People's Democracy

Communal And Caste Politics In UP

S P Kashyap

THE Mayawati government has completed three months, nothing which has happened in these three months, augurs well for the future. Yes, there are indications which are cause of concern.

SEARCH FOR NEW

CASTE COMBINATIONS

A prominent trend continues to be that the casteist forces remain as effective and influential as before and there are efforts to establish new caste combinations for the future elections. In developing these equations, all the three major political parties of the state, have placed emphasis on wooing the other backward classes. The Samajwadi party seems to have accepted that it cannot win over the dalits and neither it can expand its base amongst minorities and higher castes. In such a situation, it sees only one way forward to consolidate its base and achieve a stable majority in the assembly and that is to forge an alliance of the backwards. It seems to make simple calculation that they make up 54 per cent of the state’s electorate and the unity of the backwards would decimate the opposition. The Samajwadi Party has decided to form an alliance with Kalyan Singh’s Rashtriya Party which banks on the support of Lodhs and also with Sonelal Patel’s Apna Dal which has Kurmis as its base. While forging this alliance, the SP seems to have forgotten that though Yadavs, Lohds and Kurmis are influential sections amongst the backwards but they are not the only constituents of backward castes. The Jats are also a backward caste in the western UP and they will never accept the leadership of the Yadavs. The experience shows that, whenever they have deserted Ajit Singh, they support the BJP or any other party but not the SP. Another influential section amongst the backwards, are the Gujjars. They have not come towards the SP despite that it has a Gujjar leader in Ram Sharan Dass. The grand alliance of the backwards is going to be the big Holy dream of the SP. It has even risked losing support of a section of the minority community by aligning with Kalyan Singh who played a major part in the demolition of the Babri Masjid. And it has distanced itself from its leftist friends. The election result of Baheri, is an indication of the things to come, which the SP has lost to the BSP.

The SP is not alone in wooing the backwards. Assured of its staunch base amongst the dalits and a section of the minorities, the BSP also seeks to increase its support amongst the backwards. This is precisely why it has chosen a backward as its state president. The BJP is also trying to develop its base, it has tried to kill two birds with one stone, by appointing Vinay Katiyar as its state president. The Congress is also a part of this rat race. The turn of events in the state BJP has turned Rajnath Singh and his supporters into dissidents and in order to woo these Thakurs the Congress has apppointed a Kshatriya Arun Kumar Singh as its state president.

PLAYING

HINDUTVA CARD

While on one hand, new caste alignments are being sought, the thoroughly disappointed BJP has again decided to play Hindutva card. The Hindutva forces buoyed by the success in formenting the bloodbath in Gujarat, are thinking of unleashing a Gujarat in UP. The meeting of the Margdarshak Mandal of VHP in Haridwar lauded the massacre of the minorities in Gujarat. This was seen as the awakening of Hindus and Muslims were warned that the incidents of Gujarat can well be repeated all over the country and they would have to spend lives in relief camps. The worrying indications for the state were that VHP again made an about turn and has said that it would not obey the court’s order, thus indicating that it has made preparations for further communal polarisation in the state. Since in recent programmes in Ayodhya the local population showed little interest, the BJP has now formed a new strategy of focussing on Kashi and Mathura. The Kendriya Margdarshak Mandal has directed the state units to organise the people in the third week of July for temple construction.

Making a mockery of the law and the Constitution, Vinay Katiyar, one of the founders of the Bajrang Dal, who played a prominent role in the demolition of the Babri Masjid, has been appointed state president of the BJP. He is known for his anti-Muslim views and has not missed any opportunity of inciting passions against them or hurting their feelings. During his visit to Ayodhya, after taking over as the state president, he gave enough indications of reviving Hindutva. He said that Ayodhya was on the agenda of the BJP and that the temple has already been built, now it is only a matter of its beautification.

