02-09-2009, 03:54 AM
Kalyan Singh, sonburnt
Chandan Mitra
At the BJP National Executive meeting at Nagpur, erstwhile UP strongman Kalyan Singh was an object of ridicule rather than hate. âHe is the political equivalent of Chand Mohammad aka Chander Mohan. Na ghar ka na ghat ka (neither here nor there),â quipped a senior leader to widespread merriment. Journalists regaled politicians about his myriad outbursts against select party leaders in recent months. It was a sea change from the National Council meeting in Lucknow in 2006 just before the UP Assembly elections of 2007. He had then returned to the party after some years of estrangement during which the doughty mass leader was dethroned as Chief Minister and then sufficiently sidelined for him to float his own outfit, the Rashtriya Kranti Party. The fledgling entity contested the 2002 polls in alliance with Mulayam Singhâs Samajwadi Party and despite not making a significant mark in terms of seats, damaged the BJPâs prospects in over 20 seats.
Later when Mulayam Singh returned to power after yet another failed BJP cohabitation with Mayawati, Kalyanâs MLAs were rewarded with some crumbs of office too. But he realised the futility of dissociation from the party he had once led to spectacular victories: In 1991, the BJP stormed into power with 212 seats in the 425-member (undivided) UP Assembly and notched up a staggering 51 out of 85 Lok Sabha seats, a tally that rose to 57 (plus three allies) in 1998, although it fell steeply to 26 in 1999. With the prodigalâs return in 2006, BJP was confident of repeating the magic, but its tally crashed to an abysmal 50 in the Assembly. Earlier, it found itself reduced to third place in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls winning just 10 seats, barely ahead of a long-crippled Congress.
The 2007 result conclusively proved Kalyan Singh no longer held the magic wand. Even his son, Rajvir, could not win from the family fiefdom of Dibai in Aligarh district, a seat traditionally held by his father way before BJP became a force to reckon with in the State. In 2004, the patriarch himself was in jitters on counting day, as Bulandshahr appeared to slip out of his hands. With some timely help from Mulayam, he managed to scrape through with a narrow margin of 12,000 votes.
This statistical background is important because it underlines not just Kalyan Singhâs declining importance and the concomitant downslide in the BJPâs electoral fortunes, but also the gradual erosion of the Ram Janmabhoomi Movementâs appeal in the State of the abiding Hindu iconâs origin. However, the emotional basis of Kalyanâs acceptability was centred on the legend of Ram.
It was LK Advaniâs genius that saw the political potential of creating a nationwide movement structured on the powerful iconography of the God-King of Ayodhya, but it was left to Kalyan Singh, the OBC chieftain of the Jana Sangh/BJP to translate the idea of âliberatingâ the idol of Ram Lalla (infant Ram) from confinement inside the domes of a mosque, apparently built on the ruins of a temple dedicated to him by the triumphant army of the first Mughal Emperor, Babar.
Kalyan Singh took up the project with fervent enthusiasm, using State power to permit a succession of massive assemblies of kar sevaks on the disputed shrineâs periphery. He toured the sprawling State pledging to build an impressive temple to Ram at the site where the disputed mosque stood. UP witnessed an emotional catharsis never seen before as caste and class collapsed under the fervour of Ramâs promised restoration to his birthplace.
In 1993, facing stiff challenge from the Samajwadi Party, which opportunistically allied with Mayawatiâs nascent BSP enabling her to make a quantum leap into the mainstream, Kalyan Singh proudly took credit for what transpired on December 6, 1992 by assertively proclaiming âJo kaha, so kiyaâ (What we promised, we did) at every election rally. I say this from personal experience as a journalist who covered the Mandir movement and the BJPâs phenomenal rise from 1989 first with The Times of India, then Sunday Observer and finally Hindustan Times April 1992 onwards. I think this appeal held till 1998. But the Vajpayee Governmentâs failure to do anything substantial on the issue and the authoritarian approach to governance by Kalyan Singh caused the BJPâs downslide.
Besides, whatever Hindu angst existed over the Babri Masjid dissipated once it was demolished. Whether a gaudy marble monstrosity was erected on the mosqueâs rubble was not a matter of furious concern to the average Hindu in UP or elsewhere.
