DALIT EMPOWERMENT: THE MAYAWATI EFFECT

Dr BR Ambedkar may have been the original dalit icon who started the process of lifting dalits out of the abyss of exploitation, discrimination and deprivation that they had been suffering from thousands of years. But, other than becoming a role model and inspirational figure for them, he could not bring about the change that he wished to see on a large scale, perhaps because during those days it was virtually impossible to break rigid age-old social taboos and get rid of the curse of untouchability.

Kanshi Ram may have been the great dalit strategist who saw that genuine dalit empowerment was not possible as long as the real power remained with the upper castes. With dalits constituting close to 20% of India's population - even more in some states - he realised that a dalit party could become a key player in the political landscape of India, and that a dalit leader could even go on to become India's Prime Minister. With that objective in mind, he formed the Bahujan Samaj Party and even had the satisfaction of seeing it come to power with the help of other political parties in Uttar Pradesh. But in his lifetime, he was not able to see it grow bigger.

The UP Assembly elections of 2007 dramatically and most unexpectedly changed everything overnight. Kanshi Ram's protégé Mayawati stunned the nation by winning an absolute majority on her own. Till then, the limited electoral successes of the BSP were not viewed with alarm by other political parties who had calculated that the party could not muster enough votes to come to power on its own anywhere. That one result, as I had said then itself, signalled a tectonic shift in the power matrix of Hindu society.

As subsequent developments have shown and future changes undoubtedly will, what Mayawati has done for dalits is transformational and will lead to the dismantling of oppressive caste practices, if not prejudices yet, with a speed that many even now scarcely believe is possible. There is no doubt that the charges of corruption that have been levelled against her, her soaring personal fortune and the fact that she is even building her own statues, have dented her image. But despite all that, history will see her as the dalit leader who empowered India's cursed low castes and made the upper castes share power and privilege with them equally and with dignity.

By now every Indian knows that Rahul Gandhi stays overnight in dalit homes and even shares a meal with them. Is this something to be proud of or something that should embarrass us 62 years after Independence? Is it not a sad reflection on how India's dominant political party that has been in power for most of the time after Independence, just took dalit votes for granted all these years but did absolutely nothing to change social dynamics in the villages? Is it not, at one level, a damning display of condescension besides being a political gimmick? Would Rahul Gandhi ever have thought of even looking at a dalit home had Mayawati not been in power in UP?

Unknowingly, the young Congress leader is making Mayawati look like a demi-goddess in dalit eyes.

If 62 years after Independence, Congress leaders of UP have to be literally ordered to go and spend a night in dalit homes on Mahatma Gandhi's birthday, is it not something that should make you and I hang our heads in shame? Does it not painfully prove that India's upper caste leaders have criminally neglected them all these years? Does it also tell the whole world that had it not been for the fear of Mayawati, these guys would not have ever bothered?

How far some of these leaders have gone from ordinary people was also on display in the manner some of them turned their dalit day out into a tamasha. Mineral water, generators for electricity, home-cooked food, mattresses, mosquito nets etc were some of the things taken along by them, in addition to supporters and TV cameras, to turn the whole exercise into a picnic. They were doing a big favour to these low caste sub-humans, you see. Watch video here.

It is not just the Congress that has been exposed by Mayawati. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), that has been speaking of and for Hindus for many decades, had also similarly forgotten about dalits and become an organisation primarily of upper caste Hindus, as had the BJP that is closely affiliated to it. Thanks to Mayawati, Mohan Bhagwat, the present Sarsangchalak (head) of the RSS, also chose Gandhiji's birthday to virtually write off politics as a means of doing nation building, saying that the nation can be strengthened only by making it 'Sanghmay' and understanding those who play opportunistic politics using caste, ideology, language and community.

A day after Bhagwat's speech, the RSS invited representatives of 32 castes, including various dalit sub-castes, to a meeting and sahbhoj (eating together). This was the first ever social engineering initiative by the RSS chief on this scale. 62 years after Independence, the RSS has also been made to wake up to the fact that Mayawati-awakened dalits have spurned Hindutva politics. That the RSS has also realised that the process of empowerment set in motion by Mayawati is too serious to be ignored is evident from the fact that Bhagwat has called for organising such meetings across the country for population clusters of just 10,000 each.

"I hope Mayawati understands the importance of what she has initiated. With the exceptional intelligence and abilities that she has displayed so far, there appears to be little doubt that she does. If that is correct, Mayawati can bring about the social revolution that both Mahatma Gandhi and Dr BR Ambedkar dreamt of but could not achieve in their lifetime." This is what I had written after the UP election results of 2007. A little more than two years later, it is evident that not only is Mayawati fully alive to the unprecedented societal change that she is ushering in, she has also generated a momentum which is forcing non-dalits to pursue her cause with some urgency. However, since their efforts are clearly reactive, they will find it very hard to reap the political benefits that the are looking for, at least in the near term.

There is a huge difference between seeking political power to bring about desired societal change, and talking of societal change as means of acquiring political power. The latter can never be transformational; it is more often than not dishonest and deceiving.

Dr Ambedkar initiated a very profound process. Kanshi Ram forged a political tool to give concrete shape to it. Mayawati has brilliantly employed that tool to achieve the dreams of her mentors. Thanks to her, India will, in a relatively short period of time, find itself happier and at greater peace, unburdened as it will be of the heavy load of caste discrimination that it has been carrying for a very long time.

Having never experienced caste prejudices in our beautiful urban lives, some of us perhaps can still not fully comprehend the dynamics of what is happening. Make no mistake: an epoch-making change is unfolding around us.

Related reading: Mayawati's memorials mark epochal change
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MAYAWATI'S MEMORIALS MARK EPOCHAL CHANGE

"Spread over 130 acres, the compound matches London’s St Paul’s Cathedral, Cambodia’s Angkor Wat and Egypt’s Karnak Temple in terms of sheer scale...You might call this the new Rome, except it has all the authenticity and originality of a Bollywood set: Mogul-style pavilions here". This is how Amy Kazmin describes the 130 acre memorial being built by Mayawati on the banks of Gomti in Lucknow in honour of Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar, the original hero of dalits, India's "untouchables".

During the last few days, Mayawati has come in for severe criticism from almost everyone, including bloggers, for building grand memorials for dalit leaders and unveiling her own statues too in the process. Ever since she stormed to power on her own in Uttar Pradesh in 2007, she has spent hundreds of crores of rupees to build such memorials in the state. In Lucknow itself, apart from the Ambedkar memorial which will be protected by an equally impressive Rs 1 crore police post built of pink Mirjapuri stone, two more monuments are coming up. One is a 30 acre memorial for Mayawti's mentor Kanshi Ram with a massive colonnaded sandstone building with a giant dome quite like the US Capitol building. The other is a magnificent Buddha temple.

The other major project whose construction began in total secrecy in January 2008, is a huge dalit memorial in Noida. Initially, a beautiful sandstone wall was built around four parks on the bank of the Yamuna, as if to beautify them. Then, these parks were declared out of bounds for people and construction was started at a frenetic pace. It was only when 30 feet high sandstone columns became visible from the road that people realised that there was a massive structure being constructed there. No official word is out yet but, according to the rumour mill, a dalit memorial "grander than the Akshardham Temple" built a few kilometers away in 2005, is being built at a cost of Rs 300 crore. It will house 11 statues of dalit leaders including Ambedkar, Kanshi Ram and Mayawati herself. Not surprisingly, a lot of people are up in arms and a PIL has also been filed in the Supreme Court against the project.

To give you an idea of what this memorial will be like, if reports are true, then it needs to be mentioned that a temple like the Swaminarayan Akshardham Temple in Delhi has possibly not been built in India for over a thousand years. It is stunning beyond words, transports you into a different world and generates an awe that stays with you. No wonder it is already perhaps the biggest tourist attraction in Delhi, with 70% tourists coming to Delhi visiting it, in addition to Delhiites. It is also Delhi's most impressive architectural landmark that took 300 million man hours to build, in only five years; that is the equivalent of constructing 42 Empire State buildings! (Watch You Tube video here) To beat it will take some doing and vision.

The criticism that is being levelled against Mayawati for spending so much of money which could and should have been spent to better the lot of dalits in one of India's most backward states in not entirely misplaced. Nor is the condemnation that is being heaped upon her for erecting her own statues. The most unconvincing criticism, of course, is from her political opponents who ruled the state for long but neither built memorials nor used the money properly for the betterment of the people of the state that has produced five Prime Ministers; they just pushed the state into the sorry state that it is in today.

Is there really no merit in what she is doing at all? Has she actually lost it, as seems to be the general opinion among ordinary upper caste and non-dalit Indians?

