Caste has long been the bane of Hinduism not so much because of its concept of social stratification - which is common to all societies - as because of the rituals of purity which brand a section of fellow men as untouchables. It is to escape this stigma that countless Hindus opted for more egalitarian religions like Islam, Sikhism and Christianity. All well-wishers of Hindu society from Swami Vivekananda to Mahatma Gandhi to Jawaharlal Nehru have consistently focussed, therefore, on eradicating this discriminatory system.

If caste still retained its stranglehold, the reason was not only because of the belief that it had religious sanction, but also because politicians found it an easy tool for mobilization. The degeneration of the political class assisted this process. Since the politicians were no longer known for their honesty or ideological convictions, they banked on caste to advance their careers.

The acceptance of reservations as a means to help the underprivileged led to a further entrenchment of caste. The quota system became a handy weapon in the hands of politicians to pose as saviours of the poor. Once the extension of the reservations to the OBCs led to the quotas touching the limit of 50 per cent stipulated by the Supreme Court, there was even a suggestion for 100 per cent reservations of jobs and educational facilities to incorporate all sections of society, including the poor among the upper castes. If the inclusion of 6,000 castes and 65,000 sub-castes in the census data gives a pride of place to this form of segmentation, the idea of cent per cent reservations may become the reality.

As a party whose stalwarts have always opposed dividing the nation on the basis of caste or religion, the Congress should have played a leading role in preparing the ground for the elimination of the caste system. The way to do this was to encourage the idea of meritocracy and modernization. A high rate of growth and inclusive development were expected to facilitate this process.

Unfortunately, however, the Congress has been unable to insulate itself from the malaise of vote bank politics, which is related to the quota system. The first sign of this fatal infection was Arjun Singh's decision during UPA I to reserve seats in the higher educational institutions in a move which was described as Mandal II. Now, Sonia Gandhi has gone a step further to placate the casteist lobby by pushing the government on the inclusion of caste in the census enumeration.

It is not without significance that she chose Pranab Mukherjee to make the announcement to the delight of the Yadav trio of Lalu Prasad, Mulayam Singh and Sharad Yadav. The reason why she chose the “pragmatic” finance minister was that neither Manmohan Singh nor P.Chidambaram would have been willing to associate themselves with this retrogressive step.

Sonia's decision to bring the Mandal brigade on board is explained by the fear that the Congress's majority is no longer as secure as before. The party got a scare on the eve of the cut motions debate when the Left and the BJP joined hands. It was able to evade the danger by bringing Mayawati to its side by sending out the message that the CBI would go easy in the pursuit of the disproportionate assets cases against her.

However, the continuing uncertainty about Mamata Banerjee's intentions - she has already snapped her party's ties with the Congress in West Bengal - seems to have persuaded Sonia to woo the Yadavs with the decision on castes. But, in the process, she may have squandered much of the goodwill that she had accumulated, first, by declining to accept the prime minister's post and, secondly, by giving Manmohan Singh a free hand in the running of the country.

But the first year of UPA II has revealed some of the negative aspects of her politics. It isn't only the decision on caste and the mollycoddling of Mayawati and the Yadavs which have revived memories of the old, cynical Congress, the retention of the scam-tainted telecommunications minister A. Raja has shown that probity in public life is not the Congress's first concern. The Congress is perhaps also using the threat of exposing Raja to keep the DMK on its side.

Much of this is may be regarded as “normal” politics, but the hope of a cleaner, newer Congress, which was generated at the time of UPA I, has been dissipated even before the first anniversary of UPA II. (IPA Service)