<!--QuoteBegin-k.ram+May 16 2007, 01:23 PM-->QUOTE(k.ram @ May 16 2007, 01:23 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Dalit leaders shaken by BSP's victory</b>
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On the Spot - Tavleen Singh
Crumbling castles
Thursday, May 17, 2007 11:10:6 IST<span style='color:blue'>
Whichever coalition wins the next general election will have to be one that includes Mayawati directly in line to become Indiaâs next prime minister</span>
for :
Mayawati's stunning victory in Uttar Pradesh has changed Indian politics more dramatically than any other event since the government led by Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh came to power three years ago. Elections in divided, lawless, desperately poor U.P. are always important because of it being our largest and most populous state but its hard to remember an election that was more significant than this one. Not just because U.P. got it's first majority government in fourteen years. The significance, in my view, lies in the crumbling of the political castles in the air that both our national parties were building. They crumbled so totally that neither the Bharatiya Janata Party nor Congress are certain of their strategy for the Lok Sabha elections in 2009. In this hot, hot summer in Delhi this new political crisis adds to the heat.
The U.P. election was a practice run, a rehearsal for the general election, in which both our main political parties revealed their future plans. The BJP showed that it planned to return to a Hindutva hardline by using Islamist terrorism and Mulayam Singh's so-called 'minority appeasement' to target Muslims. In the past this strategy has helped consolidate the Hindu vote and bring the BJP to power not just in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh but at the Centre. In the three years that it has been out of office in Delhi BJP leaders have shown themselves unable to come up witha single new idea so they have returned to the only card they appear to have in their hand. This time the Hindu card was played crudely and repugnantly in the form of a CD that reviled Muslims so openly the BJP had to disown it but party leaders continued to strut around as if they were going to decide the future of U.P. and then India.
Misled by opinion polls that gave them nearly as many seats as Mayawati and Mulayam Singh BJP leaders in Delhi were beginning to discuss their choice of the next Prime Minister. In BJP President, Rajnath Singh, there was a visible, new arrogance manifested in the magnanimity with which he pronounced that L.K. Advani would be the party's choice for Prime Minister. If the U.P. results are an indication the BJP is not going to be in any position to dictate this
choice if the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) wins the next election. Even if it emerges as single largest party it may have to
compromise on a candidate from one of the smaller parties if it gets fewer seats than it currently has in the Lok Sabha. In U.P. it lost 50 assembly seats.
Distorted perspective
For Congress the news from U.P. is even more depressing. It never expected to win the election in U.P. but campaign managers banked on winning enough seats to become part of a coalition led by Mayawati. Not only did this option not present itself but the party's trump card, the Prince, turned out to be a dud. Ever since Sonia Gandhi's dynastic appeal brought the party back to power in Delhi in 2004, the party has relied on dynasty to win them the next general election with a convincing majority. This dream relied on Rahul Gandhi's ability to become the next Rajiv Gandhi. When viewed from the distorted perspective of Delhi Rahul looked good. In between phases of U.P's seemingly endless election I found myself of a hot and sultry evening at a dinner party in a Delhi drawing room. Here I ran into a well-known power lady and political columnist and when I commented on the stupidity of Rahul's Babri Masjid statement she said archly, 'Don't underestimate him I think he is a combination of Rajiv and Sanjay'. By this she hopefully meant Rajiv's charm and Sanjay's ruthlessness (not in reverse) and there were others who spoke this way.
Rahul looked so good to the media that he made the front pages of Most newspapers through the campaign. He gave interviews and traveled with groups of adoring hacks and when the U.P. election was covered in the international press it was nearly always with a picture of Rahul Gandhi in accompaniment.By contrast there was almost not a single interview with Mayawati. Everyone said she was ahead of the others but nobody imagined she would win a full majority. <b>
This visible blindness may have something to do with the media's aversion to Mayawati and she to the 'manuwadi' media. I interviewed her once for a television programme and the interview nearly ended in disaster because I asked her views on Gandhiji in view of her comment that if Gandhiji thought of Dalits as Harijans (children of God) then did he think of upper castes as children of the Devil. </b>I consider the comment valid but she walked out of the interview before I could explain. She is needlessly prickly but the media has been less than fair to her. She is no more corrupt than most other Indian politicians, no more ostentatious and no more ineffectual but always painted as worse. That is the other change that she has wrought by winning the U.P. election, from being just another Indian politician she is now the most important chief minister in the country and the most powerful woman politician. Whichever coalition wins the next general election will have to be one that includes her and this puts her directly in line to become India's next prime minister. Funny, isn't it, what a change one little election can make.