Let us, snooty brahmins and others, get one thing that has missed us. This is the first time in the history of India that dalits have come to power in a big part of India on their own and not in a subordinate position to any upper caste politician or party. That is one reason why, till now, no memorials of dalit leaders have been built anywhere. Till Mayawati emerged on the scene, Ambedkar's cheap and garishly painted statues could be found almost wholly in dalit villages and bastis. He and other dalit leaders were never given the status enjoyed even by lesser non-dalit leaders.

After Independence, the Congress started the culture of building memorials of national leaders and the naming of every second road after them too, primarily of those from the Nehru-Gandhi family. As Mayawati said tauntingly a few days back, the real estate value of the three huge "samadhis" built in Delhi for Nehru, Indira and Rajiv far exceeds the amount being spent by her on dalit memorials. What she did not mention was that besides these, Nehru's official residence, Teen Murti House, has been converted to his memorial and 1 Safdarjang Road, Indira Gandhi's residence as PM, is her memorial.These three leaders have been similarly honoured in many other places in India with innumerable roads, buildings, schemes etc. bearing their names. God knows how many thousand crores rupees of prime real estate has been locked up in their memory across the country and how many hundred crores are being spent on maintaining it annually.

As Lord Meghnad Desai asked Barkha Dutt in a TV show sometime back, how is putting up monuments of dalits any worse than that of brahmins (Nehrus)? Let us rewind a bit. The great heritage buildings that have become the pride of all of us were not built when Indians were better off than they are today. The British squandered our money to build opulent buildings and put up grand statues of many Britons only to showcase their colonial superiority even as millions of Indians were dying of starvation and disease. The Taj Mahal and Humayun's Tomb were also not built when Indians were having a rollicking time either. Add as many more examples as you like; there are plenty of them.

Yes, Mayawati could have spent our money in a much better manner. Yes, she should not have put up her own statues a la Saddam Hussein. But, if you consider the distinct possibility that another dalit leader may not emerge on the scene for quite some time after Mayawati, her madness begins to make great sense. No one will perhaps build for her a memorial, just like no one built one for Ambedkar for 62 years. But after she goes, no politician will find it easy to pull down what she has constructed, even though some are saying today that they will. Also, considering the scale of her projects coming up in Lucknow and Noida, and the Akshardham Temple experience, there is a distinct possibility that these will become major tourist attractions and earn enough money to pay for their maintenance costs.

All things considered, Mayawati is justified in creating permanent reminders of as historical a development as the rise to power of those who have been the lowest of the low for thousands of years. That she understands the epochal significance of a dalit rising to rule India's largest state for the first ever time is evident from the fact that the stones being used in the construction of these monuments are expected to last 1000 years.

It may be well nigh impossible for many of us to understand the significance of this huge change that would have looked impossible just 25 years back. Some dalits may also miss the bigger picture and say to TV cameras that they should have individually been taken care of first by Mayawati. But when they, even you and I, walk through these memorials after they are ready, the one message that no one will miss is that it was dalits themselves who successfully overturned the humiliation and oppression of thousands of years. Those statues, including Mayawati's, will speak.

And the loudest message that they will convey to dalits is that they do not need the crutch of any patronising empowerment, political or religious, for that will not get them to the top of the heap. It never has; it never will: they can and must do it on their own.

Picture source:
1. Photobucket
2. The Times of India
3. Wikimedia
4. Picasaweb

INDIA'S OBAMA: MAYAWATI OR MODI?

Barack Obama's election as the US President has generated unprecedented attention and discussion in India. From unadulterated admiration to cynicism to the lament that India does not have any politician in the Obama mould, Indians have shown a keen interest in this US election almost as if the exercise was being done to elect the next leader of India!

A number of commentators and analysts have grasped the dimensions of the extraordinary significance of Obama's election and what he and his rise represents. But, there are the usual fish that can't even mentally swim out of their privileged ponds to those from which a fish named Obama has emerged.

So, we have some luminaries drawing a parallel between Obama, Tiger Woods and Lewis Hamilton! How can any intelligent person compare apples and oranges, just because they are wrapped in a paper of the same colour? Forgotten when Jesse Owens was born? Then there are those who think Obama is like Nehru, forgetting that the latter, 'born into privilege' and virtually a 'white man in khadi', was almost the exact opposite of what Obama represents. Since the original Gandhi does not have his own dynasty going, they don't want to even whisper that Obama has a portrait of the Mahatma in his office and that he has internalized his call to 'be the change you want to see'.

Of course, the top honours for getting to the 'bottom' of it all go to Rahul Gandhi. He actually believes that he can create thousands of Obamas running around the country!

Obama's victory on November 04, 2008, has fired the imagination of a lot of Indians. Many believe that India too needs an Obama to shake things up like they never have been, and are scouring the political landscape to see if they can locate a desi version.

There are clearly no 'Obamas' in India. The one who comes nearest to him is perhaps Mayawati, a dalit who has powered her way to be a little more than 'a breath away' from becoming India's Prime Minister. Then there is the much hated and admired Narendra Modi, who also comes from the very backward 'ganchi' caste, and who has demonstrated an unmatched ability to govern and deliver as Chief Minister of Gujarat.

In January this year, much before Obama had entered Indian minds like he now has, I had written a post about the explosive rise of Mayawati and Modi, and the huge impact that both these single, alpha individuals on a mission were going to make in the future.

Read the post that I may have unknowingly written a bit too early, below. And see if you can spot an Obama in either Mayawati or Modi.
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He is from a Most Backward Caste, she from a Scheduled Caste. Both are driven by a mission defined by their vision of an India based primarily on religion and caste. Both are charismatic leaders who can inspire millions like no other leader in India today can. Both are non-English speaking. Both have ambitions which make many very uncomfortable indeed. Both are detested by comfortably cocooned armchair analysts and other luminaries whose arrogance and vacuous sense of superiority does not allow them to understand those who live in the India outside their English speaking world.

He leads a Spartan life and has a squeaky clean image as a Chief Minister who neither takes money nor allows others to do so. She, once a poor school teacher, now boasts of a ‘palace’ in Delhi and has declared assets of over Rs 50 crores. These, she says, were acquired through small ‘donations’ made by lakhs of party workers and members of her caste group, a sort of collective statement symbolizing a breaking free of the shackles of centuries of deprivation that untouchables have suffered in India.

He has not married; neither has she.

These two (ge)Ms, Mayawati and Modi, have burst upon the political landscape of India with a force and promise that has overturned the staid and almost predictable political paradigm dramatically. Their explosive rise has almost totally eclipsed all other pretenders to the throne of Delhi and quite emphatically demonstrated that the real Indian knows what and whom he wants in as well as out.

2007 was the year of these two (ge)Ms. It also was perhaps the most significant year in the political landscape of India since 1947.

For the first ever time, real Indians surprised our increasingly disconnected leaders and analysts by decisively voting to power these two ge(M)s in the two politically crucial states of Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat. The mandate was so unambiguous and unexpected that the usual hypocritical and superficial response which marks all political verdicts is once again likely to completely miss the unprecedented significance of what the people of India have said through the power of their vote.

In May 2007, Mayawati stunned the whole nation by storming to power on her own, breaking the splintered pattern of voting due to which no party had won an absolute majority on its own in the last six elections. Her victory signaled a tectonic shift in the thousands of years old balance of power in the caste based hierarchy of Hindu society.

How did her victory come about? Our founding fathers, in a sincere bid to undo the many injustices faced by low caste Hindus, had laid down 25 percent reservations in all government jobs to SC/STs for a period of 25 years, by which it was expected that their condition would improve and there would be no need to extend the reservations further. But, electoral mathematics ensured that politicians had no choice but to extend them. The extension it now seems is for an indefinite period.

Enter Prime Minister VP Singh who got that chair as a result of some petty machinations against Rajiv Gandhi in whose cabinet he was the Finance Minister. VP Singh was no mass leader and had virtually no chance of getting the post again. In a disastrous bid to ensure that he did become PM for another term, he dug out a long forgotten report by the Mandal commission and announced an additional reservation of 22.5 percent to Other Backward Classes(OBCs) identified by Mandal. He also declared a national holiday on the Prophet’s birthday.

VP Singh quickly discovered what the political class has yet to: once I get the benefit, particularly the one given for purely narrow and politically tactical reasons, why should I vote for you? At the same time I will ensure that you cannot undo what you have once done. If you try to put the genie back in the bottle, I will certainly vote against you, at the very least. Appeasement is an almost never ending and dangerous one way ticket with absolutely no long term returns. Maslowe’s Hierarchy of Needs applies everywhere.

