The Standpoint

THE IRON EFFECT

By

Shubham Bose

Off late the political winds in the country’s most populous and the politically important state of Uttar Pradesh have had a definite “Maya-anti-Maya” direction, the Rita Bahugna Joshi incident being the latest in a series of similar skirmishes for the beleaguered UP Chief Minister.

Also the center’s proposed relief package for the parched Bundel khand region of the state is seen by many as the Congress capitalizing on Rahul Gandhi’s charm and its win in the General Elections 2009. This has also added to Mayawati’s woes, who sees this as an encroachment on her core territory.

This latest development has put Mayawati in a spot, already under fire for overt display of power, megalomania and inept handling of the “rainbow coalition” of Brahmins and Dalits which propelled her and her party to power in the UP assembly elections in 2007.

In the immediate aftermath of the 2007 victory wherein BSP secured an absolute majority in a state known for caste sensitivities and fractured mandates in elections, a number of quarters hailed Mayawati’s resounding success as proof of the peoples’ faith in democracy and keeping their caste considerations aside in a hope of good governance.

Flushed with victory Mayawati did undertake some popular measures like improving the Law and Order situation in the state, already in shambles during Mulayam Yadav’s reign. A case in point is the discontinuation of the Student Union Elections in varsities across the state. These Student Unions were being used by the previous regime as political nurseries, which had polluted the academic atmosphere in the universities. A number of similar measures were also undertaken.

However Mayawati’s problems began during the nuclear trust vote in the aftermath of the Left withdrawing support from the UPA government. The Left leaders desperately trying to remain relevant in the scheme of things teamed up with Mayawati and other regional political heavyweights like Jayalalitha, this was also the Nth attempt to form the “third front” a political fable spun around to team up powerful regional entities.

However the third front didn’t invoke much confidence among the electorate which viewed it as group of convenience formed by ambitious and powerful regional satraps keen on projecting power on the national stage, but not really well knit on the whole. However it did raise hackles both within the UPA and the NDA during and after the trust vote.

Consequently a bogey of “Maya as PM” was raised and Mayawati who herself was keen on projecting the same played along. Unfortunately for Mayawati it was bad timing at its worse, the press and the civil society which constitutes the opinion making class tore into her, which spooked the urban middle class enough to support the UPA and the young and suave Rahul Gandhi as opposed to the loud and brash Mayawati. In the subsequent general elections Mayawati suffered a major setback when it gained only 20 seats as opposed to the congress total of 21 and the pre election projection of more than 40 seats out of the total 80 seats in UP.

Partly a reason for mayawati’s poll debacle was an exodus of Dalit votes to congress. Politics is perception and the perception among the Dalits of UP was that Mayawati has diluted the party’s core philosophy and is gravitating towards the Brahmins in order to capture power.

The recent debates about Mayawati have been about her megalomaniac streak and how power has gone to her head, so much so that she is blowing up public money in glorifying herself than actually using it for public welfare. The structures that have come up in Lucknow and elsewhere in the state at an astronomical cost to the exchequer have put Lucknow in the dubious company of cities like Pyongyang and Baghdad, the bastions of totalitarian states. This has undoubtedly made Mayawati unpopular, at least among the urban middle class which also provides the average mean voter the “aam aadmi”

Mayawati is however too shrewd a politician to actually do anything without an eye on its political costs and returns/repercussions. She now understands that instead of forging alliances, she needs to keep her core group intact and project herself as the queen.

Consequently she has shorn herself of all political alliances and reverted back to the original Dalit/ Bahujan formula. As a result she has justified her apparent megalomania by associating it with Dalit pride and the utter lack of any Dalit symbols in the Indian political landscape. Further she as attacked her detractors by saying that the memorials built in Lucknow have come up at a fraction of the cost incurred in building and maintaining the non Dalit memorials in Delhi.

She has cleverly scuttled all rumors of Satish Chandra Mishra (a Brahmin and Mayawati’s political right hand) being nominated her successor. This is intended at giving a fillip to her Dalit credentials while steadily holding on to the upper castes (particularly Brahmin) support.

This common thread of Dalit appeasement can also be seen in the Rita Bahugna episode wherein Mayawati slapped the state congress chief with SC/ST act and had her arrested for the derogatory remarks the former made against the UP CM. The “Iron Lady” also allegedly got Rita Bahugna’s Lucknow house burnt.

The casteist and derogatory remarks that Bahugna made has sent the Congress scurrying for cover and in damage control mode. Also this is seen as a setback to the congress and a political breakthrough for Mayawati.

As to how far these initiatives would go only time and the next election would tell, but Mayawati will steadfastly and single mindedly pursue her goal of being the Prime Minister of this country.