India Today Uttar Pradesh Mayawati: A Captive Legacy

September 1, 1997

UTTAR PRADESH
A Captive Legacy

Mayawati has rewritten the state's political script and will try to ensure that Kalyan Singh pursues her policies if he becomes chief minister next month.

By Saba Naqvi Bhaumik with Subhash Mishra

It's 5 p.m. on a wet Lucknow evening. Chief Minister Mayawati suddenly decides to do a spot check of Ambedkar Udyan. Her convoy sets off for the controversial Rs 120 crore park coming up on the outskirts of the city. Mayawati disembarks in the pouring rain, followed by a dozen-odd officials, umbrellas in hand. The 28-acre park is being developed at an amazing pace, with six shifts working round the clock. The bronze statues of Ambedkar standing on elephants -- the BSP symbol -- carved from white marble are almost ready. The flooring has been laid. But the chief minister is in a rage. Because water is collecting inside the park during the rains. Open a drain here, level the flooring there, her instructions are precise. "Tum sust aadmi ho (you are a lazy man)," she tells a secretary-level officer. "Tum dheela kaam karva rahe ho (your work is slack)," she ticks off the district magistrate. The dressing-down continues for two hours as Mayawati examines every small detail. "I want all the changes made in exactly 48 hours," she commands. The officers, now drenched to the bone, nod their heads silently.

All the while, a film crew is recording the proceedings for posterity. It was sent to Lucknow by the slain music mogul Gulshan Kumar to record the life and times of Maya Memsaab, Behenji to her followers. The unit has been shadowing the 42-year-old chief minister for some weeks now. But what the movie crew will never be able to capture on film is the aggressive manner in which Mayawati has consolidated her position.

If all goes according to plan, she will hand over charge to the BJP's Kalyan Singh on September 21. With the countdown having begun, Mayawati is making sure that Kalyan has little room for manoeuvre. So, while mentor Kanshi Ram has started making unfriendly noises about the BJP, Mayawati has swiftly allocated additional portfolios to trusted BSP ministers and begun the last phase of bureaucratic postings -- the key to political clout in Uttar Pradesh. Though she does not relish another spell of Governor Romesh Bhandari's raj -- which she calls proxy rule by Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav -- she is ready to push the BJP to the brink.

BJP-BSP
Unequal Partners

The big question in Uttar Pradesh is: why has the BJP, with 176 MLAs and eight Independents (just 28 short of a simple majority of 212), allowed the BSP -- with just 67 MLAs -- to dominate the coalition? Particularly when a section of the BJP's vote bank has been seething at the Ambedkar drive. Kunwar Servesh Kumar, the BJP MLA from Moradabad, has resigned over his party's "passive" role in the coalition and 30 workers from Hardoi quit, protesting against Mayawati's misuse of the Harijan Act.
The answer lies not only in the BJP's quest for a national coalition with the BSP but also in the local electoral politics. All the major political parties, the BJP, SP and BSP, have fairly static vote banks. Only combinations can break the deadlock. Both BJP and BSP leaders are aware that a break-up of their alliance would only strengthen Mulayam's hand. That is why most of Kanshi Ram's recent utterances are being viewed as public posturing, another instance of the wily leader bartering his 20 per cent vote share for the best possible deal from the BJP, even while playing footsie with the Congress.
A BJP-BSP national alliance would result in a virtual sweep in Uttar Pradesh and an excellent performance in Madhya Pradesh. With the BJP about a 100 seats short of a simple majority at the Centre, that appears one way to install Atal Bihari Vajpayee as prime minister. An alliance with the BSP also seems to be the BJP's best defence in Uttar Pradesh against a Sonia Gandhi-led Congress formation.
With the Congress anxious to reclaim the Muslim vote nationwide, Mulayam is seen as the front-runner in any future national alliance led by the party. Public posturing apart, that again forces Kanshi Ram back to the BJP. Says state BJP leader Lalji Tandon: "The BSP-BJP alliance is good for social harmony. We should try our best to continue it."
But once Kalyan Singh makes it as chief minister, his rivals within the BJP are aware that he will try to attract MLAs from other parties to muster a simple majority. The situation in Uttar Pradesh remains too fluid for precise predictions. But it is clear that unless the BSP comes up with another option, it will be forced to remain with the "super vultures", the BJP.

The idea is to extract another six months from the party. Failing that, ensure that Kalyan remains a captive chief minister.

Kalyan has been seething with anger. Mayawati has cut into the BJP's base, isolated the party's upper caste constituency and cultivated leaders opposed to him. He will be straining to retaliate, but could find his hands tied.