Mayawati’s brilliant political strategy in 2007 involved touching the raw nerve of Brahmins and other upper castes that had been neglected and marginalized by politicians belonging to these very castes but looking for votes of lower castes only. When she, an untouchable, told them that they did not have to go begging to anyone to get their due anymore, they readily turned the ancient caste hierarchy upside down and voted to seek empowerment from her.

Mayawati embodies the rise of real Dalit power in India. In all other political parties, real power has always been in the hands of condescending leaders belonging to the upper castes. They have invariably displayed a patronizing attitude towards those who are lower in the caste order. Mayawati is the first Dalit leader who has managed to get real power on her own. Till Dalits rise to the position of the final authority in other political parties, there will be no really effective challenge to Mayawati, so long as votes are sought along the fault lines of caste, community etc.

In December 2007, Modi unleashed an energy which electrified the whole country and thrust him to an almost unrivalled leadership position in the BJP. Modi, under relentless pressure and the vilest possible criticism from all possible quarters, achieved the impossible in Gujarat. Never before had a serving Chief Minister stormed back to power with such a resounding victory. That too in the face of such intense opposition from the media, NGOs and puppet politicians on what turned out to be a really remote remote-control.

In 2002, after a railway coach carrying Hindu pilgrims was burnt, allegedly by Muslim fundamentalists, killing 57 people who were inside, anti Muslim riots broke out in Gujarat. After those unfortunate riots, everyone went after Modi with a venom that any lesser mortal would not have been able to survive.

In the following five years, Modi single-mindedly devoted himself to the development of Gujarat, giving its people good, clean governance. Some argued, and will continue to, that he is anti-Muslim. They remained stuck in 2002 while Modi and the people of Gujarat as a whole moved on, showing once again how disconnected these Modi baiters and haters had become from the people of Gujarat. It was almost a repeat of what happened in UP when the same lot steadfastly ignored the Hindi speaking Dalit Mayawati and kept speaking and writing about the imaginary impact that Rahul Gandhi was making in that state.

The real significance of Modi’s victory was along one long ignored dimension. Muslims, constantly being incited by Modi’s political opponents on the basis of 2002, voted communally against Modi, possibly an emotional vote rooted one dimensionally in the past. But, for the first ever time after Nehru, Hindus did not vote along any caste or community based lines. They voted as citizens of Gujarat to acknowledge the terrific work that Modi had done for the state over five years. An overwhelming and positive vote to reward the good governance it clearly was. Mayawati, who fielded her candidates for the first time in Gujarat, was expected to take away a major chunk of the SC/ST vote, like she had done in other states. To everyone’s surprise, Modi swept all the constituencies where Dalits had a large vote share. They too preferred performance over caste.

Modi’s victory represents the victory of an India led by a firm, scrupulously honest, courageous, decisive, charismatic, macho and unapologetic leader who has a vision for the country as a whole. As Chief Minister, Modi has always spoken of and worked for all five crore Gujaratis, delivering results and progress to all irrespective of their religious or caste affiliations. Tomorrow he will similarly talk of and work for all 100 crore Indians, not 15 crore Muslims, 85 crore Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains. He will not talk of castes and communities too. It is only a question of time before Muslims realize that, like all other Indians, they also stand to benefit the most from such a leader, and not from those who use them as nothing more than a vote bank.

Modi has demonstrated the possibility of winning elections on the desirable and positive basis of solid performance. That is the way it should always have been, and should be, in a real and healthy democracy. But, since most other leaders have monotonously failed to provide good governance, they have been resorting to the easier but divisive and often dangerous tactic of using the fault lines of caste, community and religion to get to power.

Modi and Mayawati are both trail blazers. However, all the striking similarities between them notwithstanding, there is are two fundamental differences which set them apart.

Mayawati has brilliantly re-invented the proven strategy of exploiting caste arithmetic to get to power. This strategy may work and put her in the PM’s chair once. But, being essentially divisive and not focused on real performance, there is a strong possibility that it might trip her at some point of time, even before she reaches that chair in South Block. Mayawati has to learn to focus on clean governance. Whether she can do so or even wants to, is debatable, given what the general impression is. Her first objective of materially enabling herself has already been accomplished swiftly with some brazenness. Being single, she really does not need to stock up for seven generations. Her real mission, if she still has the zeal for it like her mentor Kanshi Ram did, will get seriously jeopardized unless she can provide clean, effective and inclusive governance.

Modi, on the other hand, has the advantage of being a scrupulously honest and able administrator, the likes of which this country desperately needs if it wants to sprint to join the big league. He is the one who actually can get Indians to vote for him as Indians. But, his opponents will continue to haunt him with the ghost of 2002, to ensure that Muslims do not go with him even if he proves that he is the community’s best developmental bet. However, considering the strength of character and personality that he has so far displayed to impact the whole nation, he should be able to dispel the misgivings of the Muslims who also want to move rapidly ahead as India progresses rapidly to take its rightful place among the great nations of the world.The only question is whether he will sincerely want to do that. If he does, we will have one really extraordinary leader.

Mayawati and Modi. These two names are going to dominate India’s politics for a long time. They have already exposed the rapidly diminishing appeal of the Gandhi brand and the virtual non-existence of the Congress party without it. They are also the only two charismatic mass leaders who, possibly because of their backgrounds rooted in real India, know the pulse of the people and have the ability to set it racing. In future, they are going to be the tallest competitors in the race for getting India’s top job. Given their soaring ambitions and hurry to get things done, their gladiatorial fights may well turn to be messy and nasty, to the accidental advantage of political dwarfs.

I know it is not going to happen. But should they ever decide to marry or even be ‘friends’, we will have India’s first alpha couple, much like the Clintons or even Brangelina! The only way Chhappan ki Chhati (56 inch chest) Modi and the equally impressive Mayawati will get along is by taking dominating positions alternately, politically that is.

There is nothing to suggest that Modi will ever accept a ‘woman on top’ position. Mayawati, it is clear, will not have it any other way. If anyone of them ever manages to subdue the other, the result will be an unbeatable political combination. If not, the country will witness great political fireworks from their fights.

Either way, let us hope that these two single, alpha (ge)Ms on a mission give India the new political and governmental direction that its people have been desperately seeking since a really long time.

MAYA VS SONIA: THE BATTLE FOR UP IS ON

How important Uttar Pradesh is for the race to Delhi has been graphically demonstrated in the last couple of days. And, once again, Mayawati has trumped Sonia Gandhi. The Congress, BJP and SP, all looking to trip Mayawati in UP, seem actually to have made it a habit to fall into Maya jaal (net) like hypnotised subjects stunned by a magician who is the master of his craft.

With general elections around the corner, Sonia Gandhi was keen on showing to the people of Rae Bareilly, her parliamentary constituency in Mayawati's UP, that she had the clout to get things done, at least for them. So, she pushed a weakened and therefore an increasingly pliant and submissive Laloo Yadav, India's Railway Minister, to set up a rail coach factory in Rae Bareilly. He willingly obliged and the stage was all set for Sonia Gandhi to perform 'bhoomi pujan' on October 14, 2008, at the site where the factory was to come up.

Pretty routine stuff this move was. But, Mayawati, stung by Sonia Gandhi's alliance with her arch rival Mulayam Singh Yadav, was in no mood to let her get away without paying a heavy price. At the same time, she wanted to send a loud message to the whole state and more that Mayawati was the boss in UP, no matter who was ruling at the Centre, and that no one who messed up with her was safe.

Striking like 'greased lightning', Mayawati simply cancelled the allotment of land for the project on the ground that the villagers whose land it was were against giving it up for the factory. Stunned, the Sonia camp moved the Allahabad High Court against the decision of the UP government. The High Court responded by staying the revocation of allocation and ordering a status quo. That meant that no 'bhoomi pujan' could be performed till the final order of the court. Mayawati had won.

Notwithstanding this set back, Sonia Gandhi decided to stick to her plan for holding a rally at the site. Mayawati hit back again by getting the district administration to issue prohibitory orders by imposing Section 144 of the CrPC that does not permit gatherings, in view of navratra festivities! After declaring that Sonia Gandhi would go ahead with her rally at Rae Bareilly, notwithstanding this ban, the Congress finally caved in and cancelled her visit. Mayawati had won again. Had Sonia Gandhi decided to go ahead with the visit, it is certain that Mayawati would have won once more, using another another unexpected ace to rub in the humiliation really hard.(Update: Sonia went on a roadshow today from Fursatganj airport to Lalganj railway station, but did not hold any rally).

