had emphasised – for it to be an eternal (shashwat) principle.

If we closely look at the political mobilisation strategies adopted by the BJP, the process of social engineering that is being endorsed across the country becomes apparent. The BJP's emphasis on sub-categorisation is a post-2014 phenomenon that resulted in giving them possible inroads into different subcastes – in Uttar Pradesh, especially – among SCs and OBCs.

Surprisingly, the party is not keen on initiating a complete caste census process but is enthusiastically pursuing the case of sub-categorisation.

As for Madigas, the recent move made by the BJP is explicitly political.

The two-term rule of the party at the Centre has shown how the entire RSS-BJP parivar has unapologetically saffronised all public institutions, containing any dissent that was levelled against the government.

Despite this political development (which is generally understood as anti-Dalit and anti-minority due to the continuous apathy and estrangement by the state), the charismatic leader of the Madigas, Manda Krishna Madiga, has put all his trust in the BJP and Modi – as they have promised unequivocal support to the cause of SC sub-categorisation in Telangana.

Manda Krishna Madiga: The Strategist

As a mass leader, Krishna Madiga has succeeded in forging a relationship with Modi, but the question remains: how is he going to deal with the ground-level antagonism that exists among Madigas, other land-owning dominant castes, and also a few OBC castes?

Does this mean he is unaware of this situation in the state? It would be a mistake to assume the same.

Krishna Madiga was very vocal in criticising the ruling BRS government's apathy towards the weaker sections and has – on multiple occasions – called out K Chandrasekhar Rao for not fulfilling the promise of making a Dalit representative the chief minister.

But the importance of Krishna Madiga is more than that of any conventional Dalit leader. According to K Satyanarayana and Susie Tharu, he is known to have "...emerged as a strategist and mass leader who knows how to deal with a liberal State in a productive manner. Importantly, he was able to use political parties without yielding to pressure from them."

His relevance and organisational discipline and training are often compared to RSS training camps, as described by former Vice President of India Venkaiah Naidu in November 2016 in Hyderabad. Naidu had, in fact, advised Krishna Madiga to not get distracted from his target of (ensuring justice for Madigas).

In a similar tone, Modi, too, appreciated his organisational strength and relentless work. He repeatedly and deliberately addressed Krishna Madiga as his leader and brother – and the people who attended the meeting as his family members (naa kutumba sabyulara).

The 'New Welfarism' Project

As marginalised groups still demand and rely on welfarism, let's make sense of Modi's way of dealing with the question of caste. This 'new welfarism' is endorsed across the states to make inroads into the invisible sub-castes among SCs and OBCs.

A person of Modi's charisma and stature would know how to use the emotions and aspirations of the beneficiaries, and more importantly, to whitewash the illiberal tendencies of this liberal democracy.  

• He is aware of the disillusionment that Dalits have with the idea of the Indian nation, so, at the public meeting, he started his speech by endorsing 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai', which probably was not part of any of the previous meetings held by the MRPS.

• Second, by "showing mercy," he assured to remove all obstacles by being omniscient and omnipotent (don't forget those emotional scenes on the stage between Modi and Krishna Madiga).

• Third, by invoking Samakka Sarakka (tribal goddesses) and Yadadri Narasimha Swamy, Modi and his party hinted at the embodied idea of upliftment of the marginalised through the larger lens of spirituality. The recent development work at these two pilgrim sites is often credited to KCR's commitment to Adhyatmik Hindutva. The concepts of Adhyatmik Hindutva (spiritual Hindutva) and Political Hindutva are something that KCR and the BJP have respectively used during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

It has become harder for the BJP and Modi to use the narrative of Political Hindutva; so, they rather switch to the 'New Welfarism' agenda to make inroads into Dalit and OBC sub-castes here in Telangana – but with a pinch of Adhyathmikatha (spirituality).

In fact, the aggressive Hindutva Rajakeeyam was compromised by removing Karimnagar MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar, who also hails from an OBC background (Munnuru Kapu caste), from the position of party president.

On the other hand, through Eatala Rajender, the BJP expects to mobilise the Mudiraj caste votes.

And now, through Krishna Madiga, they expect to target the Madiga votes. On 22 November, Krishna Madiga – for the first time after the large public meeting with PM Modi – participated in the election campaign supporting BJP candidate Raghunandan Rao in the Dubbaka constituency.

Interestingly, he stated that he was a "neutral person" and requested that 15-20 percent of "neutral voters" (especially those who took benefits from the Aarogyasri scheme and special pension given to PwD citizens as it was initiated through the struggles of Krishna Madiga) vote only for the BJP.  

We didn't see Modi chanting Jai Madiga or Jai Bheem at the 17 November public meeting, but we have the BJP's Rao in Dubbaka chanting these very slogans. The above insights would make it very clear that the move made by the BJP at this juncture is to extract the votes from the Madigas as they are seemingly fragmented due to the entry of different political players from the same community (especially the BSP's Dr RS Praveen Kumar, the DSP's Visharadhan Maharaj, and other major leaders across the parties).  

BJP's Madiga Outreach – Why Now?

The BJP's embrace of Madigas at this crucial phase comes when KCR is making inroads into the Maharashtra political landscape. The Bharateeyatha of the BRS might not be able to compete with that of the BJP, but what is common among both parties is how paradoxically they deal with the social justice agenda by negating the idea of a radical 'new' social order as envisioned by anti-caste thinkers and movements.

In the process, the challenge lies in front of Krishna Madiga now, in understanding Modi's version of Krishna-Arjuna or Geetopadesha. More importantly, a greater challenge lies in front of Modi, in bringing social harmony and consensus among the Dalits to actualise the demand for SC sub-categorisation (demand present in nearly five to six states) on the one hand, and the other hand, in organically bringing the dominant castes, OBC castes, and Dalits together socially, given the violence unleashed on Dalits across the country and in Telangana specifically.

Modi had a chance to claim himself as a Madiga in the meeting, he had a chance to bring a special ordinance, and he had a chance to give more unique promises to the community, but instead, he created a script not according to the aspirations of the Madigas but 'what Modi wanted' the Madigas to see – a spectacular event in resolving the tangled web of sub-categorisation.

(Pallikonda Manikanta is a Phule-Ambedkarite researcher based in Telangana. He is the co-founder and faculty at Phule Ambedkar Centre for Philosophical and English Training (PACPET), Tellapur, Hyderabad. He researches and publishes on the Politics of Hindutva, Nationalism, and Political Culture in Telangana. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)