Speaking at a function, he lambasted Muslim politics and quoted Ambedkar in his support. It is a deliberate attempt to usurp Ambedkar in support of Hindutva . The saffron brigade has been able to use dalits in the recent carnage in Gujarat. This can be repeated in UP in the coming times. The easiest way, perhaps, to achieve this is to convince the dalits is that their respected leader Ambedkar also harboured anti Muslim feelings. This strategy also accomplishes another goal for the BJP by driving a wedge between the dalits and the Muslims. It would weaken the political base of Mayawati.

The return of communalism with an ugly face is no longer a figment of imagination but is a reality. The indications have started emerging from UP. The minorities have been targeted in rural areas of Bahraich, Gonda and Gorakhpur. These incidents in some way or the other point to the complicity of the BJP MP Adityanath. One of these incidents occurred in the month of March, about forty houses of members of the Muslim community were burned down, in Jaladhar village in Bahraich, on the pretext of cow-slaughter. Violence was unleashed in the Semri village again using cow slaughter as the pretext. Cow defence committees participated in a big way. Using an incident of rape, in Mohan Mundena village of Gorakhpur, Adityanath supervised the burning down of the houses of Muslims and also instigated an attack on them.

It seems that these are not isolated incidents in Eastern UP. There are preparations for a grand strategem that has already been planned. However, some factors are preventing the communal forces from having a free run. One of these is that house of Hindutva forces is badly divided. One section of sadhus have openly revolted against the VHP and Ashok Singhal. They have started the process of dissolution of Ram Janm Bhoomi Nyas and forming a new trust in its place. A meeeting, presided over by the head of the Ramanand sect Jagadguru Ramanandacharya Swami Haryachvrya took place after the Kendriya Margdarshak Mandal of VHP. They demanded imposition of ban on the VHP as it was spreading anarchic religious terrorism. The sadhus and saints of Ayodhya have formed Socialist Sant Sabha under the leadership of Sant Bhavnath, priest of Hanumangarhi temple. The aim of this organisation is to oppose the programmes of the VHP and the Bajrang Dal. This sabha is the saint morcha of the Samajwadi Party. It remains to be seen how this shall affect the claims of the party to be secular .

The second reason for the despondency of the Hindutva forces is that there is no RSS pracharak as the chief minister to lend the services of the government for the "operation Hindutva". But it is Mayawati who is the CM and she cannot risk losing the invaluable support of Muslims.

The third factor immediately constraining the Hindutva forces is the Supreme Court order directing the UP government to issue fresh notification under the due process of law against hard core Hindutva leders such as LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and others, in the Babri Masjid demolition case within three months. The BJP fears that annoying Mayawvti at this stage would not only provide her an opportunity to issue a fresh notification but also open the doors for the possible conviction of its leaders by the court. So, they consider it prudent to remain inactive for three months.

MAYAWATI's

GAME PLAN

The Supreme Court order can be a bone of contention for the Mayawati government. Issuing of notification would mean BJP withdrawing support and end of the coalition government and if it does not issue the notification, it would send out a signal to its Muslim supporters of being under the influence of the BJP and thus pushing them towards the SP. She sees only one way out of this. It is not Mayawati’s but BJP’s compulsion to run the coalition government for a long term. She has directed all her energy and time to accomplishing her dalit agenda. It would not be wrong to say that she is working on war footing towards achieving this. She may well be planning that she should accomplish a major portion of her agenda by October end and then issue the notification, in the event of BJP pulling down the coalition government in such a scenario, she would only stand to gain. This would reinforce her image as well her base as she would have accomplished her agenda and would be seen as a CM having sacrificed her post for upholding the law and protecting the minorities. On the other hand BJP would be seen as obstructing the due process of law.

Thus, it is the compulsion of the communal forces that they cannot pursue their own agenda openly. But, neither has their passion for this died down nor has plans for this stopped. These forces firmly believe "what has happened in Gujarat it can be replicated in UP." Unfortunately it is a fact that the influence of fundamentalists has increased amongst a section of minorities and the activities of ISI have intensified. They may take some step which would provide a god sent opportunity to the Hindutva forces.

The increasing communal polarisation in the state can by countered only by a sustained campaign by the secular forces.