Mayawati's decisive and often vindictive political actions have always drawn wide condemnation from her political opponents, no angels themselves. The surprising thing is that she keeps doing what she she thinks she needs to do and keeps making them all look second best all the time. This time, the cry of defeat is that, like Mamata Bannerjee, Mayawati is allowing partisan politics to harm the developmental needs of her state, and that such irresponsibility must come with a heavy electoral price. No matter how hard any one may try, there are no parallels here with the ill fated Tata Nano plant in Singur which was turned into a political battle ground by Mamata Bannerjee for all the wrong reasons and which will most likely prove to be her political graveyard.

Unfortunately for disconnected commentators who write but possibly do not vote, real people out there understand only too well that the siting of the rail coach factory in Rae Bareilly was not motivated by any bipartisan desire to address the developmental needs of the state. It was primarily a pre-election sop to woo voters of a constituency, something that has become a disease in India, cost-benefit analysis be damned. A political move was countered by a political move. Unlike what might happen to Mamata Bannerjee in Bengal, the spunk shown by Mayawati in this case is without doubt going to lead to a spike in her popularity and fetch her many additional votes.

This is possibly the first time ever that any politician has single-handedly taken on and humiliated a member of the Nehru-Gandhi family in such a manner. This might well prove to be a defining moment in India's political history, heralding the removal of the family from the pedestal that it has always been on since Independence.

The second and perhaps even more dramatic significance of what Mayawati has done is the fact that a dalit has audaciously taken on and humbled the most powerful woman in the country. This is something that was not even conceivable a few years back, by not just dalits but even by the empowered belonging to the upper castes. Western oriented analysts who theoretically champion caste equality but abhor the idea of Mayawati becoming the Prime Minister because she does not fit into their social milieu, can not even begin to understand what impact a development like this is going to make on dalits not just in UP but across India.

A revolution in India's caste structure is upon us, faster and more furious than ever in India's history. But to cocooned metro bred analysts who have no clue about what a caste based society actually is, this is manifestly not even apparent. That is why their response to this latest standoff between Mayawati and Sonia remains limited to the unthinking, stereotyped one of bipartisanship and development.

That is why when elections come and people caste their votes, heavy electoral price will be paid, but not by those whom these armchair analysts think. If Mayawati can continue to show political brilliance and courage like she has till now, don't be surprised if Sonia Gandhi loses personally in Rae Bareilly. Remember you read it first here.

The battle for UP is well and truly on.

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Readers may also like to read:
1. Maya chal: Advani lal Sonia behal
2. Mayawati's 'Ts' trounce Congress' 'Rs'
3. Mayawati and dalit power

MAYA CHAL: ADVANI LAL, SONIA BEHAL

The Confidence Vote that Dr Manmohan Singh asked for and won on July 22, 2008, has generated unexpected domestic ‘nuclear’ deals and started chain reactions which may well lead to an explosion of the sort no one would have dreamt of a couple of years back.

The BJP was expecting to be in the vanguard of the opposition’s fight against the government. But it made the fatal error of choosing the Indo-US Nuclear Deal as the anvil on which it would strike. It was almost like the foolish Kalidas cutting the very branch of the tree on which he was sitting, not realising that he would fall and hurt himself. Nobody bought the manufactured and dishonest opposition shown by the party to the deal, just for the sake of playing out the traditional and dysfunctional role that all opposition parties in India believe is their sole job. When Brijesh Mishra went on record to say that the deal was very good for India, the BJP lost even the tiny fig leaf it had to cover its unprincipled stand as well as the inexcusable efforts Jaswant Singh made to deviously topple the government.

The Congress, on the other hand, thought it had dealt effectively with the commie sting by getting on board the best ‘brokers’ in the business who brought along 39 MPs of their own along with the promise of getting more by lure. It also made all sorts of compromises to get on board tiny parties and individuals to get the magic number required to win the vote. In the end, victory was achieved with the help of all of them plus opposition MPs that the Congress was able to successfully ‘influence’ to listen to their ‘conscience’ rather than their party’s whip. Unfortunately, just before the vote, three BJP MPs squealed and alleged dramatically in Parliament that Amar Singh had paid them Rs1 crore as advance to either vote for the government or abstain from voting.

Till literally minutes before Mulayam Yadav and Amar Singh had a dramatic change of heart after a short meeting with former President APJ Abdul Kalam, the Third Front, also known as the United Progressive Alliance(UNPA), stood rock firm against the deal. When the wind was taken out of its perforated and feeble sail by Yadav’s unexpected(to them) turn, all seemed lost for the non-BJP parties ranged against the ruling UPA.

Then, something happened for which nobody was prepared. From nowhere, Mayawati, with just 17 MPs, emerged as the almost undisputed leader of the entire non-BJP opposition, including the commies who were stung by the decision of the Congress to go ahead with the deal despite their opposition to it. Though not a member of Parliament, Mayawati simply stumped Lal Krishna Advani with her chal(moves) and stole what was supposed to have been his moment of thunder in Parliament.

At one point before the vote took place, Mayawati, sure that the government would be defeated, actually started fancying herself as the next Prime Minister who would take over from Manmohan Singh immediately after he lost the vote. With the entire opposition behind her, she was sure that she would be able to prevail upon the BJP to support her government from outside. Her audacious and unexpected manoeuvres saw Advani turn lal(red)when he realised that he, the Prime Minister in waiting, would remain waiting despite leading the second largest party in the Lok Sabha.

So, when the government won the vote 275-256, thanks mainly to eight deserters from the BJP, five of whom voted for the government and three who abstained, a stunned and disappointed Advani probably had more reason to be relieved at the outcome. Mayawati was quick to launch an attack on him and his party for letting the government win. Reason? The BJP did not want to support the ‘dalit ki beti’, daughter of a dalit, to become the Prime Minister of India.

The import of this statement of Mayawati has perhaps not yet sunk in. A few days earlier, Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav had said almost exactly the same thing, in response to a question by a TV reporter about the possibility of Mayawati becoming PM. He did not know then that he was saying exactly what Mayawati wanted to hear and that that was exactly the allegation she would make within a couple of days, with just 17 MPs in her bag.

Till now, Mayawati’s reach has been largely confined to UP and some other pockets in North India. Dalits of Central and Southern India have not yet decisively cast their lot with her. But the sudden and real possibility of a dalit woman becoming the PM that the realignment of political forces has thrown up, has electrified dalits like never before. If Mayawati plays her cards well, the next elections are going to spring many surprises and could well make Mayawati the only candidate who will be accepted and supported by all political parties except perhaps the one which emerges the largest.

If there is a fractured mandate after the next elections, it will be very hard for any political party to ignore the power of Mayawati’s emotional charge that it is opposed to letting the daughter of a dalit become the PM.

I have been saying for some time that for perhaps the first time since Independence, Mayawati is in the unique position of being able to cause a split in the Congress party and lead the breakaway portion on to becoming the real party, with the remaining rump withering away faster than anyone can even imagine now. The developments during the last fortnight or so are a definite step towards making that possibility, which seemed fanciful to many, real and attainable in palpable measure within the next few months. It is now up to Mayawati to make the right moves. The Congress is unwittingly going to help her; she just has to seize the opportunity at the right moment.

The Congress, as was evident for some time now, has formally fallen into the frustrated arms of Mulayam Yadav and Amar Singh who have overnight turned from bitter foes into the most dependable allies and friends. This friendship is now being cemented with the Samajwadi Party(SP) being asked to join the government. There is also talk that the two parties are going to fight the next elections together in UP and that Rahul Gandhi himself is going to formalise that arrangement. That the Congress is going ahead to commit this hara kiri despite what happened in the past and despite the sensational events in Parliament which graphically exposed what has been known all along by everyone, is sufficient proof that Mayawati’s ‘chal’ has made Sonia Gandhi ‘behal’(in a bad condition).

Can two boats with holes in them hope to float if they are tied together? Or are they going to sink as soon as the boat with the larger holes takes in enough water? The SP has been stumped by Mayawati, and things are only going to get worse for it, thanks to the fundamental changes set in motion as a result of the vote in Parliament. The Congress has all but completely lost its social vote base to both Mayawati and Mulayam, and is now an almost non-existent player in UP with just about 8 per cent of the vote.

How does the Congress resurrect itself? By willingly going to bed in turns with those who have violated it or by taking them on? It is too weak to take them on together. So, the only workable option for it is to isolate and destroy one at a time. Today, Mulayam and his SP stand totally isolated. The entire opposition has rallied behind Mayawati and that is not going to change in a hurry. The SP and the BJP cannot be seen coming together unless something dramatic happens and Amar Singh’s broking skills are needed.

