Caste: A best-in-class political asset

'Defying Nehru and Ambedkar, caste is stronger today than ever before', says the author

Of course it’s apocryphal. But the story of P C Sen, a former Congress chief minister of West Bengal, turning up when Promode Dasgupta, the Marxist supremo, was being cremated because, as he explained, he always attended any event concerning his caste brethren illustrates the power of the ancient bonding.

Caste is no joke. It’s deadly serious. As the late Bal Thackeray put it, Indians “don’t cast their vote, they vote their caste.” It’s the instrument through which politicians win votes and extend control, the channel that enables the populace to extract favours. As the uproar over the Mandal Commission report