Take bureaucratic postings. Traumatised by overnight transfers and the sudden ascendance of Dalit officers, most bureaucrats are anxiously waiting for Mayawati's term to end. Says a senior secretary: "If she is a bureaucrat's nightmare then Kalyan is a dream. He goes by the book." But should Kalyan reverse her appointments, the alliance will be put under tremendous strain.

Kalyan will also have to grapple with a budget that leaves little resources for anything but continued Ambedkarisation. He will tread carefully as the BJP's social base now extends from the upper castes to a section of the Dalits (the party has 36 Dalit MLAs). Besides, the RSS is also laying stress on the party's efforts to incorporate Dalits into its fold.

Moreover, the single-mindedness with which Mayawati has patronised Dalit causes has brought about a subtle shift in caste equations in the hinterland. That is her social legacy. Her real achievement has not been the Ambedkar parks in urban centres, but the development work she has forced through in rural areas. This she did by placing Dalit officers in key posts and ensuring that work in all schemes for Dalits progressed on a war footing. That is why she spent last week in marathon divisional-level meetings to review the progress of the Ambedkar Gram Vikas Yojna.

The results in this scheme have been startling. In just three months of her rule, 1,500 link roads were constructed in Ambedkar villages, compared to just 800 during the preceding year. Then there are the thousands of handpumps, and electricity is suddenly reaching the 11,524 Ambedkar villages.

In Shahuji Maharaj district, recently carved out of Banda, for instance, new roads can be seen in village after village dominated by the tribal Kols and Dalits. An area where the BSP made electoral inroads in 1996, many Dalits say this is the first time the administration is looking into their grievances -- in the past it was the Other Backward Castes (OBCs) who cornered the benefits of development. Grumbles a junior engineer at Karvi, the district headquarters: "The orders are clear, that development is only for some people. It is blatant casteism."

But for a Dalit villager it is nothing short of a miracle to have a light bulb in his home. Says PWD Minister Kalraj Mishra of the BJP: "There is no doubt that she has compressed three years' work into three months. And how can we criticise it if it is benefiting the poorest of the poor?" One spin-off is the sudden clamour by the non-Dalits, particularly those belonging to the Most Backward Castes, to have their villages declared Ambedkar grams. The other result is that Mayawati is being seen as a leader who delivers.

This purposefulness has only added to the post-Mandal social churning. But this time it's not the obcs who are the beneficiaries. Says a senior bureaucrat: "The Ambedkar villages are her answer to the Green Revolution that empowered the middle castes. As long as Mayawati is there, Dalits believe it is their turn."

Incidents of Dalits reclaiming non-transferable land they had received from the Government -- which they subsequently sold -- have added to the caste polarisation. Says a BJP leader: "In the post-Ayodhya scenario, the Dalits and Backwards used to abuse the upper castes. Now they abuse each other. It's an important change."

While political parties spend the future grappling with her legacy, the people of Uttar Pradesh will also remember some of the bizarre history lessons Mayawati has imparted. Such as the new "discovery" that Lucknow was not founded by Lakshman (as some in the BJP like to believe) or the Nawabs of Awadh, but by a 10th century Dalit ruler named Lakhan Pasi. Rs 25 lakh has been sanctioned for the renovation of a fort on the outskirts of Lucknow, apparently built by one Bijli Pasi. There is also Shahuji Maharaj, described as the Kurmi king of Kolhapur. Last month's massive Shahuji Maharaj mela in Kanpur was clearly designed to dent the BJP's Kurmi base. Says Kalyan: "She has crossed certain limits in this renaming drive." Take the renaming of Hathras, Kalyan's district, to Mahamayanagar, after Gautam Buddha's mother. Admits Kalyan: "Though we are partners, she did not consult me."

For all her toughness, Mayawati has been trying to soften her image. A warm smile has replaced the no-nonsense expression in the posters plastered across Lucknow and other cities. With her terrycot salwar kurtas, the dupatta wound round her neck, hair pulled into a ponytail with the hairband matching the kurta, Mayawati has developed a distinct sartorial and political style. A fine speaker, she appeals to the heart: "Your sister, your daughter, is now in a position to do something for you."

From a shrill upstart, Mayawati has evolved into a hard-headed politician of substance. When her time runs out, she would have left several monuments to Mayawati in the shape of the Ambedkar parks that have become the new landmarks across the state. But the real legacy is the extent to which she has added to the political muscle of the Dalits. Love her or hate her, Behenji has made sure that she will be a fixture on the political map of Uttar Pradesh.

Interview: Kanshi Ram
"Mayawati is my obsession"