Last week’s developments in the UP assembly were shocking for a variety of reasons. There was the extraordinary spectacle of Suresh Srivastava, an MLA officiating for the Speaker who had disappeared into his chamber, calling name after name to speak on the Motion of Thanks to the Governor’s speech. As the person got up to speak, the chair passed on to the next name, without allowing the first person to speak. After calling all the names, he declared, without looking up, in the din of protest from the “speakers”, that the Motion was passed since no one had wanted to speak.According to the rules—and these are written rules—the Motion of Thanks has to be discussed for at least four days. The vote on account, the supplementary Budget were similarly passed, and the no-confidence motion against the Mayawati Government negatived without any discussion or voting by a division, which the opposition demanded.The entire business was transacted in no more than half an hour, and the rest of the seven hours went in adjournments. These were provoked not by the opposition, which normally happens, but by the treasury benches. Mayawati’s original plan was obviously to get her MLAs to shout invectives at the opposition in the hope that they would stage a walkout and it would be easier to hustle through everything in their absence. This is a probably the first time in free India that the national anthem was not fully sung. All that could be heard in the din were the three words “Jana gana man”, followed by “Jai Hind”. The Budget session lasted for only one day. And the Chief Minister of UP is believed to have directed the entire operation. Mayawati was once accused of riding roughshod over her party legislators, or of transferring bureaucrats. But now, the perception is gaining ground that whatever she does, ride roughshod over her MLAs, distribute tickets or party symbols, or transfer uncomfortable officials, or even hand out a piece of cake on her birthday, it is all done for considerations of money. Those associated with the workings of the BSP will tell you that what the tapes reveal is commonplace in the party. She may invoke the old defence that she is being targeted because she is a Dalit. But the fact is that a chief minister is leader of all communities, not just the Dalits, however in need of justice they are.By her actions, Mayawati has united a divided opposition. Till the other day the Congress and the Samajwadi Party were calling each other names. Last week they sat on a dharna together in the assembly till past midnight. It is not as if the SP had planned to bring a no-confidence motion against Mayawati at this stage; it would have preferred to get its act together and then gone for the kill. But the Congress, which feels compelled to undo the damage done by the split Mayawati effected in its ranks, forced its hands. Importantly, Mayawati has lent credence to her opponents accusations that she is corrupt and dictatorial and has frittered away all the hopes reposed in her as the first Dalit woman chief minister of India.The BJP has also over reached. Mayawati may pick up sympathy amongst the Dalits, but this is not likely to be the case with the BJP. It will lose credibility with its constituents for sitting back and allowing her to dispense with established norms and conventions. As it is, a revolt has been brewing in a section of the BJP against her, and the party’s central leadership can put a lid on it only upto a point. The BJP is getting relegated to the third position in UP, and the results of the recent bypolls in Gaurigunj and Haidergarh were proof of this. The BJP leaders are silent in the hope of an alliance with her in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls. But they should not forget that Mayawati is a hard-headed politician. While she can transfer her Dalit votes to the BJP, it cannot transfer its votes to her. A three or four cornered contest in UP is to her benefit. That is why in the past, she has not shied away from ditching either the Congress or the BJP when the occasion arose.This is not to say that the other side is clean or mindful of democratic norms. The truth is that the malaise is deeper and UP politics has been marred by abuse of power for over a decade now.
