Opinion: Karpoori's Formula, Modi's Alchemy

In her caste regulations India recognized differences, but not the mutability which is the law of life... Life departed from her social system and in its place she is worshipping with all ceremony the magnificent cage of countless compartments that she has manufactured. - Rabindranath Tagore, Nationalism.

Bharat Ratna is the rare honour that India's Prime Minister has complete discretion over. There is no formal recommendation necessary and it does not seek any qualification. The PM recommends the name of the person to the President who recognizes them as a jewel of the Republic of India, the highest honour the country can bestow.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi chose to award the Bharat Ratna for 2024 to former chief minister of Bihar, Karpoori Thakur. The socialist icon is credited with introducing reservation in state jobs for backward castes. Now famous as the 'Karpoori Thakur formula', the cascading quota system had an overall 26% cap. Other backward communities got 12% of it and the economically backward classes among them could claim another 8%. Crucially, women and the poor got 3% each, which served the upper castes well. Therein also lies a tale.

The late lawyer-politician, Shanti Bhushan, writes in his autobiography, Courting Destiny, how the formula was devised. Chief minister Thakur announced the 26% quota in 1978 without even consulting his cabinet colleagues. That led Janata Party president Chandra Shekhar to set up a panel with Thakur and some ministers as members to sort out the issue. Bhushan, who was then the union law minister in the Morarji Desai government, was made convenor of the committee.

Bhushan told Thakur he could not afford to alienate the powerful upper castes. To which Thakur said he could not help it because constitutionally upper castes could not have quotas. Bhushan suggested two 3% carve-outs based on gender and income, irrespective of caste. He reasoned that upper caste women being better educated and socially mobile will corner almost the entire quota. All other criteria remaining equal, the low-income category would also become a default quota for poor social elites.

The formula would be well within the Constitution and assuage upper castes somewhat as they would enjoy 6% reservation. Bhushan suggested a further split of the remaining 20% between most backward and less backward castes. This was a bulwark against relatively upwardly mobile communities such as Yadavs and Kurmis cornering the bulk of the quota.

This background of elite inclusion makes Thakur's choice for Bharat Ratna an interesting one for its timing. The government could have honoured Ram Manohar Lohia, the doyen of socialist politics in India and once an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party's predecessor, the Jan Sangh. Lohia was the principal architect of the first opposition alliance to successfully challenge the Congress Party's dominance in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. His nudge helped Thakur become chief minister of the Jan-Sangh supported Bihar government, which eventually paved the way for the creative quota system.

"Anti-Congressism was Dr Lohia's heart and soul," PM Modi said paying tribute to Lohia on his birth anniversary in March 2019. "Those parties that claim inspiration from Dr Lohia have completely abandoned his principles...today those parties that falsely claim to be Dr Lohia's followers are desperate to form an opportunistic Maha Milawat or adulteration alliances with the same Congress. It is both ironical and reprehensible," he wrote weeks before the general elections were to be held.

Last week, the PM wrote about Karpoori Thakur's anti-Congressism and reservation policies. "Under his leadership, policies were implemented that laid the groundwork for a more inclusive society, where one's birth did not determine one's fate," he wrote in a viral op-ed. "He belonged to the most backward strata of society but he worked for all the people." He went on to recall that he himself belonged to a backward community but like Thakur, worked for the welfare of all.

Caste has always been a key variable in all Indian elections but plays a central role in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat's remark to have a relook at the quota system is believed to have cost the BJP the 2015 assembly elections. The Bharat Ratna award has already set the cat among the pigeons in Bihar with Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad Yadav and chief minister and Janata Dal (United) leader, Nitish Kumar, both of whom were mentored by Thakur, claiming to be his true legatees. While Kumar set off the current wave of competitive caste politics with the Bihar Caste Census, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, has tried to keep up, demanding a national caste census for jitni aabadi, utna haq (Rights according to population).

With the Bharat Ratna, Modi may have wrested the initiative away from the Lohiaites while also signalling to upper caste voters that there may be creative ways to address their worries should they stay with the BJP.

Meanwhile, in a spectacular display of ruthless opportunism, chief minister and non-Yadav claimant of Thakur's legacy, Nitish Kumar, has dumped the opposition alliance to return to the BJP-led National Democratic Front.

(The writer is editor of The Signal and author of The RSS And The Making Of The Deep Nation.)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author.