The Congress can go ahead and give the SP a few badly needed extra votes by allying with it; it may get a few in return too but the danger is that it might lose more. That is what happens when you befriend an friendless foe whose reputation is getting from bad to worse with each passing day. The SP is never going to reclaim its place and has to be content in future to remain a sidekick of the Congress. It needs the Congress; the Congress needs to shed it, if it has to have any hope of becoming a player capable of taking on the growing stronger Mayawati and the stagnating and blundering BJP.

Mayawati is re-writing the rules of the game at a furious pace. Thanks to the ineptitude of the principal political parties, Congress and BJP, she appears unstoppable. And, if she continues to show the same brilliance and strategic ability that has got her where she is today, 2009 may well see India get its first dalit Prime Minister. That will be a development as significant as that of Barrack Obama becoming the first black President of the United States, coincidently in the same year.
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3. Mayawati's hug of death
4. Is Modi BJP's answer to the Manmohan Mayawati challenge?
5. Looking for India's Obama in Harvard!

LOOKING FOR INDIA'S OBAMA IN HARVARD!

Barrack Hussein Obama’s vertical rise from nowhere to within striking distance of the White House has mesmerised the whole world and changed many unfavourable opinions about the US almost overnight across the globe.

It was a little more than three years back that Obama became only the third African American in a hundred years to get into the US Senate, and the only one at that time. Even then, this unknown man from nowhere was being spoken about as a possible candidate to run for President in 2012 or 2016. But here we are in 2008, awaiting his ascendancy to the most powerful office in the world already! His vision of an America not “pockmarked by racism and fear or led by politicians born into privilege and coached into automaton”, and his embodiment of the “authenticity” in politics that he believes people are “hungry for”, have most unexpectedly got him where, in the beginning of the campaign, no one gave him even an outside chance of getting. Not against Hillary Clinton.

Obama’s dream run has predictably got the imaginations of Indians going in all directions.

Rajdeep Sardesai, in an excellent post in his blog at ibnlive.com has correctly analysed as to why the Indian political system is not amenable to even the idea of an Obama suddenly emerging from some dark, even lit, corner of the country to claim the top job. The oldest and biggest political party, Congress, as he has rightly observed, has become the property of one family which alone is entitled to that slot. The other major national party, the BJP has thrown up only two big leaders in Vajpayee and Advani. That, I believe, has a lot to do with the almost ‘family-like’ stranglehold that the RSS has over the party.

Regional parties have been throwing up Obamas at the state level every once in a while. But, in most cases, all such political outfits have morphed into family owned enterprises like the Congress. I must hasten to add that the term ‘Obama’ is being used only in the context of the speed of rise of these individuals from obscurity. The beliefs and the level of integrity that Obama epitomises are not even in the frame.

Shashi Tharoor, who writes in the Sunday edition of the Times of India, has a totally different take on the rise of Obama. In his column of June 22, 2008, Tharoor takes great pains to emphasise the ‘continuity’ element in Obama’s rise by stressing the fact that out of 12 nominees for President of both the Republicans and Democrats in the last 20 years, 10 have graduated from either Harvard or Yale. Obama has graduated from Harvard Law School.

Tharoor skilfully cites these outstanding educational attainments of US Presidents to support his unstated belief that these have a direct co-relation with the equally outstanding leadership skills required for leading the nation. Then he laments that we in India are “saddled with politicians of, to put it mildly, considerably lower educational attainment”, and that products from India’s better colleges and universities do not go into politics. Of Indian colleges, he can recall only the one to which he went, St Stephen’s, and the two career diplomats and one lawyer from that college who are now politicians. He then goes on to say that India needs more politicians from such institutions “as India seeks to carve out a place for itself in the 21st century world.”

A Delhiite who was even earlier disconnected from real India, Tharoor is apparently mentally still living in the US where he spent long years. That is why he sounds like an American who wants to summarily transplant the American experience in India, arrogantly believing that he knows all there is to know about India.

Harvard, Yale, Stanford and the other Ivy League institutions of excellence do not disconnect Americans from America. They are American institutions built from a scratch by Americans for America. Their alumni talk in the language of ordinary Americans and can therefore connect with them seamlessly. But that still does not guarantee excellence of leadership and clarity of vision. President Bush has degrees from both Harvard and Yale. Look at the double barrelled mess he has made in eight years of Presidency!

India’s elite colleges and schools are exactly the opposite. They are meant for English speaking Indians living in their own almost-in-the-US islands in the metros, far removed from real ordinary Indians who make up more than 90 percent of the population. Most of those who graduate from these colleges cannot speak local languages properly and cannot relate to or understand the fears, motivations and complex societal dynamics of ordinary Indians.

The few who do join politics at some stage, hesitate to get their hands dirty in the heat and dust of real India, except as political gimmicks which even the dumb can see through. Since they can neither understand ordinary people properly, nor do they arrogantly care to, they do not like to enter politics except at a comfortable hierarchical level far removed from the grind of real grass root politics, the kind that real leaders revel in. And to get that magical entry, some will descend to the lowest depths of sycophancy and grovel more unashamedly than even an illiterate native ever will. They are not real leaders at all, nor can they ever be. This is something they understand pretty well even if they don’t admit it.

In any case, when far better overseas options are available from these Ivy League feeder institutions, where is the incentive to get into politics at the entry level and confront an almost alien countryside full of ‘natives’? These days even the English media is a better bet. Better even than the Left: heady power, no responsibility to the people, plenty of money; all permanently available, no matter who is in power!

Obama is what he is not because he is from Harvard. He is the Obama we know and admire because he and his wife Michelle have lived through the traumas and difficulties of being ordinary blacks in white America, and still risen through it all with positive energy, hope and an inclusive vision that has caught the imagination of the whole of America, indeed the world. Shades of Mahatma Gandhi?

Notwithstanding Obama’s scorching rise, let us not forget that he is the first ever black nominee of a major political party for President. He is only the third black in the senate in 100 years. And he is where he is not because he is black but despite being one, mainly because of the charisma that his starkly honest people-connect generates, dissolving his colour and the Hussein in his name almost completely. Another Obama may well not happen to the US for another 100 years, Harvard/Yale notwithstanding.

India may not have yet produced any Obama at the Prime Minister’s level. But we can be justifiably proud that at state and even senior national levels, India has a far better record than the US in democratically picking up leaders from many disadvantaged sections of the society. Even women have risen to all top political posts, without facing the kind of discrimination that they possibly still do in the US, notwithstanding their Ivy League resumes.

A Prime Ministerial Obama cannot emerge in India out of established political parties, given their rigid power structures and hierarchies, as long as the present multi-party system of parliamentary democracy exists. Freak political scenarios may catapult political lightweights into the PM’s chair. Charismatic leaders elected primarily on their own steam will, however, have to move gradually up the ladder and then just hope that circumstances conspire at just the right time to give them that critical final push into the final chair. Otherwise they will have to remain content in the shadows.

Sardesai is somewhat right when he says that Mayawati is the one Indian politician who comes closest to embracing the Obama principle. But, like Tharoor, he betrays some ignorance of India’s politico-social dynamics when he says that had she been “fortunate enough” to go to Harvard, she could have created “a new counter culture that is truly Indian(unlike the Left) and truly revolutionary(unlike the Congress)." To create a truly Indian counter culture you need to go to Harvard? That is something that will surprise even that great institution!

How would Mayawati have gone to Harvard in the first place? Before anything else, she would have had to have a very good command over English. To do that she, a dalit, would have had to go to a fine English medium school, where she would have been probably in a minority of one among upper castes. And then she would have to get into a very good English medium college too, again probably in a minority of one. In all these years of education, she would have got increasingly disconnected from the real dalits who live in the villages of India, and would in all likelihood, have lost all appetite to work for her Bahujan Samaj.

In any case after Harvard, she would hardly have wanted to come back to India to re-live her dalit past among dalits. Finally, even if she did want to become the dalit leader of the unprecedented power and mass following that she already commands, the Bahujan Samaj, which would have felt completely disconnected from her acquired mannerisms and language, would not have accepted her unquestioningly as its leader, like it has done now. Net result? She would have joined the Congress, in keeping with the culture of that party, and gradually dissolved into oblivion.

No one knows yet who will be India’s Obama. It could be Mayawati. It could even be Modi who some believe will beat anyone today in a straight US type fight for India’s top job. May be it will be someone no one has yet heard about.

