06-08-2009, 02:26 AM
Meira as Speaker:Warning bells for Mayawati
Sidharth Mishra
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Those who have travelled to Agra would recall that one of the most important roundabouts in the city has a huge statue of Babu Jagjivan Ram, the late Dalit leader and father of current Speaker of Lok Sabha Meira Kumar. Though Ram belonged to Bihar, he certainly was the uncrowned king of the Jatav community in the period preceding the rise of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati. Agra is one of the strongholds of Jatav community.
Statues of Ambedkar are a common sight in Uttar Pradesh and other parts of the country today. When Mayawati became the Chief Minister for the first time she had Baba Sahebâs statue installed everywhere. Till the time Jagjivan Ram lived, Jatavs remained staunch supporters of the Congress. And in remaining with the Congress, they came in direct confrontation with the landholding intermediate castes, whose cause was endorsed by Chowdhary Charan Singh and before him Ram Manohar Lohia.
Congress in making a combination of the Dalits (then the use of word Harijan from Gandhian lexicon was more popular), Upper Castes and Muslims found an insurmountable formula for electoral victory. The first experiment of Dalits coming together with the intermediate castes or the Other Backward Classes as they have been classified by the Mandal Commission took place in 1977, when Babuji left the Congress and formed Congress for Democracy (CFD) with Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna as his main lieutenant.
CFD and Jai Prakash Narayan-sponsored Janata Party fought election of the same symbol â Haldhar Kisan. The coming together of the Harijans and the OBCs was not borne out of a natural social evolution but political convenience. Ram remained uncomfortable in the company of Charan Singh, who resorted to character assassination to destabilise Ram. Charan Singhâs lackeys, some of them important political functionaries today, orchestrated the infamous Sushma-Suresh sex scandal involving the Harijan leaderâs wayward son.
After the fall of Janata Party Government Ram reconciled to return to his roots in the Congress. Though he never joined the Congress himself, he encouraged his daughter Meira Kumar to resign from the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and join Rajiv Gandhiâs new look Congress. The first Lok Sabha election which Kumar contested and won was from Bijnore. In that poll Kumar worsted two firebrand leaders, who later were to dominate Dalit politics â Mayawati and Ramvilas Paswan.
The turn of the decade engulfed the nation into an aggressive process of social churning. With Vishwanath Pratap Singh allowing the recommendations of the Mandal Commission report for reservation for the OBCs in the Government jobs, the dynamics of politics suddenly changed.
The perennially opposition castes became the ruling classes. Using the situation to his personal advantage emerging Dalit leaders like Ramvilas Paswan decided to piggy-ride with the pro-Mandal forces, though the Dalits in real terms did not stand to benefit much from the implementation of the Mandal Law.
To the further advantage of the Mandal forces, the rise of Mandir forces led by the BJP allowed further erosion in the mass base of the Congress party especially in the cowbelt States of undivided Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. In the absence of a decisive leadership with Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao not looking beyond the agenda of his survival, the Congress did the fatal mistake of embracing the Mandal forces and joining hands with the likes of Lalu Prasad Yadav in Bihar.
This led to the complete disillusionment of the upper-caste supporters of the grand old party, who shifted to the BJP. The Muslims realising the Congressâs incapability to counter the BJP too deserted it. Since the 1996 General Election, the Congress reduced itself to be a party owning huge real estate but no mass base in these two States.
The experiment of Dalit-OBC combination did not end with Jagijivan Ram and Charan Singh. In 1993, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Kanshi Ram came together with the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samajwadi Party fighting the Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha polls in an alliance. They swept the Assembly polls. But the alliance was short-term as at the ground level the Dalits and OBCs never enjoyed cordial relations. Mayawati became Chief Minister for the first time with the support of the BJP.
This was to mark the rebuilding of the Harijan-Brahmin-Muslim axis, which for decades had ensured that the Congress remained at the helm. Mayawatiâs this experiment reaped her rich harvest in 2007 Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha polls. With the marching tune of Brahmin sankh bajaega hanthi badhta jayega (The Brahmins would blow the conch and the Elephant would march on), BSP got absolute majority in the Vidhan Sabha.
Exactly two years later, Lok Sabha polls held in the summer of 2009 has indicated towards the wear and tear in Mayawatiâs victory apparatus. The BSP in the just concluded parliamentary polls could retain lead in just about 100 Assembly segments in Uttar Pradesh, where it had won more than 200 seats in the 2007 Vidhan Sabha polls. Its efforts at making inroads in the neighbouring States proved to be a non-starter.
The most significant was the loss of sitting BSP Lok Sabha member Gandhi Azad from Sasaram in Bihar. The seat falling on the Bihar-UP border was the pocket borough of Babu Jagjivan Ram. He never lost any election from here beginning 1952 till he died in 1986. Meira Kumar won the family seat this time with a comfortable margin.
Meira Kumar has the ability to resurrect Jagjivan Ramâs model of developmental empowerment of the Dalits. This could act as an effective counter to the aggressive module of Kanshi Ram and Mayawati. Babuji himself was a very able administrator and provided effective leadership to several important Ministries including Defence during the 1971 War.
