55% of 53 spokespersons get nominal representation from upper caste, backward and Dalit leaders
BHOPAL. Madhya Pradesh Congress organization is continuously proving unsuccessful in following the political slogan given by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi “Jiski jitni sankta bhaari, uski utni share” (the number of people is more, the share is more). The latest example of this is the recently announced spokesperson list of the state Congress, in which the basic spirit of social justice and caste representation is not visible.
On May 5, the list of 53 spokespersons was released by the head of the media department of Congress, Mukesh Nayak, on the instructions of the president Jitu Patwari. In this list, the dominance of upper castes can be clearly seen, while the backward classes (OBC), scheduled castes (SC), scheduled tribes (ST) and minority communities with large population have not got the expected representation.
Dominance of general category
According to the list, 18 Brahmins, 6 Thakurs, 6 other general category and 11 leaders from backward class have been appointed as spokespersons. That is, a total of 29 spokespersons belong to the upper caste, which is about 55% of the total list.
On the other hand, only 9 leaders of the backward class, which is considered to have about 50% participation in the population of the state, have been given the responsibility of spokesperson. Only 7 representatives of the Scheduled Caste category are in this list and only 6 leaders from the minority category could become spokespersons.
The most surprising thing is that the tribals have a participation of 21.10 percent in the state. Congress has not appointed any person from the Scheduled Tribe (ST) category as a spokesperson, while Madhya Pradesh is a tribal dominated state.
Questions raised on lack of caste balance
Congress has been demanding caste census for a long time and Rahul Gandhi has made it clear while advocating social justice from every platform that the party’s goal is to ensure participation in proportion to the number. But this list of Madhya Pradesh Congress has not only weakened this idea, but has also exposed the neglect of caste representation at the ground level.
Opinion of political analysts
Political analysts believe that when the Bahujan Samaj will not get proper representation in the organisational structure itself, then how will the public trust the policies of Congress and its slogan of social justice?
In a conversation with The Mooknayak, senior journalist Ramesh Sharma said that even though the Congress party talks about giving representation under social justice, but its list does not show representation in proportion to the numbers. List of representatives according to social classes
General Category (Total): 30
Thakurs: (6) Ajit Bhadoria, Avnish Bundela, Santosh Singh Parihar, Samar Singh, Himani Singh, Santosh Singh Gautam,
Brahmins: (18) Aparajita Pandey, Ambika Sharma, Gunjan Shukla, Jitendra Mishra, Dharmendra Sharma, Neelabh Shukla, Pramod Dwivedi, Priyanka Sharma, Mrinal Pant, Ram Pandey, Sangeeta Sharma, Rahul Raj, Sandeep Sablok, Sunil Mishra, Swadesh Sharma, Vivek Tripathi, Vinod Sharma.
Other General Categories: (6) Bhupendra Gupta, Vinay Saxena, Ravi Saxena, Anand Jain Kasiwal, Harsh Jain, Kundan Punjabi.
Backward Classes: (Total 11) Abhinav Baroliya, Amit Chourasiya, Anand Jat, Jyoti Patel, Yogesh Yadav, Rajesh Chouksey, Roshni Yadav, Shailendra Patel, Sparsh Chaudhary, R.P. Singh, Samar Singh
Scheduled Caste: (SC) (Total 7) Amit Tawde, Praveen Dholpure, Mithun Ahirwar, Mukesh Panthee, Ravi Verma, Vikram Chaudhary, Sitasharan Suryavanshi.
Scheduled Tribe (ST): No spokesperson.
Minority community: (Total 6) Abbas Hafiz, Noori Khan, Firoz Siddiqui, Shahryar Khan, Sabir Fitwal.
When The Mooknayak tried to get a reaction from the newly appointed spokesperson Dr. Vikram Chaudhary on this issue, he refused to comment and was seen avoiding speaking on this subject.
SC/ST did not get representation even in Youth Congress elections
In this election of Youth Congress, out of a total of 59 posts, only 7 seats have been reserved for the youth of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe category. This number is very less compared to the share of these classes in the population of the state. The total population of Madhya Pradesh has reached about 3.29 crores, in which Dalit and tribal communities have a large participation, but their share in organizational representation does not seem satisfactory. It is clear that the reservation policy has become a mere formality here.
Why is the reduction in representation an important issue?
Giving proper representation to social groups in political organisations is not just a game of numbers, it is a matter related to the soul of democracy and constitutional values. Giving leadership opportunities to young leaders of SC/ST community is the basic condition of social justice. When Congress calls itself a supporter of social justice, it is expected that it implements that idea in its organisational structure as well!
Courtesy : Ankit Pachauri, Hindi News