LUCKNOW (The Thursday Times) — Un nuevo partido político basado en los agravios de los brahmanes se ha instalado en Uttar Pradesh de cara a las elecciones estatales del próximo año, señal del creciente enfado con el Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), que gobierna la India, entre los votantes de las castas superiores que durante mucho tiempo han constituido su base principal, según un reportaje sobre el terreno del sitio de noticias indio Scroll.
El Rashtriya Adhikar Morcha (RAM) fue fundado por Alankar Agnihotri, un antiguo funcionario judicial que dimitió en febrero en protesta por las nuevas normas contra la discriminación en las universidades. Agnihotri dijo a Scroll que el partido se presentará a 150 de los 403 escaños de la asamblea del estado y dará apoyo incondicional al Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) de Mayawati en los 253 restantes.
“Estamos restando votos al BJP en al menos 100 escaños”, afirmó Agnihotri. “Nuestro mensaje al BJP es sencillo: abran la boca ante las injusticias contra los brahmanes o sus dirigentes serán golpeados en cada gali”, añadió, con la palabra hindi que significa calle. En entrevistas se ha referido de forma implícita al primer ministro Narendra Modi y al ministro del Interior Amit Shah como “gánsteres guyaratíes”.
Durante mucho tiempo se consideró al BJP un partido de hindúes de castas superiores, y varios de sus primeros dirigentes, entre ellos Deendayal Upadhyaya, Atal Bihari Vajpayee y Murli Manohar Joshi, eran brahmanes de Uttar Pradesh. Sin embargo, en la última década ha ganado dos elecciones estatales consecutivas atrayendo a votantes de las Otras Clases Atrasadas (OBC) y de las Castas Registradas, y muchos brahmanes sienten ahora que han perdido un partido que consideraban propio.
“Los brahmanes eran los pilares de la casa del BJP”, dijo a Scroll Rajendra Nath Tripathi, presidente nacional de la Akhil Bharatiya Brahmin Mahasabha. “Pero hoy ni siquiera podemos proclamarnos abiertamente sus inquilinos”.
The immediate trigger was a set of draft University Grants Commission (UGC) rules notified by the Modi government in January, which set out how colleges and universities should deal with discrimination against students and staff from OBC, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe groups. The rules followed a rise in student suicides, particularly among Dalits, but upper-caste groups protested, citing fears of false cases. The Supreme Court stayed the rules weeks later, but the anger has not faded.
Scroll found that some of that anger is aimed at Modi rather than at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. “Our vote for the BJP in 2027 will be for Yogi,” a young Thakur voter at an Adityanath rally outside Lucknow said. “We will not vote for BJP in 2029. The people are frustrated with Modi.”
The BJP’s Lucknow city president dismissed the idea that Brahmins would desert the party, asking: “Jayenge toh jaye kahan?” — where will they go? His deputy, Vinayak Pandey, was blunter. “Brahmins want everything,” he told Scroll. “You can do a dozen things for the community, but you don’t meet just one demand and they are up in arms.” Pandey also warned that if the BJP lost, upper-caste voters would “see the light”, adding: “Muslims will enter their house and kill them.”
Tripathi, who says he has just toured 42 districts, insists this time is different. “There is so much anger that this jayenge-toh-jaye-kahan will not work this time,” he said. But he admitted the community had not settled on an opposition party to back. Its demands include rolling back the UGC rules, diluting the law against atrocities on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and changing caste-based reservations. “The decision will be made 10 days before the elections,” he said.
RAM itself has yet to break through. Scroll found that in September, ordinary voters across Uttar Pradesh had not heard of Agnihotri or his party. “One can’t run a political party with the temperament of a bureaucrat,” Tripathi said. “Many Agnihotris come and go without making a dent.”
The numbers explain why the BJP cannot ignore the mood. The 1931 census put Brahmins at 11% of the population of the then United Provinces, today’s Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, which in absolute terms gives Uttar Pradesh the largest Brahmin population of any Indian state.
