U-Turns or Demolishing Congress’ Calling Cards — What is Modi Govt’s Strategy? Will Agniveer, Caste Census Be Next?

From Lateral Entry to the new Pension Scheme, the draft Broadcasting Bill, Waqf Amendment Act, and long-term capital gains or indexation proposals — the Congress is gleefully listing out instances of ‘U-turns’ to cite how the Narendra Modi government, in its third term, is prone to rollbacks under pressure from the Opposition and its allies.

The government, however, describes these moves as it being cognizant of public feedback, while also demolishing the calling cards of the Congress. This, many in the BJP feel, is a part of reclaiming the political narrative after the Lok Sabha polls and a measure of the political pragmatism shown by PM Modi.

Two more frontiers are now being spoken of in power corridors of Raisina Hill for a possible re-look — the review of the ‘Agnipath’ scheme to bring in changes in the structure and addressing the demand of caste census that NDA ally Chirag Paswan has also made a case for.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has, on more than one occasions, said the government is open to changes in the ‘Agnipath’ scheme to improve it further. The scheme, introduced two years ago for entry to the armed forces, is seen as contributing to the electoral reverses of the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections as the Congress made a promise to scrap it if voted to power.

Similarly, caste census is an issue that both key NDA allies — JDU and LJP — are votaries of, given the nature of Bihar’s caste politics. The state will be going to polls next year.

So far, the prime minister has put up a vociferous defence of the ‘Agnipath’ scheme — the latest being in Kargil last month. The government has also firmly rejected all demands for caste census, terming it a ‘divisive move’. Another issue that has been simmering is the committee to look into the Minimum Support Price (MSP) issue, with the Opposition demanding a law guaranteeing MSP for farmers.

Land Acquisition Bill to Farm Laws

Two major decisions which were rolled back, one in the first term and the other in the second term of the Modi government, were the changes to the Land Acquisition Act and the three farm laws, respectively. These rollbacks happened when the BJP had a full majority government at the Centre and party leaders cite them to say it was not the Opposition’s pressure but political pragmatism that prevailed in the last one month.

The return of caste politics to the central political discourse is also dictating the government’s decisions to oppose the Supreme Court judgment on sub-categorisation of Scheduled Castes and creamy layer exclusion or introduce the reservation pie in the lateral entry scheme for the first time. The government is also cognizant of the “opposition’s designs to trigger people into an agitation” over such issues and does not want to derail the country’s growth story, a senior BJP leader told News18.