A strange paradox seems to have benumbed the Bharatiya Janata Party even as it seeks to put a confident face forward in the forthcoming elections in Himachal Pradesh. The party had virtually conceded the State to the Congress until Mr. Narendra Modi’s mind-boggling victory forced it to recognize the burgeoning Hindu groundswell nation-wide, and give Mr. Virbhadra Singh a run for his money. While this willingness to seriously fight a tough electoral battle well-behooves a political party, the BJP still needs to understand that what people appreciate is a commitment to core values represented by a core constituency.
The party could take valuable lessons from the redoubtable Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister. Ms. Mayawati has the courage of her convictions and a clear appreciation of where her best interests lie. That is why, faced with a threat to her chair, she has firmed up the time-tested Dalit-Brahmin alliance and won plaudits from the Dalits for taking on the once formidable Kunda MLA, Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya. As a richly deserved bonus, she seems set to emerge as the State’s middle class messiah, because of her strong-arm tactics against the controversial MLA.
The BJP, in contrast, fumbles between the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, Raja Bhoj’s Saraswati Mandir in Dhar, and the presence of cow meat in the Prime Minister’s cuisine. Mercifully, the allegations about beef-eating have been received with distaste across the political spectrum, and despite the lack of overt support for Mr. Vajpayee, are likely to die a natural death. The positive outcome of this controversy in my view is the realization that there are core Hindu sentiments that cannot be messed around with. Mr. Vajpayee’s understandable anxiety not to be found wanting on this score has helped centrestage and legitimize these emotions in the public realm. The defence of Mr. Vajpayee by secular journalists has further entrenched the Hindu idiom in public discourse.
The crux of the issue is that in politics, what matters is the constituency. Mayawati correctly gauged the multiple issues linked with the continuance of thakurvad in the countryside, and the pent up frustration against the rule of gun-wielding landlords (and land-grabbers). Thus, though she aimed at her Dalit constituency, which has borne the brunt of the regal pretensions of Raja Bhaiya’s family for so many decades, she killed many birds with one stone. The raid on Udai Pratap Singh’s palace and Raja Bhaiya’s home challenged thakurvad in its own den. At the same time, it struck a deadly blow at the Nehruvian polity, which deliberately propped up ex-rajas and ex-zamindars in the countryside on the pretext of ensuring social stability.
In reality, these agents of the status quo worked to frustrate social and economic reforms to the extent possible, while cornering licenses and permits from the socialist state. Policies and schemes meant for the poor were often creamed-off by well-connected landholders (a problem not unknown even today). But their worst crime was to pro-actively inhibit the children of the deprived sections of society from acquiring an education and thus improving their prospects in life. Even today, in vast parts of the country, one can find leaders and groups who do not want rural or urban labouring classes to be educated. They fear that once the latter acquire a sense of dignity and self-worth, they will forget their station in life. What is more, they will seek higher wages. The attitude that social abuse of lower classes is justified is still deeply entrenched and needs to be tackled with firm political will if we are to make progress as a nation.
This is not to say that there has been no progress since independence, but that it has not been half as much as it should have been. One powerful reason for this state of affairs was the availability of State patronage to the likes of Raja Bhaiya, who considered themselves above the law. This is easily corroborated by a glance at some of the recoveries made during the raid on his properties, which makes the opposition to the use of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) against him seem insincere.
Guns and explosives were found in such quantities that the State police had to request the Army to help make the recoveries from the sprawling estate. A 1000-plus acre private pond was found on the estate, which yielded fish worth lakhs of rupees every month. Other findings include thirty-three liquor shops and other unaccounted wealth in real estate, jewellery and bank accounts.
Of course the piece de resistance is the recovery of a human skeleton from a pond, which may be the mortal remains of one Santosh Mishra. An ordinary middle class citizen, Mishra reportedly overtook Raja Bhaiya’s cavalcade with his scooter one day in 2001. He either did not know, or did not care, that he was supposed to stop, get down, fold his hands and let the Big Man pass. Raja Bhaiya’s megalomania did not permit him to overlook this slight, and Mishra was allegedly abducted, beaten, and tossed into the pond. Given the myriad stories that the MLA made police officers stand when he visited police stations and sat on their seats, it is probably a miracle that Mishra’s wife was able to register an FIR for her missing husband.
And if this was the fate of ordinary upper caste citizens, one can only shudder at the treatment that must have been meted out to the poor scheduled castes who lived in the Kunda MLA’s shadow. For there can be no doubt that Raja Bhaiya casts a long shadow. Though languishing in jail since last October, a sarpanch who was a key witness in a case against him was shot dead. The father of the deceased openly accused the MLA on television. Samajwadi Party MP Amar Singh, who initiated a sectarian protest against the crackdown on Raja Bhaiya and his father, may view these misdemeanours with equanimity. Neither his party nor the Congress has much to loose in Uttar Pradesh. But it is baffling that BJP leaders such as Vinay Katiyar and Rajnath Singh should join Singh’s crusade against Mayawati’s strike against Raja Bhaiya.
It is true that the BJP once befriended the Kunda MLA. Politics, as is well-known, makes strange bedfellows. But bedfellows make poor politics. As a former Chief Minister, Mr. Rajnath Singh looks pathetic playing second fiddle to Raja Bhaiya. He should project himself as a progressive Rajput who has no truck with the misdemeanours of erring caste fellows. In Gujarat, the sulking Mr. Keshubhai Patel was cut to size because VHP leader Dr. Praveenbhai Togadia could establish far greater credibility with the Patel community. Mr. Rajnath Singh should similarly seek to be the antidote to Raja Bhaiya’s damage potential. The Rajput community must also be made to understand that the language of aggression and muscle-power are neither honourable nor acceptable in a modern democracy.
It is perhaps just as well that the BJP high command has directed the State leaders not to rock the boat in Lucknow. The BJP’s core constituency is a natural ally of the Bahujan Samaj Party leader’s Dalit constituency. The disproportionate aggrandizement of the Rajput community should not be allowed to disturb this partnership.
The Pioneer, 25 February 2003