Cynics might aver it is simply not possible to bring back the dream brahmin-dalit-Muslim alliance, which gave the Congress arithmetic a high percentage in the fifties and sixties. But the party did not even try consistently for the Muslim mindspace even when the SP was teetering on the brink of political and administrative disaster. The Sachar panel was an unsure effort, an unconvincing exercise with the Congress in two minds over the frightening prospect of a Hindu consolidation culminating in a politically lethal Hindu backlash.

The ordinary Muslim voter is now aware that not even an action taken report has been filed on the Sachar panel’s recommendations and this government is too politically and constitutionally careful to risk a job guarantee scheme for the minorities. The Congress brand of minority politics has been buried in internal strife with HRD Minister Arjun Singh wanting to leave his imprint on Muslim education and depriving Minority Affairs Minister A.R. Antulay of every possibility to do the little he could have accomplished.

More than the party itself, individuals have mattered. Like Arjun Singh, Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Meira Kumar tried her hand at the politics of Scheduled Caste appeasement and even went a distance with her job quota idea. It is another story that the prime minister’s office was only going to back her till she restricted herself to affirmative action. Politically, these are half-hearted measures, which never go down well with an informed 21st century electorate. The industry captains have responded with their own diluted version of altruism, which makes them Good Samaritans all right but does little for the social and economic uplift of the Most-Backwards. Similarly, Arjun Singh appeared a lonesome warrior when Delhi Police had to water-cannon students protesting OBC reservations.

... contd.