Maya jaal

It was a tawdry sight as Mayawati8217;s flock forces successive adjournments in the Lok Sabha, baying for Union minister Jagmohan8217;s sc...

It was a tawdry sight as Mayawati8217;s flock forces successive adjournments in the Lok Sabha, baying for Union minister Jagmohan8217;s scalp. The climax of a sorry drama starring a misconceived project and a government on the run.

Ever since the Taj Heritage Corridor project was bared by an alert media, everyone has wondered how the monumental folly reached the stage it did. Just who sanctioned those criminally tasteless plans to construct a shopping complex in the vicinity of one of the world8217;s most beautiful monuments in the first place?

Just what was the Uttar Pradesh government doing anyway? On her part, Chief Minister Mayawati has been furiously trying out scapegoats. It was one unfortunate bureaucrat, her former secretary of environment, who was wholly responsible and must be suspended forthwith, earlier this month. It was Union Minister for Tourism and Culture Jagmohan now. He was guilty, presumably, for not having held the state government8217;s hand before it could sanction the crime. He was also guilty, Mayawati screamed, of a grand design to destabilise her government, and BJP-BSP relations, too.

Sorry, Behenji, the glove did not fit, again. It stretches the credulity to believe that the chief minister of the state was the last to know of construction activities so impossible to keep under wraps. It carries even less weight that the Union minister and the Archaeological Survey of India should be the one to take the rap for something that happened under the UP government8217;s nose.

And then there8217;s the in-your-face normlessness of Mayawati8217;s tirade. The press conference in Lucknow, to read out for all to hear the contents of a letter she has written to the prime minister, before he has a chance to respond. The attempt to bully and blackmail in Parliament even while a CBI inquiry into the case is in progress, ordered by the Supreme Court.

There is obviously more to this mess than meets the eye. The unfolding drama has much to do with the turbulent state of always-rocky BJP-BSP relations in the coalition government they run in UP. As if on cue, a group of BJP MLAs from UP have reiterated their demand for the BJP leadership to snap its ties with the BSP.

It is also not incidental that all of this is playing out in an election year. With four crucial assembly elections later this year, and the general elections coming up next year, Mayawati is checking out her room for manoeuvre in the alliance with the BJP. Atal Bihari Vajpayee did well to immediately rule out all possibility of Jagmohan8217;s resignation. It was his firmness that probably forced her to back down for now. Even in coalition politics, especially in coalition politics, it pays to draw the line.