NEW DELHI: The near-total rout of the Society and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) including the Scheduled Castes and Tribes, at the Congress Working Committee (CWC) elections has set the alarm bells ringing in the Union Government.

Deeply worried by the tum of events, the Prime Minister, P.V. Narsimha Rao, reportedly consulted some of his senior cabinets colleagues on Sunday on the extent to which the evidently strong caste feelings in the Congress party could be assuaged by nominating a large contingent of SC and ST leaders to the CWC. Those who were consulted, including the ministers handling situations arising in and out of court over Mandal Commission Report, were understood to have said that nomination would be seen by the SC/ST Congressmen as no more than a meher bani (gift). But they still favored a large-than proportional representation of the SEBC, particularly the Scheduled Castes, and Tribes, at the CWC.

One of these minister view that some unofficial whip against SC/ST candidates might have been issued by the “winning panel” on the eve of the poll at Tripurati He thinks that the voting tallies of these candidates could not have been so low otherwise This arguments stems from the calculation that of the 804 AICC delegates who had voted, as many as 147 belonged to SC or ST. But the votes obtained by SC/ST candidates ranged between 125, obtained by Margatham Chandra shekhar, and by Brajmohari Mohanth. In fact, except Chandra shekhar, no SC/ST candidate could cross the two-digit mark.

On the other hand, some of the losers among the SC/ST candidates seem t0 have lost by inexplicably large margins. For example, Buta Singh, former Home Minister and a Congressman of Jong standing and wide connections, could muster only 91 votes B.P. Maurya, who the late Mrs. Gandhi had chosen as the main prop in her battle against Babu Jagjivan Ram, could get only 27 votes. However, Jagijvan Rams daughter, Maira Kumar, fared only marginally better, with 70 votes, Gindhar Gemandgo, the veteran tribal leader from Orissa, could obtain no more than 5 votes Yogendra Nakwana, Gujatat SC leader of long experience obtained only 39 votes Jagannath Pahadia, a former chief minister of Rajasthan, who belongs to the Scheduled Castes, was stuck with 57 votes only.

If there is any substance in the “unofficial whip” theory, the Prime Minister will then have an uphill task in hammering out a consensus within the party and the cabinet; on the final position of the government as far as Mind at Commissions report is concerned. The Supreme Court has only recently begun hearing the view of the Union Government in this regard. But, if the pent-up anti SC/ ST feeling with in the AICC proves to be so strong as it already has at the CWC poll, there is every chance of the government being caught in a bind while finally  deck ring its position on the Mandal report.

Article extracted from this publication >> May 1, 1992