Whoever it may be, one thing is certain: India’s Obama will not, should not, be found in the hallowed precincts of Harvard/Yale or the like. He/she will emerge from the soil of India, quite like the IITians who are erupting from small, unheard of places and even more unheard of schools and colleges. With the experience and understanding of all the disadvantages and struggles which many of us only hear or write about. And with the brains which many of us think are to be found only in a few places. And, hopefully, with the profound wisdom of this ancient land that many of us in the cities have totally forgotten about.
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Readers may also like to read the following:
1. Osama and Obama: Saul and Paul
2. Obama and Jindal: Hanuman and the Monkey

THE REAL SP THAT RAHUL NEEDS

The Congress and the Samajwadi Party (SP) have, as was evident despite denials, rediscovered their similarities and compatibilities in Uttar Pradesh (UP). In the face of the triumphant march of the getting bigger and bigger elephant of Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), they have realised that they have little choice but to suffer and yet support each other to avoid getting trampled under the elephant’s massive feet.

For the SP, this strategy makes great sense as it is likely to benefit from transfer of the admittedly miniscule vote bank of the Congress which will help it fill the gap between very narrow defeat and victory in a number of constituencies, enabling it to remain at least the second largest party in UP. For the Congress, on the other hand, the benefits do not appear to of any real use. The party is today almost totally decimated in a state that was once its stronghold and from where the Nehru-Gandhi family has fought all its elections. Seeing it grasp Mulayam Yadav’s dhoti out of sheer desperation as a minor and almost insignificant partner cannot please anyone who has seen the heights that the party had scaled and held on to for a very long time.

Sania Mirza has done to Indian sport what no sportswoman as ever been able to do. And her influence is not limited to tennis alone. She has inspired lots of young girls to take to sport and has at the same time caught the attention of boys and men who avidly follow her performances on and off the court. PT Usha is without doubt the greatest woman athlete that India has produced. But she never became the icon and inspiration that Sania has become, helped greatly by the media explosion that keeps the spotlight on her. Sania epitomises what pretty young women want to become and what a lot of men want in a woman. She exudes a raw energy that can charge up even the laziest of guys. Should she ever decide to stand for elections, there is little doubt that she will get a whole lot of women votes. Many men, young and old, notwithstanding their political affiliations, will also find themselves pressing her button, on the electronic voting machine.

After Rajiv Gandhi’s tragic assassination, the nation hardly ever got to see Rahul Gandhi as he went abroad to study, though some say sarcastically that he went there to ‘discover’ India from the eyes of the White Man. Apart from the reticent Sonia Gandhi handicapped to some extent by her difficulty with Hindi and her Italian roots, the only other member of the Family that was seen and heard for years was Priyanka Gandhi, now Vadra.

Priyanka has always come across as a determined pretty young lady with a ready, genuine and winning smile, and a spontaneity and easy natural charm that appeals to all. Before Rahul Gandhi returned to India to stake his claim to the throne of the Congress and thereby the nation, Congressmen - nothing new - were quite vociferous in proclaiming Priyanka as the New Hope of the party. Now nobody says that even in a whisper.

A few days back, Priyanka Gandhi reminded everyone that she was still around, and how. Showing great courage and compassion, she went and met Nalini, the assassin of her father, in Vellore jail. This is not something which many people can do and handle with grace considering the intense emotions involved. But, if one goes by reports in the press, Priyanka was able to connect with Nalini – they even spoke about the caesarean births of their children – so well that the latter exclaimed later that her sins had been washed.

Not having yet been deleted from the collective memory of the India that has seen her grow after her father’s demise, her dramatic re-appearance, though personal, has made a bigger impact than the numerous consciously political steps that the Congress has taken in the recent past to win back the voters it has been steadily losing for a number of years now. The enduring image of the tender Priyanka trying bravely to fill her father’s shoes has been positively reinforced in the collective consciousness of the nation.

Rahul Gandhi has been visiting dalit homes all over the country in his ongoing ‘Discover India’ journeys, to connect with them and make them believe that he is with them more sincerely than even Mayawati is. Unfortunately, his rather long absence from India and stay in the West has broken the average Indian’s connect with him. This handicap is reinforced by his rather formal Western mannerisms which lack spontaneity and which, to Indians living in the countryside, are alien, aloof and not ‘theirs’. Try to picture Rahul in dalit home on a dalit cot and you will get a sense of the gap that dalits and other ordinary villagers feel between him and them, even though most of them belong to the same generation that he represents.

Priyanka, on the other hand, looking and sounding totally Indian in a saree or salwar kameez, will appear at home and comfortable and natural even squatting, village women style, in the house of a poor dalit or non-dalit. Her act will not appear laboured and she will communicate easily with all. The word will spread quickly and she will be the recipient of the simple and uncultivated affection of the young and the unconditional blessings of the elder.This will translate into a substantial number of votes at the time of elections.

Priyanka’s entry into the political arena will rattle Mayawati really hard, arousing her deeper insecurities and forcing her to work double time to keep her dalit flock with her.

Priyanka’s return to active politics will also electrify and galvanize the Congress like it has not been for decades. Is that not what the Congress party wants? Does it really behove the Grand Party to demean itself by latching on to the ‘goondas’ of SP for its very survival, forget revival?

The real ‘SP’ that Rahul Gandhi needs to revive the Congress in UP, indeed the country, is thus not Samajwadi Party but Sister Priyanka, that pretty bundle of spontaneous, accessible energy that many Indians can relate to. Through her, they can also better connect emotionally to not only her father but her grandmother Indira Gandhi too.

With the real SP’s active help and involvement, Rahul will be able to lead the revival of the Congress party in a serious and meaningful manner. The visible sibling bonding will also appeal to all Indians who cherish the strong traditional family values that set India apart from other individualistic societies where these have largely disappeared.

Tagging on to other competing and stronger political outfits may not bring in the desired tactical advantage that the Congress is looking for in the next general election. What it will almost certainly lead to is a strategic disaster from which recovery will be long, painful and difficult, if at all.

It is up to Rahul now to decide which is the SP that he really needs.
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THE 'CLEANSING' BATTLE FOR DELHI BEGINS.

The knives are out and the battle has now truly been joined in UP.

The rumblings had started some months back, after the Congress was badly mauled in the state elections that followed the one in UP last year. The bravado of dumping Mulayam Yadav’s Samajwadi Party (SP) on the imagined strength of Brand Rahul Gandhi had given way to the sobering reality that the Congress was falling into a bottomless pit. The strategy of trying to alternatively clutch and combat the two strong planks that had become powerful on the strength of the very vote banks that had been the property of the Congress party for decades was clearly a dismal flop.

This time, the Congress has decided that Mayawati is the one to take on and defeat in its battle to get to the seat of power in Delhi after the ensuing general elections. Leading the charge is the dynamic Rahul Gandhi who has taken it upon himself to single handedly, with a little help from mom, get Mayawati’s foot soldiers, the dalits, into the Congress camp.

Mayawati, after analysing the new challenge thrown by the Delhi Duo of the Congress, has struck back in a manner which the sophisticated and disconnected lot of analysts and politicians are dismissing as crass and not worthy of dignifying! But, the riposte is not meant for cozy drawing room analysis. It is meant for the dalits whom Rahul Gandhi is trying to get to desert Mayawati. And they, deprived of human dignity and empowerment for generations, will get that message loud and clear.

For them, when Mayawati says that Rahul Gandhi after staying in a dalit house “cleanses” himself by bathing with a special soap, followed by ‘dhoop and agarbatti’, it is a stark reminder of the reality of humiliation that many upper caste men heap on them openly in exactly that manner. We in the cities may have forgotten, but in many rural areas, upper castes still avoid physical contact with dalits, not even sharing water from the same well. And if any physical contact does take place by mistake, bathing and “purification” are the norm. But, when it comes to dalit women, contact is not avoided at all. On the contrary, the most intimate of contacts, sexual, is encouraged and actively sought on many specious grounds including the one that it prevents leprosy!

The timeless message of Mayawati’s attack on Rahul Gandhi is that only a dalit leader will, in his/her heart, treat them with dignity as equals; others are on nothing more than a pretence mission to con them for their votes.

Let us face it. Till Kanshi Ram emerged on the scene that is precisely what was happening in most parts of the country. Dr. BR Ambedkar had lit the first torch of protest against the inhuman inequalities that had risen out of the practice of the caste system. Kanshi Ram rekindled it and took it onto another level. Mayawati is now literally on the verge of actuating the full power of dalits, something that is becoming a reality only because all citizens have the equal right to vote freely and fearlessly.

Most of us know that Rahul Gandhi undergoes no “purification” as Mayawati has alleged. That does not matter. Rahul has, unfortunately, to bear the historical burden that will make most dalits believe that he does.