Whatever be the electoral utility of the Ram Mandir issue (in my opinion, the law of diminishing returns set in a long time back because the Hindu movement did precious little for 17 long years), Kalyan Singhâs dissociation from the legacy is incredible.
I couldnât believe my years when I heard he has, for all practical purposes, apologised for it. I recall meeting him in the UP Secretariat on the evening of December 5, 1992 and his assuring me nothing catastrophic would happen next day. The story I filed dutifully was carried as the lead in next dayâs HT. In retrospect he has been economical with facts in claiming he resigned when he heard the structure had been demolished despite his affidavit to the Supreme Court assuring its safety. Arguably he could not have done much for the UP Police and PAC stationed at Ayodhya were almost parties to the demolition.
Since I was present on the spot that day, I can vouch for their surcharged involvement. Technically, he did resign that afternoon but that was minutes before a beleaguered Narasimha Rao Government advised the President to dismiss all four BJP State Governments. That the BJP now runs 12 State Governments singly or in alliance, many more than the Congress, only underlines what the Ram Mandir Movement has done to bring the party centrestage.
So why did Kalyan Singh resile from his role in the episode? It is yet another proof that the Congress Party is the fountainhead of everything that is dynastic, corrupt and deviant in the system. Kalyan Singh has quit the BJP ostensibly because Bulandshahr (now a SC seat) has been allotted to Ashok Pradhan who, the ex-CM alleges, was instrumental in getting his son Rajvir defeated from Dibai. This is strange, for it amounts to admitting that Pradhan is so powerful that he can ensure Kalyanâs sonâs humiliation in his family turf!
But, maybe thatâs not the real reason for the ageing patriarchâs rebellion. Unfortunately, however, he has reduced himself to a liability in politics. Mulayam Singhâs too clever by half tactic is not working in the face of Muslim outrage. And Muslims are rampant these days, having realised how aggressively they are being wooed by Hindu leaders as a vote bank â a far cry from the 50s when Muslim actors took Hindu names to court acceptability!
Dynastic obsessions are destroying leaders and even the BJP is slowly falling prey to this apparent inevitability.
Chandan Mitra
At the BJP National Executive meeting at Nagpur, erstwhile UP strongman Kalyan Singh was an object of ridicule rather than hate. âHe is the political equivalent of Chand Mohammad aka Chander Mohan. Na ghar ka na ghat ka (neither here nor there),â quipped a senior leader to widespread merriment. Journalists regaled politicians about his myriad outbursts against select party leaders in recent months. It was a sea change from the National Council meeting in Lucknow in 2006 just before the UP Assembly elections of 2007. He had then returned to the party after some years of estrangement during which the doughty mass leader was dethroned as Chief Minister and then sufficiently sidelined for him to float his own outfit, the Rashtriya Kranti Party. The fledgling entity contested the 2002 polls in alliance with Mulayam Singhâs Samajwadi Party and despite not making a significant mark in terms of seats, damaged the BJPâs prospects in over 20 seats.
Later when Mulayam Singh returned to power after yet another failed BJP cohabitation with Mayawati, Kalyanâs MLAs were rewarded with some crumbs of office too. But he realised the futility of dissociation from the party he had once led to spectacular victories: In 1991, the BJP stormed into power with 212 seats in the 425-member (undivided) UP Assembly and notched up a staggering 51 out of 85 Lok Sabha seats, a tally that rose to 57 (plus three allies) in 1998, although it fell steeply to 26 in 1999. With the prodigalâs return in 2006, BJP was confident of repeating the magic, but its tally crashed to an abysmal 50 in the Assembly. Earlier, it found itself reduced to third place in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls winning just 10 seats, barely ahead of a long-crippled Congress.
The 2007 result conclusively proved Kalyan Singh no longer held the magic wand. Even his son, Rajvir, could not win from the family fiefdom of Dibai in Aligarh district, a seat traditionally held by his father way before BJP became a force to reckon with in the State. In 2004, the patriarch himself was in jitters on counting day, as Bulandshahr appeared to slip out of his hands. With some timely help from Mulayam, he managed to scrape through with a narrow margin of 12,000 votes.
