HVK Archives: Inevitable gamble in UP
Inevitable gamble in UP - The Free Press Journal
Editorial
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21 March 1997
Title : Inevitable gamble in UP
Author : Editorial
Publication : The Free Press Journal
Date : March 21, 1997
They have indeed pulled off a coup. The BJP-BSP agreement on the
formation of a coalition government in UP did come as a bolt from
the blue to the United Front leaders. But the most shocked were
that thuggish UP Governor, Romesh Bhandari, and his principal
patron Defence Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav. Yadav, one of the more
odious politicians, would find that his proxy rule in UP has ended
with the coming into being of the Mayawati Government in Lucknow.
With Mayawati as Chief Minister, it is also a matter of days before
Bhandari is eased out of Lucknow Raj Bhawan. Why should he be
accommodated at all in another Raj Bhawan is a question that begs
to be answered. After all, it is in the first place unsavoury
characters like Bhandari who have defiled the gubernatorial
institution. There should be no place for the disciples of
notorious conman Chandraswamy in the nation's politics, least of
all in the State Raj Bhawans. As for Yadav, it is only to be
expected that his meddling in the administration of the State will
come to a premature end with the restoration of popular rule in the
State in the blocking of which he had played no mean rule.
Predictably, the ruling United Front leaders were too shocked by
the news of a BJP-BSP alliance in UP to be able to come up with a
coherent reaction. Initial comment by them sought to dub the
alliance opportunistic and unholy. Coming from the motley crowd
which together goes to make what passes for the United Front, that
reaction was really amusing. For there is nothing common between P.
Chidambaram of the Tamil Maanila Congress and Indrajit Gupta of the
Communist Party of India bar their desire to somehow grab power at
the Centre.
The only adhesive which keeps 13 small and minor groups together
under the amorphous UF banner is power. Therefore it does not lie
in the mouth of the UF leaders to abuse the BJP-BSP alliance as
unholy and opportunistic. The Deve Gowda Government can be relied
upon to create mischief for the Mayawati Government. Immediately,
it may seek to retain the self-same Bhandari as the UP Governor in
order to needle the BJP-BSP administration. Or the Prime Minister
may succumb to the pressure and blackmail of Yadav who will insist
on replacing Bhandari with an equally undesirable nominee loyal to
him alone. The new UP Governor must be chosen in active
consultation with the State Government. The other day in Parliament
the Union Home Minister Indrajit Gupta lamented the lack of a
popular government in UP. Now that UP at last has got a
duly-elected government it is to be hoped that nothing will be done
by the Gowda Government to destabilise it.
For sure, the BJP-BSP alliance is fraught with several
contradictions. Ideological differences apart, it is the arbitrary
and unpredictable style of functioning of the BSP chief Kanshi Ram
which puts undue strains on his alliance partners. Unless Kanshi
Ram moderates his ego mania in the interest of larger Dalit cause
the BJP-BSP alliance too may flounder before long. The fact that
he insisted on his protege Mayawati becoming the Chief Minister for
the first six months although by rights the bigger party, that is,
the BJP should have got the first chance, reveals Ram's reluctance
for striking an honest compromise. Rotating the chief minister's
office between the two alliance partners every six months is not a
very happy arrangement. Ideally, the coalition government should
have been headed by a BJP leader for it is by far the
single-largest party in the State Assembly. To BJP's 176 MLAs, the
BSP only has 66. The BSP should have become the junior partner in
the coalition. But given the intractability of the BSP leaders,
the BJP climbed down.
This is the second time the BJP has indulged in a calculated gamble
in the hope of enlarging its support-base among Dalits and also to
break the logjam in UP. Clearly, the BJP leadership was keen to
end the remote control rule of Yadav who had a major say in key
postings and transfers under the Governor raj. Care will also need
to be taken to ensure that Mayawati as the State Chief Minister
does hot push her divisive agenda at the cost of her major alliance
partner. Widespread corruption, maladministration, nepotism were
some of the Charges levelled against Mayawati last time she was the
State Chief Minister with the outside support of the BJP. One
hopes she would give no cause to her critics to reiterate those
charges afresh. The BJP-BSP alliance can do a lot of good should
it come to be cemented at the societal level. For the social and
economic barriers which have kept the Dalits aloof from the larger
Hindu society need to be pulled down. Dalits need to be integrated
into the mainstream. Social cohesion will flow from an enduring
BJP-BSP alliance. Should the alliance succeed, the BJP's pariah
status in the national polity too would stand eliminated. And it
may legitimately hope to extend the Lucknow arrangement to New
Delhi in the not-so-distant future.
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