Frontline On Air | Is this Mandal 2.0?

The 2024 election is still a few months away and new issues might surface that push the issue of caste to the back burner again.

Members of the National Federation of Trade Union march from India Gate to Rajghat in support of the Mandal Commission report in New Delhi on November 18, 1992. The Mandal Commission’s recommendation of 27 per cent reservation for OBCs has been in place since 1990.. | Photo Credit: The Hindu Archives

By indicating a higher proportion of Other Backward Castes (OBC), at 63 per cent compared with the 55 per cent that has been speculated for a long time, the Bihar caste survey has given the opposition parties, especially the Janata Dal (United), or JD(U), and its coalition partner the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), a strong case to demand an all-India caste census.

In fact, all the parties of the INDIA bloc have broadly supported such a move. There is a belief that we may be heading for a Mandal 2.0 moment, which could have a noticeable impact on the Assembly elections in 2023 and the Lok Sabha election in 2024.

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