This statistical background is important because it underlines not just Kalyan Singhâs declining importance and the concomitant downslide in the BJPâs electoral fortunes, but also the gradual erosion of the Ram Janmabhoomi Movementâs appeal in the State of the abiding Hindu iconâs origin. However, the emotional basis of Kalyanâs acceptability was centred on the legend of Ram.
It was LK Advaniâs genius that saw the political potential of creating a nationwide movement structured on the powerful iconography of the God-King of Ayodhya, but it was left to Kalyan Singh, the OBC chieftain of the Jana Sangh/BJP to translate the idea of âliberatingâ the idol of Ram Lalla (infant Ram) from confinement inside the domes of a mosque, apparently built on the ruins of a temple dedicated to him by the triumphant army of the first Mughal Emperor, Babar.
Kalyan Singh took up the project with fervent enthusiasm, using State power to permit a succession of massive assemblies of kar sevaks on the disputed shrineâs periphery. He toured the sprawling State pledging to build an impressive temple to Ram at the site where the disputed mosque stood. UP witnessed an emotional catharsis never seen before as caste and class collapsed under the fervour of Ramâs promised restoration to his birthplace.
In 1993, facing stiff challenge from the Samajwadi Party, which opportunistically allied with Mayawatiâs nascent BSP enabling her to make a quantum leap into the mainstream, Kalyan Singh proudly took credit for what transpired on December 6, 1992 by assertively proclaiming âJo kaha, so kiyaâ (What we promised, we did) at every election rally. I say this from personal experience as a journalist who covered the Mandir movement and the BJPâs phenomenal rise from 1989 first with The Times of India, then Sunday Observer and finally Hindustan Times April 1992 onwards. I think this appeal held till 1998. But the Vajpayee Governmentâs failure to do anything substantial on the issue and the authoritarian approach to governance by Kalyan Singh caused the BJPâs downslide.
Besides, whatever Hindu angst existed over the Babri Masjid dissipated once it was demolished. Whether a gaudy marble monstrosity was erected on the mosqueâs rubble was not a matter of furious concern to the average Hindu in UP or elsewhere.
Whatever be the electoral utility of the Ram Mandir issue (in my opinion, the law of diminishing returns set in a long time back because the Hindu movement did precious little for 17 long years), Kalyan Singhâs dissociation from the legacy is incredible.
I couldnât believe my years when I heard he has, for all practical purposes, apologised for it. I recall meeting him in the UP Secretariat on the evening of December 5, 1992 and his assuring me nothing catastrophic would happen next day. The story I filed dutifully was carried as the lead in next dayâs HT. In retrospect he has been economical with facts in claiming he resigned when he heard the structure had been demolished despite his affidavit to the Supreme Court assuring its safety. Arguably he could not have done much for the UP Police and PAC stationed at Ayodhya were almost parties to the demolition.
Since I was present on the spot that day, I can vouch for their surcharged involvement. Technically, he did resign that afternoon but that was minutes before a beleaguered Narasimha Rao Government advised the President to dismiss all four BJP State Governments. That the BJP now runs 12 State Governments singly or in alliance, many more than the Congress, only underlines what the Ram Mandir Movement has done to bring the party centrestage.
So why did Kalyan Singh resile from his role in the episode? It is yet another proof that the Congress Party is the fountainhead of everything that is dynastic, corrupt and deviant in the system. Kalyan Singh has quit the BJP ostensibly because Bulandshahr (now a SC seat) has been allotted to Ashok Pradhan who, the ex-CM alleges, was instrumental in getting his son Rajvir defeated from Dibai. This is strange, for it amounts to admitting that Pradhan is so powerful that he can ensure Kalyanâs sonâs humiliation in his family turf!
But, maybe thatâs not the real reason for the ageing patriarchâs rebellion. Unfortunately, however, he has reduced himself to a liability in politics. Mulayam Singhâs too clever by half tactic is not working in the face of Muslim outrage. And Muslims are rampant these days, having realised how aggressively they are being wooed by Hindu leaders as a vote bank â a far cry from the 50s when Muslim actors took Hindu names to court acceptability!
Dynastic obsessions are destroying leaders and even the BJP is slowly falling prey to this apparent inevitability.