One is not persuaded by the formation of a BJP-BSP government in Uttar Pradesh that the unfortunate tryst of Indias most populous state with anarchy, chaos and destruction is finally over. With Mayawati as chief minister in a rather unusual time-sharing arrangement with her arch rival Kalyan Singh, UPs woes, alas, will continue. But there should be relief all round that instead of the controversial governor Romesh Bhandari messing around with the state, it is the peoples own representatives who will now do the honours. The formation of what is admittedly an opportunistic alliance does mark a small step forward in the resolution of the states constitutional logjam.
Bhandari, ironically, acted as the chief catalyst in the formation of the BJP-BSP alliance. There was little doubt either in Lucknow or in New Delhi that he had been reduced to being the agent of defence minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav. It was Yadavs proxy rule in the state which the BJP and the BSP were determined to end at all costs. The fear of their collective marginalisation by the Yadav-Bhandari combine eventually helped dissolve the ideological and personal differences that had earlier blocked the emergence of a post-election BJP-BSP tie-up. Bhandari has brought them together in an uneasy and unequal alliance. So Mayawati can now be expected to settle scores with both Bhandari and Yadav. How the pursuit of that partisan agenda will help pull the state back from the brink of anarchy... cannot, of course, be Mayawatis chief concern. UP thus seems to be condemned for a long spell of political instability, nay, skulduggery.
The biggest flaw in the alliance that the BJP-BSP bigwigs sprung on an unsuspecting United Front leadership in Wednesdays political coup was the premise that Mayawati would keep the chief ministers kursi warm for her successor from the BJP at the end of the six-month period. The success of any such arrangement depends, above all, on an abiding commitment to honour. But the practitioners of present-day politics have rendered it a blood sport where winning at all costs cancels out all other considerations.
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Hence Kalyan Singh will keep his fingers firmly crossed till Mayawati hands over the reins of state administration to him at the end of the mandated six-month period. So will the entire nation. For Kanshi Ram is known to derive a perverse pleasure in making and breaking alliances. He has developed political harlotry into a fine art. For proof, ask how Sitaram Kesri felt at the news of the BJP-BSP tango in UP. The BSP supremo solemnised a new political marriage with the BJP without bothering to nullify the old one with the Congress Party. Clearly, no one, least of all the BJP leaders who tom-tom their regard for principled politics, can feel inspired by Kanshi Rams record of treachery and betrayal.
A desperate BJP was willing to risk another rebuff at Kanshi Rams hands to end its isolation. It found it odd that despite being the largest party in Parliament, even piffling groups in the House treated it like a pariah. The BJP leadership was, however, convinced that the opposition to its alleged communal character was a mere smokescreen used by the UF partners to gang up against it for sharing the spoils of office at the Centre. That the self-proclaimed secularists were unwilling to support Mayawatis candidature for chief ministership in order to keep the `communal BJP out of power exposed fully the chinks in the UFs ideological armour. Mulayam Singh Yadavs visceral antipathy towards Mayawati had pierced his carefully crafted facade of anti-Hindu communalism.
Should the BSP-BJP alliance hold for a while, the BJP stands to derive immense electoral advantage, not only in UP but in other parts of the country as well. The RSS-BJP combine has for long canvassed the need to integrate the entire `Hindu samaj into one homogeneous mass. That it is an impossible project has not deterred the dreamy-eyed RSS pracharaks from trying. The Hindutva agenda, in the ultimate analysis, is premised on the unity of the majority community. Counter to historical evidence, the RSS bosses are pressing ahead with their own peculiar version of social engineering which seeks to co-opt the Dalits into the Brahminical order, suggesting that in the countryside the Brahmin had always protected the Shudra while it was the lathi-wielding peasant castes who exploited the lower orders of the `varna system.
The transience of the BSP, which one cannot see surviving for long after Kanshi Ram might have also persuaded the BJP to play ball with him despite his megalomanic behaviour. With the Congress crumbling, the BJP is in a hurry to replace it as the only all-India party. Severely handicapped insofar as it cannot rely on the support of the largest minority community, the Muslims, who constitute nearly 14 per cent of the electorate, the BJP leadership is at pains to woo Kanshi Rams constituency of Dalits in order to achieve its goal of ruling India. Should the experiment inaugurated in Lucknow on Friday meet with even a modicum of success, there can be little doubt that the BJP will try to forge it at the national level. A chastened Kanshi Ram, after his humiliation in the recent Assembly election in Punjab, might not be averse to such an arrangement provided the BJP bosses devise a way to keep him suitably pleased.
Soon the reverberations of the BJP-BSP pirouette in Lucknow will be heard in New Delhi. The shaky UF bosses realise that the BJP, by placing Mayawati in the saddle in Lucknow, has its gaze firmly set on the prime ministers kursi in New Delhi. If nothing else, one clear gain of the BJP-BSP coup is that it has ended the prevailing mood of boredom in the national polity. Another period of fun and games is again upon us.
The fear of their marginalisation by the Yadav-Bhandari combine helped dissolve the ideological and personal differences that had earlier blocked the emergence of a post-election BJP-BSP tie-up.