[right][snapback]68888[/snapback][/right]
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
On the Spot - Tavleen Singh
Crumbling castles
Thursday, May 17, 2007 11:10:6 IST<span style='color:blue'>
Whichever coalition wins the next general election will have to be one that includes Mayawati directly in line to become Indiaâs next prime minister</span>
for :
Mayawati's stunning victory in Uttar Pradesh has changed Indian politics more dramatically than any other event since the government led by Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh came to power three years ago. Elections in divided, lawless, desperately poor U.P. are always important because of it being our largest and most populous state but its hard to remember an election that was more significant than this one. Not just because U.P. got it's first majority government in fourteen years. The significance, in my view, lies in the crumbling of the political castles in the air that both our national parties were building. They crumbled so totally that neither the Bharatiya Janata Party nor Congress are certain of their strategy for the Lok Sabha elections in 2009. In this hot, hot summer in Delhi this new political crisis adds to the heat.
The U.P. election was a practice run, a rehearsal for the general election, in which both our main political parties revealed their future plans. The BJP showed that it planned to return to a Hindutva hardline by using Islamist terrorism and Mulayam Singh's so-called 'minority appeasement' to target Muslims. In the past this strategy has helped consolidate the Hindu vote and bring the BJP to power not just in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh but at the Centre. In the three years that it has been out of office in Delhi BJP leaders have shown themselves unable to come up witha single new idea so they have returned to the only card they appear to have in their hand. This time the Hindu card was played crudely and repugnantly in the form of a CD that reviled Muslims so openly the BJP had to disown it but party leaders continued to strut around as if they were going to decide the future of U.P. and then India.
Misled by opinion polls that gave them nearly as many seats as Mayawati and Mulayam Singh BJP leaders in Delhi were beginning to discuss their choice of the next Prime Minister. In BJP President, Rajnath Singh, there was a visible, new arrogance manifested in the magnanimity with which he pronounced that L.K. Advani would be the party's choice for Prime Minister. If the U.P. results are an indication the BJP is not going to be in any position to dictate this
choice if the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) wins the next election. Even if it emerges as single largest party it may have to
compromise on a candidate from one of the smaller parties if it gets fewer seats than it currently has in the Lok Sabha. In U.P. it lost 50 assembly seats.
Distorted perspective
For Congress the news from U.P. is even more depressing. It never expected to win the election in U.P. but campaign managers banked on winning enough seats to become part of a coalition led by Mayawati. Not only did this option not present itself but the party's trump card, the Prince, turned out to be a dud. Ever since Sonia Gandhi's dynastic appeal brought the party back to power in Delhi in 2004, the party has relied on dynasty to win them the next general election with a convincing majority. This dream relied on Rahul Gandhi's ability to become the next Rajiv Gandhi. When viewed from the distorted perspective of Delhi Rahul looked good. In between phases of U.P's seemingly endless election I found myself of a hot and sultry evening at a dinner party in a Delhi drawing room. Here I ran into a well-known power lady and political columnist and when I commented on the stupidity of Rahul's Babri Masjid statement she said archly, 'Don't underestimate him I think he is a combination of Rajiv and Sanjay'. By this she hopefully meant Rajiv's charm and Sanjay's ruthlessness (not in reverse) and there were others who spoke this way.
Rahul looked so good to the media that he made the front pages of Most newspapers through the campaign. He gave interviews and traveled with groups of adoring hacks and when the U.P. election was covered in the international press it was nearly always with a picture of Rahul Gandhi in accompaniment.By contrast there was almost not a single interview with Mayawati. Everyone said she was ahead of the others but nobody imagined she would win a full majority. <b>
This visible blindness may have something to do with the media's aversion to Mayawati and she to the 'manuwadi' media. I interviewed her once for a television programme and the interview nearly ended in disaster because I asked her views on Gandhiji in view of her comment that if Gandhiji thought of Dalits as Harijans (children of God) then did he think of upper castes as children of the Devil. </b>I consider the comment valid but she walked out of the interview before I could explain. She is needlessly prickly but the media has been less than fair to her. She is no more corrupt than most other Indian politicians, no more ostentatious and no more ineffectual but always painted as worse. That is the other change that she has wrought by winning the U.P. election, from being just another Indian politician she is now the most important chief minister in the country and the most powerful woman politician. Whichever coalition wins the next general election will have to be one that includes her and this puts her directly in line to become India's next prime minister. Funny, isn't it, what a change one little election can make.