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The stage is set. The battle of 2014 for UP is going to be
one of the most spectacular sight ever seen in India politics. On the one hand,
you have a puppet-down-the string, Akhilesh Yadav, a symbol of youth force,
with his nada (string) tied to his
father/uncles who are the players from behind the wings, although he vehemently
denies it. His cabinet is full of criminals, inherited from his father’s times
as CM of India’s largest state Uttar Pradesh. He may be resisting the influx of
goondas to his cabinet, but there is
nothing he can do, about his lineage. Bare little, I would say, if they are his father’s best friends, trusted allies, even blood brothers, cousins and the
like.
The Yadavs are from a place called Saifai, in the heartland
of goondaland, Etawah. Ever since,
his father entered politics, the goondas
too followed to join public life, even reaching the Rajya Sabha! There they
found others like them from Jharkhand, Bihar and other states, to make merry
and rake hell with public funds. In UP, indeed, all the goondas are in some way or the other related to the Yadavs. Goondagiri, is their parampara, their inheritance and
culture.
But Alkhilesh Yadav is made of different ether. He wanted to
join corporate life, maybe, because, he did his Masters on Environmental
Engineering from Australia. Throughout his life as a student, in Dholpur
Military School, or Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering, Mysore, he
kept a low profile and in fact, no one knew he was the son of Mulayam Singh, CM
of Uttar Pradesh. It is while holidaying in Dehradun, when he received a call
from his father saying, he had to return to file his nomination.
Akhilesh was never a disobedient child, not a rebellious
one either. In fact, the real Akhilesh is demure and shy and if a goonda happens to be his uncle, he will touch his feet in public
even.
Now, take his major opponent, Mayawati. Four times Chief
Minister of UP, Mayawati is a phenomenon, few Indian politicians can match.
Rising from a poor Chamar background, Mayawati, born on 15th
January, 1956 in Delhi, is the daughter of Prabhu Das, a post office employee
in Badalpur, Gautam Buddh Nagar. In 1975 she passed BA and went on to do LLB,
at Kalini Women’s College, under Law campus (Delhi University). Her aim, like
many from depressed classes in Delhi, was to join the IAS, because that was the
ultimate seat of power, as perceived by most people. In 1976 having completed
her B.ED, she joined Inderpuri JJ Colony as a teacher. In the following year,
1977, Dalit politician, Kanshi Ram visited their home and changed her destiny –
"I can make you such a big leader one day that not one but a whole row of
IAS officers will line up for your orders." Kanshi Ram included her as a
member of his team when he founded the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in 1984.
After that, the growth tangent has only gone up. She is the
first female Dalit Chief Minister in India. In the true sense of the word, she
is of the people, by the people and for the people. The Dalits love her, trust her and call her their Behenji. She has the unfailing support
from Dalit women, across the country. And no matter what her report card may
show vis-à-vis corruption and amassing wealth, it can’t be worse than what the goondas posing as politicians across
India have managed to siphon off from public funds, in the numerous ‘deals’,
scams, and what have you.
About Mayawati, one can say, that when she is in, the goondas are out; about Akhilesh Yadav
one can definitely say, when he is in, goondas
are in. As an administrator with a tough hand, he fails because, the inheritance
from his birthplace, although his parentage was from farmers, his father
Mulayam Singh Yadav being a Socialist even, highly influenced by Dr Ram Manohar
Lohia. Yet, the ancestral homeland was plagued by men who lead a life by
killing, snatching, threatening, in short, goondagiri.
As long as Mayawati was in power the goondas
were in hiding, as soon as the Yadav scion came in, so did the ruffians.
Faced with these facts, the real battle in UP, is not only
about the Yadav dynasty, it is also about what is Akhilesh going to do with
this khaandaan?
“Now Arjun saw
stationed there in both the armies, his uncles, grand-uncles and teachers, even
great grand-uncles, maternal uncles, brothers and cousins, sons and nephews,
and grand-nephews, even so friends, farther-in-law, and well – wishers as
well.” (Bhagavadgita: Verse 26 and first half of 27)
If the Arjun in Akhilesh Yadav trembles and he is not able
to raise the bow to destroy the past which continue to rise its ugly head,
then, it is better that the scepter is won by the first female Dalit Chief
Minister of the country, who knows how to eradicate the ravanas from her Ministry and push Dalit issues to the forefront in
UP. So the real battle, the Kurukshetra is between dynasty and Dalit power.
Even if her obsession with PMO, must wait in the wings, for
only a few months post the 2014 elections, she can clean up her house in Uttar
Pradesh, to be dirt-free, once again.
PS:
(1)There is no reference made of congress here, who in my opinion, have lost their pie in any case, in UP and no matter how many times, Rahul Baba, dines at Dalit homes or claims to adopt a Dalit girl child, the much enlightened and aware Dalit population of today can see through his guile.
(2) All thoughts presented here are my own.
Picture credit: Courtsey: http://milagroroots.com/tag/bhagavad-gita/
Recommended readings: Behenji - the biography of Mayawati by Ajoy Bose and Akhilesh Yadav - Winds of Change by Sunita Aron
Vidya Subrahmaniam,Deputy Editor, The Hindu, 2008
(1)There is no reference made of congress here, who in my opinion, have lost their pie in any case, in UP and no matter how many times, Rahul Baba, dines at Dalit homes or claims to adopt a Dalit girl child, the much enlightened and aware Dalit population of today can see through his guile.
(2) All thoughts presented here are my own.
Picture credit: Courtsey: http://milagroroots.com/tag/bhagavad-gita/
Recommended readings: Behenji - the biography of Mayawati by Ajoy Bose and Akhilesh Yadav - Winds of Change by Sunita Aron
Vidya Subrahmaniam,Deputy Editor, The Hindu, 2008
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