The purveyors of ancient Indian culture, it has to be said, are peculiarly mixed-up. Do they wish to perpetuate the caste system that was unavoidable in the past they selectively refer to or do they wish to create a New India free of inherited differences? On Valmiki Jayanti, the prime minister had tweetingly greeted the nation — Valmiki appears to have been a Scorpio — recalling the poet’s emphasis on harmony, equality and social justice. Social justice with casteism in place would be a bit of a stretch even for the most persuasive demagogue. Rather, the prime minister’s aspiration for the label — and Twitter handle — of chowkidar, with the request — order? — that other Bharatiya Janata Party leaders follow suit, would suggest an attempt to rid the job of its long association with members of the less privileged castes. Any other interpretation would reduce it to a gimmick. Or, a shallow, puerile retort to the slogan that the Congress president has made familiar: “Chowkidar chor hai”. But such suspicions of the prime minister’s sincere protectiveness cannot be countenanced.

That is why the comment of the BJP member of parliament, Subramanian Swamy, seems so puzzling. Sticking to the ancient traditions glorified by his party, he said that he could not call himself chowkidar because he was a Brahmin. As a Brahmin he could teach ‘them’ — the professional chowkidars or the decorative ones? — and in that way he would be working for chowkidars. He would be, in other words, the meekest of the meek — but with the caste system in place. Are BJP leaders playing at competing humilities or competing hypocrisies? The prime minister had himself surrounded with cameras when he washed the feet of five sanitation workers at the Kumbh mela in Allahabad last month. No doubt he was bathing in their spiritual aura. He had said in 2007 that Valmikis — a caste this time — pursue their profession as a spiritual exercise. Far back in the mists of time — the prime minister is a bit sweeping about timelines — someone of their caste must have received enlightenment that cleaning up society’s waste was a quest of the spirit, because it was a task laid upon them by the gods. This is most confusing. Does social justice mean the perpetuation of systems inherited from BJP-recognized gods?