What Rahul Gandhi 'OBC regret' statement means for Congress

In a bold admission fraught with political risk, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has admitted that at least for the first half of his 21-year-long journey in public life, he “made a mistake” by not understanding the issues responsible for the plight of India’s vast backward caste community.

Addressing a packed audience at Delhi’s Talkatora Stadium during the Congress’ Bhagidari Nyaya Sammelan on on Friday (July 25), the Leader of Opposition, who has positioned himself as a belligerent votary of Caste Census and social justice over the past few years, conceded that had he understood the issues of the OBC community earlier on, he would have got the UPA government to conduct a caste enumeration of India’s population.

Hits and misses

“I have been in politics since 2004, it has been 21 years and when I look back and self-analyse where I did well and where I faltered, I see a few issues,” Rahul said. The former Congress president added that while he had done well to fight for issues and causes like MNREGA, the Right to Food, the Land Acquisition Bill and tribal rights in the Niyamgiri Hill, he also “made a mistake (which was) that the way I should have protected the OBC section, I did not”.

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Stating that “there is a reason” for his failure, Rahul said, “I did not understand (then) your issues”. “I can say this from the stage that 10-15 years ago, I understood the difficulties being faced by the Dalits; those were clear because they have had a history of untouchability. I also understood the issues of the tribals (with regard to) jungle, jal, zameen (forests, water and land) but the issues of the OBCs are not visible easily and remain hidden,” Rahul said.

"It is my regret because if I had understood your (OBCs) history and issues a little better, I would have got the caste census done but that (time) has passed and it was my mistake... I admit that I didn't work with the speed required on my part; I couldn't do it earlier but now I will work with double the speed," Rahul added.

Timing crucial

The Lok Sabha LoP’s candid statements, uncharacteristic of career politicians, have come at a time when he, his party and a section of its allies in the INDIA Bloc have been relentlessly campaigning for a scientifically conducted caste census so that historically marginalised, oppressed and backward communities get their due not just in terms of targeted state-run schemes but also in political and administrative representation.

Why is it politically important

Rahul’s regret at not understanding the history and issues concerning the numerically formidable OBC community is as politically significant within the scope of his ongoing OBC outreach initiative as it is potentially problematic and possibly counter-productive.

Coming as it does just months ahead of the Assembly polls in Bihar, a state where the backward castes comprise just over 63 percent of the electorate, Rahul’s admission presents him as a leader who is not without his follies. This could allow him to endear himself better to various OBC groups if they see in him a rare political leader who doesn’t shy away from owning responsibility for his failures and one who is willing to make amends.

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Several OBC leaders of the party who were present at the Talkatora Stadium during Rahul’s speech – he had made a similar assertion a day earlier but before a smaller audience of Congress MPs and members of the Congress’ Telangana government and – told The Federal that the “expression of regret had visibly struck a chord with those present” as the audience saw a leader who, much like themselves, “has shortcomings, makes mistakes and is willing to learn from them”.

'Will Modi ever do it? '

“It is not easy for any politician, leave alone someone from the Gandhi family, to put him/herself out there and say ‘I made a mistake’, ‘I failed’ but when someone of Rahul’s stature, a former Congress president and current LoP with an illustrious lineage, does so, it shows strong moral character... what Rahul did today at Talkatora Stadium, can you expect (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi to ever admit he was wrong or that he had failed (sic),” Anil Jaihind, chief of the Congress’s OBC department and the key organiser of the Bhagidari Nyaya Sammelan told The Federal.

Commending Rahul for his “inspiring honesty”, a former Congress chief minister who also hails from a backward caste group told The Federal that the Gandhi scion’s remarks were also “a befitting reply to all those in the BJP and NDA who question Rahul’s commitment to the cause of the OBCs”.

“He has wiped the slate clean in a way. So far, whenever he or the Congress talked about the need for a caste census, the BJP would hit back questioning why did the Congress not conduct caste enumeration through the six decades of its singular or shared stint in power. By admitting that this was his mistake, Rahul has basically thrown a challenge at the BJP and its most influential OBC leader, Modi himself because what he has done is that he has told the BJP that ‘fine, I was wrong but I realised my mistake and am committed to rectifying it but do you have the moral courage to do the same,” the former CM said.

Not everyone is on the same page

However, there is a sizeable section within the Congress that remains unconvinced about the political benefits that Rahul’s admission can accrue to the party. “This is another one of his blunders,” a senior Lok Sabha MP of the party said, asserting that “what Rahul doesn’t get is that the voter today doesn’t want to see a leader who will make mistakes because that makes him no different from the people he wants to lead; they want someone who they can look up to in awe or even fear, someone who doesn’t make mistakes or turns around to tells them, ‘sorry, I don’t understand your issues”.

Another Congress functionary, a backward caste leader from a southern state, noted that Rahul had “once again given the BJP ammunition... wait for the jokes and memes now”.

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The functionary added, “ever since caste census became one of the central themes of our political narrative, the BJP has repeatedly reminded us and the country that it was the Congress which sat over the Kaka Kalelkar and Mandal Commission reports that were meant for empowering the backward castes... now he (Rahul) has gone ahead and basically made a public statement that the BJP will project as a vindication of all the criticism they levelled at us; will the BJP not mock us saying we are talking about OBC empowerment when our leader has admitted that he doesn’t even understand the history and issues of the community”.

What Rahul's aide says

Rahul aides in the Congress’ OBC outreach initiative dismiss such criticism. “What Rahul has done is a very brave thing but it has to be seen in the right perspective and you also have to see the timing. He has made these comments at a time when our Telangana government has already completed its caste survey and is now in the process of announcing various measures that are meant for OBC empowerment; our Karnataka government, led by an OBC Chief Minister (Siddaramaiah) is also following the same agenda. So the message from Rahul is really not an apology but a reassurance that is aimed at telling the people that he has learnt from his past mistakes and is determined not to see them repeated,” says K Raju, a Rahul confidant, who is currently the national coordinator for the Congress’ SC, ST, OBC and minorities departments.