Mayawati has till now surprised her all her opponents and media luminaries with her political skills and extraordinary intelligence, strengthened manifold by her unbroken connect with the ordinary Indian, particularly the dalit. This latest round of her political battle with the Congress and other upper castes threatened by the rise of dalit power is only going to get nastier and more and more personal. And, there will be many more unexpected responses from Mayawati, the type bright SWOT analysts will never anticipate!

Who is going to emerge stronger at the end of it all? As far as dalits are concerned they will get even more solidly behind Mayawati in UP, thanks to the confused and unending flip-flop of the Congress, its budding friendship with old ally and Mayawati’s arch enemy Mulayam Yadav, the complete absence of credible dalit leadership at any level and the party’s total dependence on the remote and now alien to them Brand Gandhi. There will be a ripple effect in other states too where Mayawati is steadily gaining ground at the expense of the Congress. How big Mayawati can make that ripple will be crucial.

The real challenge for Mayawati is actually not the Congress at all. If she can continue to manage the environment skillfully, that party will in fact be her biggest asset, her ticket to power, at its own expense! Her real challenge is to get more and more people and parties of upper castes on her side and make them accept the leadership and supremacy of a dalit in the national power equation.

Considering the complete lack of morality and conscience that marks India’s political landscape, getting upper caste led political parties and politicians to back her, even prostrate before her, will be the least of her challenges. If she can get just enough non-dalit votes to reach a critical number in Parliament, that spectacle will happen on its own; the unfettered greed of enjoying the spoils of office and power will ensure that they will drool unashamedly and discover never heard of virtues in dalit power.

Don’t be surprised if they then discover even Ma Durga in Mayawati! To be honest, she has already shown enough courage and strength for people to see the Goddess in her. Had she not been a dalit, they would have surely seen that by now. That is the real “cleansing” that they, indeed us all, need to be put through, to rid ourselves of the burden of shame of many generations. In this multi-layered battle for Delhi, it is for us to help Mayawati show the world that the time for it has come.

CONGRESS-SP, BJP-BSP: FULL CIRCLE IN UP?

Only last year, the Congress and the Samajwadi Party were on the same side of the fence in UP. But, months before the elections, the Congress became the latter’s sworn enemy, vowing to defeat it and end Mulayam Singh Yadav’s “Gunda Raj” in the state.

What brought about this sudden U-turn? I suspect that the induction of Rahul Gandhi into UP politics and his decision to actively campaign for the Congress as its star campaigner was the key factor. Disconnected “loyalists”, helped by similarly placed media moguls, probably had visions of the latest Nehru-Gandhi taking the state by storm, just like his illustrious ancestors had done. He would, they believed, single handedly attract enough additional votes to at least ensure that no one could form a government in the state without the critical support of the Congress.

In the event, not only did the strategy backfire badly, the vote percentage of the party also actually declined! The hold of the dynasty had almost gone, possibly irretrievably. That did not stop party mouthpieces from claiming a ‘victory’ because the party had succeeded in defeating the Samajwadi Party! In reality, Mayawati stunned everyone by not only defeating the SP but also getting to power entirely on her own, something which no party had been able to do in UP for a long time.

Then began a honeymoon between Mayawati and the Congress, which the Congress thought would bring it some advantage beyond winning the Presidential elections. I had then itself warned that Mayawati’s hug was the hug of death from which only the Congress would emerge a loser. But the realization took a long time in coming.

The successive defeats faced by the Congress in the other state elections that followed, made the party sit up and realize that the BSP was taking away enough voters everywhere from the Congress, to ensure the defeat of many of its candidates by that critical margin. Mayawati was then called a “spoiler”, again an erroneous assessment as she is clearly focused on winning enough seats in parliament to ensure that she becomes the PM in quick time. The spoiling part is only an incidental fallout of her strategy to grab the top post.

Of late, the Congress has started coming to grips with the enormity of the threat posed by Mayawati. In a recent interview to Arnab Goswami of Times Now, Congress leader Digvijay Singh was candid enough to admit that Mayawati was a competitor. The logical deduction is that the party has to escape from her hug if it has to have any realistic chance of reclaiming at least some lost ground.

The first real signs of the Congress readying to take on the BSP in UP are beginning to emerge. Rahul Gandhi has rightly decided to attack Mayawati in her seemingly impregnable dalit fortress in a positive, non-divisive manner. His recent visit to the family of dalits who had been killed and his announcements of steps to take care of them, is the first aggressive step taken by the young Congress leader to reclaim the party’s primary vote bank from the BSP. Mayawati is visibly concerned as she too rushed to the spot to take the sheen off Rahul Gandhi’s effort. The Congress has to show a much greater involvement and understanding at the grassroots level if it does not want such efforts to be dismissed by dalits as insincere, reactive steps which will leave them as un-empowered as they were before Mayawati burst on the scene.

What is the other latest development which is taking place as the Congress readies to take on Mayawati? The party is preparing to re-embrace the very Samajwadi Party which it had shunned just about a year back! The latter will only be too keen to get the critical number of votes it needs from the Congress to get enough MPs into parliament in the forthcoming general elections.

Who will be the real loser if the Congress and SP get together again to form an opportunist, immoral alliance?

The answer to this question is, to my mind, almost identical to the one about an alliance with Mayawati. But does the Congress, with a vote share of around only 8 per cent, have a choice? The same question needs to be answered by even the BJP if it is thinking of hitching on to Mayawati again, even though it has a much larger vote share.

UP is a key state for both the national parties, both of whom have been trounced by caste-specific regional parties with strong charismatic leaders. SP’s hold is limited to UP only, though it will and should try to exploit the Yadav vote bank in Bihar too with the help of Laloo Yadav. Mayawati is the real pan national threat.

Both the Congress and the BJP have to bite the bullet and go it alone in UP, even if they are trounced there in the ensuing general elections. Any pre-poll alliance with the SP or the BSP by them will only further erode their credibility as well as vote bank. That will be far more debilitating in the long run than any Pyrrhic victory that such an alliance might bring in the next elections.

But, knowing the total focus that our politicians have on winning the next elections alone, ‘whatever it takes’, the wheel might just come full circle in UP. It looks like Mulayam Yadav will embrace the ‘kid’, as he had recently called Rahul Gandhi, as an able and trustworthy ally. The BJP might then just panic and rush into the crushing arms of Mayawati!

MAYAWATI: SPOILER OR SAVIOUR?

Mayawati’s hug of death is finally beginning to choke the Congress party.

Before reading on, please carefully go through what I had written way back in August last year. In the post entitled "Mayawati’s Hug of Death”, I had then itself warned about the dangers that the Congress party was being exposed to in accepting Mayawati’s warm and reassuring sisterly hug after she had won the UP elections. Despite the many unconcealed signs to the effect given out over the years by Mayawati and her mentor Kanshi Ram, the Congress kept getting sucked into her death trap. The article needs to be read in its entirety; there is little need to repeat what I have already stated there with some lucidity.

It has taken a very long time for the Congress to realize that Mayawati is quietly removing the ground from beneath its feet. The lady is now being dubbed, again incorrectly, by the Congress a “spoiler” outside UP where she is causing the defeat of many Congress candidates by luring away dalit voters from the Congress. Her base in these states being small presently, her candidates do not win but eat enough into the vote bank of the Congress to ensure that its candidates are defeated due to this splitting of votes.

The embrace of Mayawati, who spares no opportunity to threaten the emasculated Congress party that she will withdraw support to the government at the Centre if it does not toe her line (the Congress has given in every time so far, any surprise?), is at last beginning to be seen as what it always has been. Possibly the overwhelming need for instant gratification of the lust for power had blinded the party till now.

Maywati is not in the political arena to make or mar the fortunes of other parties. She is in the game to get to power at the Centre on her own. She is not putting up candidates in states other than UP to ‘spoil’ the chances of the candidates of other political parties, primarily the Congress. That is happening as a bye product of her strategy to build an all India base, like she did in UP, to eventually get enough MPs to be the Prime Minister entirely on her own steam. Yes, in the interim she will spare no effort to get a critical number of MPs to ensure that no other party or alliance can form a government on its own. With the BJP and the Congress being at the opposite ends of an irreconcilable ideological spectrum, she will inevitably be in the unique position of choosing her political mates entirely on her own terms, doling out crumbs to salivating nobodies whose sole objective of being in this game of politics is to find the shortest route to the ill-gotten spoils that power showers in complete abundance.

