In the tumultuous times when a surly and united opposition against the Congresss huge parliamentary majority was growing in the late 80s,the definitive election was the one that launched V.P. Singh firmly as the oppositions centre of gravity.
Allahabad,vacated after the resignation of Amitabh Bachchan,went to the polls in a bypoll on June 16,1988. What made news was how Sunil Shastri of the Congress got just 23 per cent of the vote and Singh,an independent backed by the opposition,got 52 per cent. A third candidate,Kanshi Ram,was not discussed much. He got 10 per cent of the vote and launched his Bahujan Samaj Party in the sense of a national election. Kanshi Rams credo of you cant win elections on our votes was the beginning of a completely different language in north Indian politics,whereby acquiring power was hailed as an event in itself.
Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu already had strong social movements against caste oppression,but it was mostly about reforming Hindu society (by extreme means,as in the case of Periyars Justice Party or,as in Ambedkars case,renouncing caste-ridden Hinduism was the focus). In Kerala,reform was at the back of strong Left politics. But what Kanshi Ram hoped to do was to turn Dalits into a focused vote base,a political force which did not help bring others to power or promote Congress-style patronage politics. The BSP spoke unabashedly of our own leaders reaching the top and wielding power.
The word Harijan (children of God) was therefore seen as patronising. The BSP was not meant to be a Gandhian enterprise or a Left-oriented one (no call for levelling inequalities) but making sure that Dalits had their say forcefully in fulfilling their potential and as deciders of their own destiny. The Bahujan (majority) was the subaltern,seeking justice in a different sense from the way leftists or prevailing Gandhian wisdom in the Congress saw the plot.
The BSP,from having aligned with the SP in 1993 and then the BJP thrice in the state has always boasted of a solid and transferable vote base,something they guard being stolen away from them. In 2007,Mayawati used her vote base to build bottom-up a social coalition fuelled by anti-incumbency against the SP government,and took power in Indias largest state on her own. Complacency about the voter base did lead to expensive flirtations with other castes in 2009 when Mayawati pitched to the upper castes the lure of her basic vote share,which,when added to by the votes of the community of the candidate standing on her ticket,could often race first past the post.
Now,25 years on,Mayawati must hope to further refresh her politics or what the BSP stands for. The times are different. The power or punch in what her mentor Kanshi Ram used to say in closed door meetings or in legendary Boat Club rallies in Delhi must be somewhat mellowed now,as the Dalit ki beti occupies power and must reconcile her language of being the underdog and the oppressed with the fact of being in power,and satisfying expectations that generates.
Today Mayawati is guarded,cautious and just a little circumspect about her flock. In the garland controversy,her admirers of course make some valid points about the issue being needlessly picked up on,despite the fact that other parties accept hefty corporate donations or are seen making donations to temples which pass off without comment. Clearly,she senses in this an opportunity to return to her core vote,but is also keen on getting rid of those who failed to manage the adverse publicity around it
(like her publicity-in-charge in the UP government).
The BSP has been one of the most dynamic political forces in the country. It has not hesitated to make and then switch alliances,shock former allies,go into several Lok Sabha polls without a manifesto. Its had the confidence of its committed voter base,to build and establish a new symbolism around its leadership and idols and has not even hesitated to attack the Father of the Nation when required shedding the austere khadi or kurta-pyjama,de rigueur in Indian politics at one point,even before the Congress did. But as it crosses the 25-year mark,it is redefining what it stands for.
The BSP,founded on a distinct identity platform,especially the identity of the sub-caste that is Mayawatis and comprises the majority of Dalits in UP,faces a challenge today as its Dalit-plus strategy seems to have peaked with the upper castes having found a way out and with the Muslim vote too weighing different options. The romance of a Dalit woman occupying the UP CMs chair was enhanced earlier by the fact of her rapidly terminated stints at power. In her third stint though,an unhindered run,she is rapidly running out of excuses.
So far,Kanshi Rams blueprint,the organisational base painstakingly set up by him,has worked for her,except that there was perhaps no framework laid down for what must be done once the holy grail (power in this case) was found. And devising a plan for what to do when in power is what Mayawati must do now. This is why the run-up to the 2012 assembly election requires a different pitch.
In neighbouring Bihar,she has an example of a chief minister,Nitish Kumar,who combined identity politics (mining and scouring the state for new social groups who could be welded into a political support base) with the promise of development for all. It will be interesting to see if she has the imagination and dexterity to morph out of her own statue figures cast in stone that tower over UPs crumbling skyline today.
seema.chishti@expressindia.com
