NEW DELHI: As the former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad stoked a controversy by favouring “poora” (complete) reservation for Muslims, sources in Congress claim that the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief did it deliberately to corner the grand old party in the state as Lalu sees the growth of the national party as a threat to his party’s existence.
Lalu’s target, according to party insiders, was to consolidate the Muslims behind his RJD. It was also meant to agitate the traditional forward caste voters of the Congress. Bihar has around 50 lakh forward caste voters, out of whom around 10 lakh vote for the Congress in every election.
A Congress leader said, “They (forward castes) have been doing so for ages. They do not even vote for other candidates backed by the Congress. They vote only for the Congress. No matter who is seen to be winning or losing, they only vote for the grand old party. Lalu knows that in order to run down Congress, he must erode our voter base. He knew that with his statement, there would be a turmoil and the forward castes would feel that the Congress which was backing the RJD in elections, was of the same view and hence their numbers supporting Congress would decrease. If there is any kind of reservation it will be at the cost of the general category, that is the forward castes.” However, it must be pointed out that Congress has been pursuing a policy of minority reservation in some southern states.
A political analyst said, “If the RJD does not perform well in the upcoming Assembly elections or does not form the government it may face an exodus. To prevent that Lalu has to keep the Congress in check and reduce its impact on the ground. The plan is for RJD to either go it alone and win a majority of Assembly seats or give the Congress a tiny share of seats in the Assembly elections.”
A leader in Bihar said, “Lalu is a master politician. He would not say anything without knowing the consequences it will have. He knew exactly what he was saying. The only party that can come in RJD’s (because of the same voter-base of Muslims) way in Bihar is Congress. So he has started laying the groundwork to extinguish the Congress party in the state and such a statement was an evidence of his plan. Such a statement may not have much impact nationally, but in Bihar it is going to have an influence.”
AICC general secretary and Bihar in-charge Mohan Prakash told The Sunday Guardian, “Lalu has refuted his statement, moreover in our Constitution there is no provision that says that quota benefits can be extended on religious lines. So with such a statement there will be no impact on ground. If they BJP keep on picking up issues like mangalsutra and all that, what response should we give to that? Now people of this nation do not listen to such things, there is an overdose of it (communal talks) because they have been listening to the same thing since a long time. Now there is no Hindutva seen on ground. And no matter how much they scare about Muslims it will not work.” Contrary to Mohan Prakash’s claims, it must be pointed out that the Congress government in Karnataka has extended reservation to the Muslim population. Telangana’s Congress government too has not scrapped the 4% Muslim quota that exists in that state.
It is believed that Lalu was forced to take back his own statement later. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), he wrote, “The basis of reservation is not religion but social backwardness. PM does not understand even this much. Under the Mandal Commission, more than 3,500 backward castes including hundreds of castes from other religions too have been granted reservation. We have got the Mandal Commission report implemented but has Modi ever read the Mandal Commission and its recommendations?”