There has been a lot of debate lately about the prospects of Mayawati outside of UP. Most analysts have comfortingly concluded that she has virtually no base or organization in place in many states; regional aspirations and dynamics will ensure that she cannot make any headway; her new fangled alliance with Brahmins in UP is going to fall apart; dalits will soon be disenchanted with her as they realize that upper castes have benefited more from her etc. Were not they similarly dismissive when Kanshi Ram started out with the then hopelessly impossible idea of empowering dalits politically on their own rather than as fringe players in other political parties?

Forget BSP. Remember how even seasoned politicians had written off BJP in the not too distant past as an urban party of banias limited to pockets of North India? See how the party reinvented itself and where it is now? From almost nowhere, it has emerged a one of the two leading national parties in the country, the other being the Congress, of course!

Mayawati is going to do a BJP on the national political scene sooner than most of us would like to even contemplate.

Mahatma Gandhi had dreamt of the day when a dalit would be the Prime Minister of India. That dream could not have been in the limited political sense of a dalit physically occupying that chair like Dr Manmohan Singh is doing now. Mahatma Gandhi would have visualized proper empowerment of dalits in all walks of life as well as the in the political hierarchy. He would have wanted transfer of real power to the dalits and other long downtrodden sections of our society, culminating in a dalit getting to the top job on his own, not due to condescending charity or circumstantial compulsions.

Without doubt, Mahatma Gandhi would have envisioned this shift in the power balance to be spearheaded by his own party, the Congress, from whose ranks a dalit would rise to be PM. He could have never dreamt that this grand old political party would one day mutate into a family property, making the rise of anyone else impossible.

In a larger sense, Mayawati is giving shape to the Mahatma’s dream. A Mayawati could simply not have risen in the Congress. Paradoxically, after stridently talking only about dalits, she is mutating into echoing the very soul of the Congress party that Gandhi had dreamt about. To some Congressmen, she may be appearing to be the ‘spoiler’ of the party; in reality she may be well on the way to becoming the saviour of the party, both in spirit and on ground.

I do not know whether Mayawati has given thought to this possibility: For perhaps the first time since Independence, she is in the unique position of being able to cause a split in the Congress party, to lead the breakaway portion on to becoming the real party with the remaining rump withering away faster than anyone can even imagine now. Alternatively, of course it sounds fanciful and will not happen I know, Mayawati can be made the Congress President and projected as its Prime Ministerial candidate for the next elections! In one stroke, dalits, for long the cannon fodder of the Congress, will get the empowerment that Mahatma Gandhi had dreamt for them within the Congress and the Congress will come back to power with a thumping majority in the next general elections.

It is for Congressmen to decide whether they want to treat Mayawati as a ‘spoiler’ or start acknowledging the fact that she can indeed be the saviour of the Congress party. The choice they make may well determine whether they and their party survive or dissolve into oblivion.

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Readers may also like to read:

1. Mayawati and Dalit Power
2. Single and on a mission: India's alpha (ge)Ms.
3. Mayawati's hug of death
4. Is Modi BJP's answer to the Manmohan Mayawati challenge?
5. Looking for India's Obama in Harvard!

CAN RAHUL DO A GANDHI?

Sometimes a visual conveys reality more tellingly than the thousands of words written to obfuscate it.

A few months back, both Rahul Gandhi and Shahrukh Khan were watching a cricket match. Rahul Gandhi was with his brother-in-law Robert Vadra. In the row behind and a frame or two above and to the left of him sat Shahrukh Khan with his wife Gauri and his co-star Deepika Padukone.

During the course of the match, TV cameras repeatedly showed Rahul and Shahrukh, both acutely aware that the camera was on them. The shots were also shown on the giant screen in the stadium. Rahul, whenever the camera zoomed in on him, appeared stone stiff. As the camera moved slightly to show Shahrukh in the frame, the superstar naturally looked comfortable.

Rahul Gandhi would not have missed the very loud and disturbing message that the images conveyed. There was no, absolutely no response from the spectators whenever his face was shown. But the moment Shahrukh appeared in frame, the crowd responded with warmth and affection that the actor enjoyed, acknowledging it with a wave of his hand.

This was no rural audience that did not know what Rahul Gandhi looked like. This was a lot of young, educated urban Indians who would have seen his face many times before they saw it again on the giant screen that day.

The youth of India was clearly not enthused by this young leader who was laying claim to be the future leader of the country.

Contrast this with the many columns written by leading media luminaries (some given national awards later by the government for their efforts) about the ‘crown prince’, the dynamic and modern youth leader who had fired the imagination of young Indians and had the opposition worried etc etc! Then there were also those who thought they could generate a ‘wave’ in his favour by telling the nation on TV about the dramatic effect that the election campaign being carried out by him in UP, even Gujarat, was going to have on the electoral fortunes of the Congress party. One need not mention the heaps of the absurdly sycophantic praises ceaselessly being sung by otherwise educated and intelligent ‘leaders’ of the Congress party in a manner that would be humiliating to far lesser men.

There is, not surprisingly, a fatal disconnect between projection and reality. And this gap is going to only harm Rahul Gandhi as well as the Congress party. Unless he does something remarkable to alter course.

This disconnect stems from the fact that the English speaking media and the inner circle of the Congress belong to and identify with an India that is far removed from the India that Rahul Gandhi hopes to rule one day. The almost complete westernization and urbanization of this lot does not permit it to relate to and therefore understand and respond to the real Indian who votes.

That is why from time to time, Rahul Gandhi does things which he thinks will politically ‘endear’ him to the vast majority of Indians who do not relate to him at all. People see through everything, particularly that which does not have the energy of sincerity and compassion with it. Take for example his recent spending of a night in the house of a dalit whose food too he ate. Will it bring any political dividend at all? Only the disconnected will think it will.

When Mahatma Gandhi stayed with dalits, he stayed as one of them, not as a condescending ‘Raj Kumar’ doing the downtrodden a favour for a fleeting night, before rushing for ablutions next morning to the Guest House! Mahatma Gandhi never pretended to treat dalits with dignity with the ulterior motive of getting their votes; Rahul Gandhi has been forced by the emergence of Mayawati to put on an act as part of a strategy to eat into her vote bank. That historical condescension is the precise reason for the phenomenal rise of Mayawati. So, the dalits will view this gesture of ‘upper caste’ Rahul as one more political gimmick designed to thwart their real rise. The Congress, instead of getting more dalit votes will wind up actually losing them!

Had Rahul Gandhi made similar gestures years ago, during the many years he chose to spend abroad to understand his country from the remote comfort of the West, the sincerity would have come through. The damage done by his long absence from the scene in India has not perhaps been understood in its entirety. How can it, when the world of those around him who matter is as far removed from the India they write, talk and advise about?

One more example to highlight the seemingly unbridgeable gap: Take this grandiose National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), which is being promoted as a major initiative taken by Rahul Gandhi. Is it going to fetch votes for the Congress? Is it going to help Rahul Gandhi connect with the poor and downtrodden better? More importantly, is this annual splurge of Rs 40-50,000 crores of national funds going to actually improve the lives of the poorest for whom it is intended? In a country where up to 90 percent of funds allotted for such schemes have historically been pocketed by hopelessly corrupt government servants, politicians and bureaucrats, is it going to be any different this time? The answers to all the above questions are resoundingly in the negative. Except, of course, to those in that weird, closed club who won’t even let the country’s air in for poor Rahul baba to breathe!

Quite sometime back, there was a popular show on a leading English channel where the topic of discussion was about Indians being still obsessed with royalty. The question itself revealed the small world of the few hundred celebrities and Page 3 socialites that make up the ‘India’ to whom erstwhile royals mean anything! They are blissfully unaware that to Indians at large, most of the erstwhile rulers mean nothing anymore. Real Indians are quite aware that most of the erstwhile princes did precious little for their kingdoms and subjects, and that their energies were devoted to enriching and enjoying themselves. Worse, they were the ones who fought foolishly with each other to give away the country to the British.

With such a set of advisors and ‘opinion gaugers and makers’, Rahul Gandhi is going to find it virtually impossible to touch the chord of India. Youth by itself will not propel him to power as these guys are deluding themselves into believing. Nor will the arrogance of his family’s achievements and the ignoring of its many failures help. Like the royal families of pre-independence India, the hold, the name of the Nehru-Gandhi family now means little to real Indians, particularly the youth.

Rahul Gandhi will have to almost completely reinvent himself if he has to have a realistic hope being a real leader of India sometime in the future. Will he able to ‘detoxify’ himself of the influence of long years spent abroad and the remaining spent cocooned in Delhi surrounded by a bunch of individuals disconnected from real India?

There was another Gandhi, the Mahatma, who did precisely that not too long ago and changed the destiny of this ancient land.

Does Rahul baba have similar courage, honesty and vision. Can he do a Gandhi?