An unholy alliance

The argument that the Bahujan constitute 85 per cent population of the country has had a tremendous impact on the minds of the people. The BSP has now entered into power in Uttar Pradesh with the BJP — the same Manuwadi party the BSP termed ‘Naganath’, the real enemy of Dalits. Relationships in politics are impermanent but this cynical approach will not work with the Dalits because for them political power is a means of social transformation. Dalits supported the BSP primarily to fight social tyranny — it is therefore expected to behave differently from other political parties.

The most crucial issue that needs to be examined here is this: what are the circumstances in which this particular juxtaposition of forces took place? Of course, there is little doubt that now that Mayawati has become chief minister, Dalit employees and officers in the state will find themselves in a more comfortable position. Welfare schemes will be geared up and there will be a decline in atrocities against Dalits. And, yes, the new dispensation will provide psychological strength to Dalits. But all this at what cost?

Think of the present political juncture when even the NDA’s allies have started frowning at Narendra Modi’s tyrannical rule in Gujarat. But the BSP has kept quiet; Mayawati has to be seen to support the BJP. After the debacle in Punjab, Uttaranchal and UP, the BJP has started rethinking its agenda. The bloodbath and specific targeting of Muslims the Modi government presided over in Gujarat is the first indication of this paradigm shift. Ironically, Mayawati got her chance to come to power precisely because the TDP, responding to its own Muslim supporters, had hardened its own stand on Gujarat. In the moment that Naidu struck, the BSP gave a new lease of life to the BJP. In other words, the sangh parivar was once again comfortable enough to carry on with its divisive agenda of perpetrating hatred, violence and slander against Muslims, Christians, Dalits and the poor. Can Mayawati’s chief ministership compensate for the price that has to be paid for this manifestation of a deadlier communalism?

The Department of Personnel and Training had issued five anti-reservation orders in 1997 and the All India Confederation of SC/ST Organisations, could with great effort get three of these orders withdrawn. The struggle is in progress to protect reservations and to bring them into the private sector. The higher judiciary is bent upon diluting reservation. The government at the Centre is killing reservation under the garb of economic liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation. The sale of public sector undertakings at throwaway prices is not only doing away with reservation but is plundering the Indian economy as well. The government recently managed to get the new Constitution draft submitted. The intention of such a move was to subvert the Constitution created by B.R. Ambedkar, that guarantees reservation to Dalits and protects the social-cultural rights of minorities.

The BSP has never bothered about these life and death issues concerning the Dalits in particular, and the nation in general. With the BSP joining the BJP front, it would be easier for the latter to obliterate such rights. Even if a Dalit becomes the prime minister, it cannot match the benefits of reservation. It is only reservation which has helped about four million Dalits enter government service. Could K.R. Narayanan, the president of India, do much for Dalits even though he was one himself?

There are certain interests and rights which can either be achieved by coming to power with like-minded forces, or on one’s own. Both conditions are not satisfied in the case of the BSP coming to power with the BJP.

What has been discussed here so far is with respect to Dalits. But the recent developments in UP have ramifications for the entire country. Can the BSP stop the Hindutva programmes of the parivar? Can it guarantee that the parivar will not pursue a Gujarat-type experiment elsewhere? Can it check infiltration of the parivar into public institutions? How can saffronisation of education be halted when the new coalition in UP will boost the BJP’s morale?

Dalits will now distrust anyone who appears to stand for their interests as the BSP appeared to have done. Today, the intelligentsia among the Dalits is already frustrated, although the illiterate and semi-literate are still not completely disillusioned. We will have to see for how long this charade continues, for how people allow themselves to be fooled. The BSP-BJP alliance will also create a crisis for other movements and leaders who hope to gain the confidence and support of the minorities and most backward castes. The Muslims played a significant role in building the BSP movement and helped it to come to power in collaboration with the Samajwadi Party. When the BSP got 13 seats in the UP Assembly in 1989, the leader of the party in the House was from the Muslim community. In this election, they were given more tickets by the BSP than by any other party. The BSP tally increased not because of Dalit votes but because of Muslim and upper caste support. Leaders like Mulayam Singh Yadav suffered as a result. The Muslim community may end up paying a very high price for the support it has extended to Mayawati. But it has only itself to blame. It should have realised that if the BSP could have formed a government with the BJP in the past, it can do so again.

Political power is a must. But at what cost? Is it for personal gain? Is it in conformity with the ideology of the party? In the short term, opportunistic alliances may appear to pay dividends but the larger Dalit cause will suffer as a consequence.

The writer is chairman, All India Confederation of SC/ST Organisations