Quota unquote

In her third letter to the prime minister in as many days,Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati has asked that Jats be included in the Central list of OBCs (other backward classes) so they could benefit from reservations. Her previous letters contained similar petitions for quotas for Muslims and for the economically weak amongst the upper castes. With the state slated to elect a new assembly in less than a year,her demands will inevitably be scrutinised for her electoral strategy. Is she panicking from the aftermath of the scam in the UP health department,or the flutter over land acquisition in the fast-urbanising environs on the outskirts of Delhi? Is it simply a way of changing the subject? Or,is this a confident offensive to rejig the grand social coalition that brought her BSP to power on its own in the summer of 2007?

Perhaps its a mix of all of the above. Mayawati and her party stand at a new political juncture,and they go into the battle for UP in 2012 with their old formulas now obsolete. The BSP founder,Kanshi Ram,had nuanced the skill of forging political coalitions so they were configured for instability,so that each time the BSP split from its ally the SP,BJP,even Congress it did so with a bigger vote base. That phase drew to a close in 2007,when Mayawati took the sting out of social confrontationism that had earlier informed the partys rhetoric and built a grand and inclusive sarva samaj coalition from her Dalit and Muslim base and successfully reached out to the upper and middle castes. It is interesting,therefore,that these petitions for quotas for different segments of that 2007 social coalition which the Congress managed to pick into in the 2009 general elections are being given a class character,thereby taking the aam admi fight right to the Congress. (And the Congress leads the government at the Centre,which is being obliged to respond to these petitions for affirmative action.)

Besides,in contrast to the combativeness and cries of betrayal that fuelled the electoral campaigns after her previous,short stints as CM,this time she will go into the campaign after having served a full term. That is,she must calmly make a positive case for re-election. In doing so,she could set the coordinates for the campaign.