Tags:
Journalism of Courage
IF Kalyan Singh does indeed come back to the BJP, it may be necessary to rewrite at lease one axiom. Henceforth, in geometry, saffron style, the shortest distance between two points will be a full circle. Kalyan, 70, was expelled from the BJP for six years in 2000, its most high-profile dissident ever. He walked out frothing at the mouth, calling the prime minister names, snorting at Lalji Tandon, the BJP leader seen as Atal Behari Vajpayee8217;s eyes and ears in Lucknow.
In the next three years, he weaved away from every tricky question on the Ramjanmabhoomi movement, took a few swipes at the RSS 8212; an organisation he had joined in the 1960s in Atrauli, his hometown near Aligarh 8212; founded his own party, joined hands with Mulayam Singh Yadav as a minor partner in a coalition government. Why, Kalyan even flirted with that once-dreaded s word 8212; secularism.
When Kalyan became the BJP8217;s first chief minister in the state in 1991, he brought with him a wealth of experience. He was a Jana Sangh MLA as early as 1967. Ten years later, he was a young minister 8212; as was Mulayam 8212; in Ram Naresh Yadav8217;s Janata government. By popular reckoning, Kalyan8217;s first year as chief minister was the state8217;s last experience with capable governance. Cracking down on criminal gangs that ran the kidnapping industry in western Uttar Pradesh and on institutional university exam fraud 8212; with an anti-copying law 8212; Kalyan won many friends.
There were others to whom, by the end of 1992, he had become a hate figure. The Babri Masjid was demolished during Kalyan8217;s chief ministry. Whatever his ideological convictions, he could never justify this fundamental breach of the rule of the law. The Supreme Court made its point when it sent him to prison for a day.
Kalyan8217;s second term as chief minister began in September 1997; this time it was less high drama, more low politics. When political ally Mayawati withdrew support, Kalyan split the BSP, making ministers of every defector as well as a host of fairly wild independents 8212; one of them, Raghuraj Pratap Singh, 8216;8216;Raja Bhaiyya8217;8217;, had once been awarded the sobriquet 8216;8216;Kunda ka gunda8217;8217; by Kalyan.
With almost a hundred ministers, Kalyan could only go downhill. His 8216;8216;friendship8217;8217; with Kusum Rai 8212; a political protegee he apparently wants to bring along as a part of a package rehabilitation deal with the BJP 8212; only added to the controversy. By the 1999 Lok Sabha election, when the BJP got about 20 votes fewer than it expected to in Uttar Pradesh, Kalyan8217;s fate was sealed. A dissident group, encouraged by Tandon and the ambitious Rajnath Singh, was another pinprick.
Kalyan didn8217;t help matters by deciding Vajpayee was a personal enemy. His removal and expulsion became an inevitability. A combination of bad man management in Delhi and an overblown ego in Lucknow in effect kayoed the BJP in Uttar Pradesh.
Talk of Kalyan rejoining the BJP was first heard in April. It was revived after Uma Bharti, a fellow Lodh who Kalyan sees as a 8216;8216;younger sister8217;8217;, won Madhya Pradesh for the party. The idea of an OBC figure getting an incremental vote seemed appealing. Kalyan was keen on a signal from Vajpayee and was publicly greeted by him in Lucknow this past week in, ironically, Tandon8217;s house. The party cadre is said to be ecstatic, Rajnath is said to be frowning.
Of course it is questionable if even Kalyan8217;s return from exile can revive the near comatose BJP in Uttar Pradesh, given parliamentary elections may be only weeks away. Social engineering worked a decade ago. Can reverse engineering ensure a re-run?
