Samatha India

(Siddhartha Kumar)

Source: www.centralchronicle.com

Column
Mayawati fears
Even those who do not subscribe to her brand of politics that they
find opaque, brash and frenzied, probably admire her for the
single-mindedness with which the Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati
has been pursing her ever-rising ambitions. The ‘Dalit ki Beti’ has
now re-christened and promoted herself as the ‘Bharat ki Beti’ after
laying claim to the job of prime minister of India. Having become
chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous and politically
the most important state, four times there is nothing that can prevent
her from becoming the prime minister of the country of one billion
plus people. She probably thinks she will achieve her goal in less
than a year from now.
That is why at a party rally in Lucknow Mayawati (52) said that she
has already chosen a successor in UP. She did not disclose the name of
the person, who, she said, is ’18 to 20 years’ younger than her. The
suspense about the name of her successor would keep her followers agog
with excitement and expectation though knowing the ways of Indian
politicians it might also have been a wrong strategy to openly
eliminate some of the more obvious aspirants in her party for the job
she currently holds in UP. The country is expected to elect the next
Lok Sabha by next summer, though the possibilities of an earlier poll
cannot still be ruled out. From now onwards slogans supporting the
elevation of the ‘daughter of India’ to the most important executive
job in the country will be heard with increasing crescendo as also
panegyrics from those who are wonderstruck by the extraordinary story
of her rise from an ordinary, poor Dalit home to the number one star
status in Indian politics. There will always be some-call them
sceptics or even ‘casteists’- who would like Mayawati to be subjected
to a closer examination when she-or anyone else– is seen as a serious
contender for the ‘Bharat ki Gaddi’.
The intense scrutiny of the Congress president Sonia Gandhi by her
political rivals forced her to ‘sacrifice’ the prime ministerial post
in 2004 and push Manmohan Singh up. In recent years perhaps the only
politician who managed to pass the pre-poll scrutiny for the country’s
number one job was Atal Bihari Vajpayee. On the other hand things have
not been so smooth for his chosen successor. Many in and out of the
Bharatiya Janata Party are putting the party’s ‘Lauh Purush’, styled
as ‘prime minister in waiting’, through the microscope. His
credibility as a ‘secular’ leader who can bind the various communities
and keep the country’s pluralistic character intact has been
questioned as also his politics that allow him (and his party) to take
partisan stand on issues like the N-word (Indo-US civilian nuclear
agreement). Advani’s ambiguous views on the progenitor of Pakistan
probably still rankle not so much in the wider ‘secular’ polity as
within his own Sangh Parivar. After the civilian nuclear debate and
the subsequent BJP threat to derail economic reforms many have found
the BJP and its leader presenting two faces.
Advani may have, for reasons of political expediency, revised his
views on some of the important economic and political issues,
including matters foreign, but at least the man does now and then talk
about them in public. And there can be no doubt that he understands
and studies issues, as any senior leader of a national party must.
‘Behn’ Mayawati must surely be as much interested in issues
confronting the nation as Advani or any other political leader for
that matter. But she has exercised great parsimony in articulating
them in public. People are not aware how deep is her interest and,
more importantly, grasp over a range of domestic and international
issues that as prime minister will surely demand her attention. She
resents being dubbed a ‘dictator’ but most of the BSP leaders who
parted company with her have been dwelling on the way she gave them
the short shrift. No political party in India practices internal
democracy but in Mayawati’s party there is more centralisation than in
other parties in almost everything, from the choice of candidates for
various polls to appointments in the organisation.
Her belief in the cult of the individual is rather extreme. The most
elaborate theme in nearly all her speeches has been the message that
there is a ‘conspiracy’ against her hatched by the ‘casteists’
parties, the Congress and the BJP, to stop her from reaching the acme
of a politician’s career. In fact, this grave message is delivered as
though the tragedy is about to befall. Mayawati also says that she may
be ‘killed’ for challenging the ‘casteists’ in the prime ministerial
race or sent to jail in the Disproportionate Assets (DA) case for the
same reason. These emotional outbursts of hers are bound to generate a
sympathy wave and implant an impression that the ‘casteist’ rulers
cannot see the rise of a Dalit. Politicians in India other than those
belonging to the BSP will have to be particularly daft if they did not
realise that they cannot ignore the Dalit factor or be cavalier
towards them.
Perhaps Mayawati’s point of reference to the alleged death threat to
her is an incident of 1995 in Lucknow when, as she says, some
Samajwadi Party members had tried to ‘kill’ her. If the threat was
genuine the right thing for her would have been to knock at the door
of justice, if not in UP then in Delhi. Now she has all the power in
UP and it will not be impossible for agencies in UP to probe her
accusation and punish the guilty. As for the DA case, Mayawati’s
stated explanation that all the wealth that she is accused of amassing
in the last few years is actually ‘gift’ from her fawning fans and
supporters needs to be more convincing. It is quite likely that she
did not ‘demand’ expensive gifts and these were offered out of
affection and respect for her, as she claims. But public figures when
showered with wealth are usually expected to utilise it for the party.
By her own admission she or her family members are the owners of many
of the ‘disproportionate’ physical assets-mentioned in the CBI charge
sheet, not the BSP.
If the charges against her are fabricated and not true she has
certainly lesser reasons to fear about any ‘conspiracy’ against her.
The CBI may hold her guilty but she can certainly expect fair
treatment from the nation’s judicial system. There are instances when
charges against many prominent public figures accused of amassing
wealth through unfair means have been found to be false and, at any
rate, did not result in murder or harming the career of the person
concerned. She should be familiar with their names.
Tukoji R Pandit, Syndicate Features