WHEN the BSP was in the process of forming its first government in UP in 1995, it was crystal clear who called the shots in the party. Mayawati headed the government but Kanshi Ram was The leader. The fortunes of Mayawati and the BSP in UP have been on the rise ever since.Today it is clear Ram is no longer The leader, he is just another party leader who is required to go by the decisions of Mayawati. The drubbing the party received in the recent assembly elections in Punjab, Ram’s home state, only added to his marginalisation. Perhaps, Ram too knows it. By the standards in Indian politics, 69 is not exactly the age for retirement. And in Mayawati, the party has a far more charismatic leader who can work crowds. With the party tasting power in Lucknow twice, the old style networks are not needed to attract men and money. In short, there isn’t much need for Kanshi Ram; the politics he invented alone is needed. It is his politics that has made Ram unique. His politics inverts everything that is conventional in Indian politics. If the Congress raised its leadership from the dominant castes and looked to the oppressed for votes, the BSP positioned itself as a bahujan party willing to give tickets to upper castes. If the conventional Dalit politics stressed on a strong ideological content, Ram refused to discuss ideology. Power, according to him, was the ideology. Once power is within grasp, social structures could be changed. End justifies means. For the sake of power any sort of alliances could be formed. You could fight ‘‘Manuwadi’’ parties (read the BJP) but could form a government with its support. To give him his due, Ram has always kept the question of alliances open ever since he entered politics with the BAMCEF (Backward and Minority Communities Employees Federation). The son of a Sikh Ravidas from Punjab, his political initiation was in Pune where he worked at the Ammunitions Factory, Kirkee. Ambedkar literature introduced him to politics and after a brief stint with the Republican Party he formed the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and Minorities Employees Welfare Association in 1971. Based in Pune, the organisation was limited to addressing the problems of the employees. That the organisation grew quickly is evident from the fact that its first annual conference was addressed by Babu Jagjivan Ram, the then Defence Minister. The BAMCEF was formed two years later as a national platform for Scheduled Caste government employees. It was to be a ‘‘brain bank, talent bank, and a financial bank of the oppressed and exploited society to move its mission ahead’’. While retaining the identity of BAMCEF as a trade union to promote the interests of Scheduled Caste government employees, Ram formed DS4 (Dalit Shoshit Samaj Sangharsh Samiti) which in ’84 was renamed as the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). The BSP first entered the electoral fray fielding Maywati in a parliament by-election from UP in 1985. When Ram captured over 18 per cent votes in the landmark Allahabad by-election which was won by V P Singh, the political spectrum knew the BSP was here to stay. The absence of a concrete political agenda weakened the BSP in states other than UP. In UP, however, the BSP under Mayawati’s brand of alliance politics increased its vote share with every election. Elsewhere, politics is still two-party based. And BSP’s refusal to have alliances as in Punjab only led to its decline. And alongwith it Kanshi Ram’s positions as the undisputed leader of the party. He is still the chief, but everyone knows who the boss is.
