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Opinion
Mayawati is Letting Down Dalits and Uttar
Pradesh
by Amulya Ganguli
With each
passing episode, Mayawati is doing a disservice to herself. Her latest
decision to have Uttar Pradesh Congress president Rita Bahuguna Joshi
arrested for badmouthing her is another controversy which will highlight
her impetuousness.
Yet, perhaps for the first time, Mayawati had some reason on her side.
The Congress chief's allegations about the role played by money in
covering up rape cases were outrageous enough to shock several members
of her own party. But the chief minister spoilt her own case with her
penchant for overreaction.
If she had brought a charge of defamation against Joshi, there wouldn't
have been such a storm over the matter as at present. But, by arresting
her under the law for protecting Dalits, Mayawati has raised the
temperature to such an extent that a calm, logical approach is no longer
possible. The situation has been compounded by the arson attack on
Joshi's house in Lucknow.
It is entirely possible that Mayawati has created the furore on purpose.
She had shown a similar tendency to overstep the limits by having Varun
Gandhi of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) arrested under the draconian
National Security Act (NSA) for his anti-Muslim speeches during the
election campaign in April-May.
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader's preference for extreme measures
is explained by a desire to show her core group of supporters, the
Dalits, that she will go to any length to browbeat her opponents. By
doing so, she is telling the Dalits that the old days of their
oppression by the higher castes are over, and now that one of them is in
power she may use a sledgehammer to swat a fly.
Arguably, the Dalit tsarina has become even more aggressive because of
the growing belief that she is losing ground in Uttar Pradesh. After her
stunning victory in the 2007 assembly elections, she hasn't quite
fulfilled the promises of that time. Not only has the BSP's performance
in the recent parliamentary polls been well below par, Mayawati is
continually being dogged by unsavory controversies.
The most notable of them is her narcissistic habit of building statues
of herself alongside those of other Dalit leaders like B.R. Ambedkar and
her own mentor Kanshi Ram. The evident wastage of public money in a
palpably poor and backward state has attracted the Supreme Court's
attention (although it has refused to intervene) and made her an object
of ridicule among the chattering classes.
However, her object is evidently the same as the one which made her use
the NSA against Varun Gandhi, which drew the apex court's ire, and the
non-bailable Atrocities Act against Joshi -- to flex her administrative
muscle to buttress her political cause. The act was meant to protect
vulnerable Dalits, not to shield a powerful chief minister from verbal
abuse, however derogatory.
Mayawati's no-nonsense attitude would have earned more kudos if she had
shown an equal firmness in dealing with other law-breakers. But, by
accommodating notorious elements of the underworld in the BSP and by
even describing them as Robin Hoods, she has shaken her base of support,
especially the upper castes, which won her the last assembly election.
One of the reasons for the success of her rainbow coalition comprising
Dalits and Brahmins was the widespread disquiet prior to the polls
because of the prevailing lawlessness in Uttar Pradesh, which was
ascribed to the failures of the then ruling Samajwadi Party.
Mayawati's tough image made all sections of the people support her in
the expectation that she will crack down on the goons. But there has
been one disappointment after another. First, the murder of an engineer
who had resisted a collection drive for her lavish birthday parties
created shock waves in the state and outside. Then came the hanging of a
candidate for the parliamentary polls, who had apparently been "advised"
by the BSP to withdraw from the fray in its favor.
While factors such as these have been responsible for her sliding
popularity, the signs of revival of the previously moribund Congress
have clearly unnerved her. As much was evident from her castigation of
Rahul Gandhi's attempt to woo the Dalits with the obviously baseless
charge that he washed himself with a "special soap" after spending time
with members of the formerly untouchable community.
Joshi's arrest cannot be unrelated to Mayawati's fear that it is the
Congress which poses a greater challenge to her in Uttar Pradesh than
either the Bharatiya Janata Party or the Samajwadi Party. The return of
the Congress to power at the centre with greater strength than before
must have deepened her apprehensions that it may rebuild its old
Brahmin-Dalit-Muslim alliance.
Considering that Mayawati has little to show in the matter of
development in Uttar Pradesh in contrast to the much better show put up
in neighboring Bihar by the Janata Dal-United's Nitish Kumar, her fears
about the Congress's rising prospects are not unfounded. But, instead of
rectifying her mistakes, she has continued with her headstrong decision
to build more statues and indiscriminately use the laws meant for
specific use.
That her rainbow coalition is in tatters was evident from her post-poll
decision to disband the bhaichara or friendship committees which
had been constituted to encourage social harmony. Now, her emphasis is
only on the Dalits. The latest step is clearly meant to placate them.
But the Indian voters have shown more than once that they are not easily
deceived. Mayawati is likely to go down in history, therefore, as
another Dalit leader who failed.
(Amulya Ganguli is a political analyst. He can be reached at aganguli@mail.com)
July
19,
2009
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