With development gaining centre-stage in national politics, the inability of Mayawati Government to give a development oriented administration in Uttar Pradesh and the deteriorating law and order situation could wean the Dalits away from the BSP. Having assigned Meira Kumar a high constitutional position, the Congress has played just the right tune for the return of the Dalits to the party fold. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Sidharth Mishra
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Those who have travelled to Agra would recall that one of the most important roundabouts in the city has a huge statue of Babu Jagjivan Ram, the late Dalit leader and father of current Speaker of Lok Sabha Meira Kumar. Though Ram belonged to Bihar, he certainly was the uncrowned king of the Jatav community in the period preceding the rise of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati. Agra is one of the strongholds of Jatav community.
Statues of Ambedkar are a common sight in Uttar Pradesh and other parts of the country today. When Mayawati became the Chief Minister for the first time she had Baba Sahebâs statue installed everywhere. Till the time Jagjivan Ram lived, Jatavs remained staunch supporters of the Congress. And in remaining with the Congress, they came in direct confrontation with the landholding intermediate castes, whose cause was endorsed by Chowdhary Charan Singh and before him Ram Manohar Lohia.
Congress in making a combination of the Dalits (then the use of word Harijan from Gandhian lexicon was more popular), Upper Castes and Muslims found an insurmountable formula for electoral victory. The first experiment of Dalits coming together with the intermediate castes or the Other Backward Classes as they have been classified by the Mandal Commission took place in 1977, when Babuji left the Congress and formed Congress for Democracy (CFD) with Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna as his main lieutenant.
CFD and Jai Prakash Narayan-sponsored Janata Party fought election of the same symbol â Haldhar Kisan. The coming together of the Harijans and the OBCs was not borne out of a natural social evolution but political convenience. Ram remained uncomfortable in the company of Charan Singh, who resorted to character assassination to destabilise Ram. Charan Singhâs lackeys, some of them important political functionaries today, orchestrated the infamous Sushma-Suresh sex scandal involving the Harijan leaderâs wayward son.
After the fall of Janata Party Government Ram reconciled to return to his roots in the Congress. Though he never joined the Congress himself, he encouraged his daughter Meira Kumar to resign from the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and join Rajiv Gandhiâs new look Congress. The first Lok Sabha election which Kumar contested and won was from Bijnore. In that poll Kumar worsted two firebrand leaders, who later were to dominate Dalit politics â Mayawati and Ramvilas Paswan.
The turn of the decade engulfed the nation into an aggressive process of social churning. With Vishwanath Pratap Singh allowing the recommendations of the Mandal Commission report for reservation for the OBCs in the Government jobs, the dynamics of politics suddenly changed.
The perennially opposition castes became the ruling classes. Using the situation to his personal advantage emerging Dalit leaders like Ramvilas Paswan decided to piggy-ride with the pro-Mandal forces, though the Dalits in real terms did not stand to benefit much from the implementation of the Mandal Law.
To the further advantage of the Mandal forces, the rise of Mandir forces led by the BJP allowed further erosion in the mass base of the Congress party especially in the cowbelt States of undivided Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. In the absence of a decisive leadership with Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao not looking beyond the agenda of his survival, the Congress did the fatal mistake of embracing the Mandal forces and joining hands with the likes of Lalu Prasad Yadav in Bihar.
This led to the complete disillusionment of the upper-caste supporters of the grand old party, who shifted to the BJP. The Muslims realising the Congressâs incapability to counter the BJP too deserted it. Since the 1996 General Election, the Congress reduced itself to be a party owning huge real estate but no mass base in these two States.
The experiment of Dalit-OBC combination did not end with Jagijivan Ram and Charan Singh. In 1993, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Kanshi Ram came together with the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samajwadi Party fighting the Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha polls in an alliance. They swept the Assembly polls. But the alliance was short-term as at the ground level the Dalits and OBCs never enjoyed cordial relations. Mayawati became Chief Minister for the first time with the support of the BJP.
This was to mark the rebuilding of the Harijan-Brahmin-Muslim axis, which for decades had ensured that the Congress remained at the helm. Mayawatiâs this experiment reaped her rich harvest in 2007 Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha polls. With the marching tune of Brahmin sankh bajaega hanthi badhta jayega (The Brahmins would blow the conch and the Elephant would march on), BSP got absolute majority in the Vidhan Sabha.
Exactly two years later, Lok Sabha polls held in the summer of 2009 has indicated towards the wear and tear in Mayawatiâs victory apparatus. The BSP in the just concluded parliamentary polls could retain lead in just about 100 Assembly segments in Uttar Pradesh, where it had won more than 200 seats in the 2007 Vidhan Sabha polls. Its efforts at making inroads in the neighbouring States proved to be a non-starter.
The most significant was the loss of sitting BSP Lok Sabha member Gandhi Azad from Sasaram in Bihar. The seat falling on the Bihar-UP border was the pocket borough of Babu Jagjivan Ram. He never lost any election from here beginning 1952 till he died in 1986. Meira Kumar won the family seat this time with a comfortable margin.
Meira Kumar has the ability to resurrect Jagjivan Ramâs model of developmental empowerment of the Dalits. This could act as an effective counter to the aggressive module of Kanshi Ram and Mayawati. Babuji himself was a very able administrator and provided effective leadership to several important Ministries including Defence during the 1971 War.
With development gaining centre-stage in national politics, the inability of Mayawati Government to give a development oriented administration in Uttar Pradesh and the deteriorating law and order situation could wean the Dalits away from the BSP. Having assigned Meira Kumar a high constitutional position, the Congress has played just the right tune for the return of the Dalits to the party fold. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->