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There is, a four leaf clover in each Yadav's hand. He keeps
plucking out the leaves chanting "he loves me, he loves me not" and
according to the answer the two get together, or stay apart. The
"two" are also the Yadav's who have this peculiar relationship
where they do not hesitate to embrace no sooner than they have
stabbed each other in the back. This time around the clover has
worked positively and brought Bihar chief minister and Janata Dal
president Laloo Prasad Yadav and his Uttar Pradesh twin, Union
defence minister and Samajwadi party President Mulayam Singh Yadav
together again.
Not for love, of course. But for a coup. To plot, and stir the
ingredients so that their presently common foe Prime Minister H.D.
Deve Gowda pays for allowing various intelligence sleuths and
investigators to keep them on the run. Both Mulayam Singh and
Laloo Yadav are confident that the other is sufficiently down in
the political graph, and hence a momentary holding of hands will
not prove dangerous. So they are together in a "topple Gowda"
operation of which the first step is to ensure that he does not
become the Janata Dal president. Unfortunately, neither can speak
of the "one man one post" principle as both have been happily
occupying two posts.
Of course, the situation might change in minutes, and even at the
time of writing this, one might learn that the two who have come
together have put themselves asunder. For temperamentally they
have too much in common. Both the Yadavs are of socialist stock,
arising from fairly humble origins and a rather lacklustre
beginning. Their rise was phenomenal. They both share a temper,
and an exaggerated sense of their own worth. Both are crafty
politicians who are ruthless in operation. Both share a peculiar
hatred for former Prime Minister V.P. Singh who was one of the
persons responsible for their meteoric rise. Both believe in a one
man rule, and no second line of command. Their diktat is law and
they brook no dissidence from the ranks. They trust no one, not
even their own shadow. They love to emphasise their rural poor
background. At the same time both have deep friendships with
businessmen and have used their political clout to get some of the
money bags into the Rajya Sabha. Both have cultivated musclemen and
hoods. Dissent of any kind is not tolerated and often goons are
deployed to deal with dissenters. Both insist on complete control
of what they have come to consider as their personal fiefdoms,
namely the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
But there are some differences. In basically their style of
functioning at a level. Mulayam Singh Yadav is more smooth, and
does hot let his feelings and emotions show easily. His Bihar
counterpart is more direct, and even today finds it difficult to
contain himself, if provoked. It is too much of an effort.
Mulayam knows the use of the political language to evade and skim
over the real issues. Laloo is a powerful orator who can hold an
audience captive for hours. but has no political guile. Mulayam,
when angry, holds the anger and waits for the opportunity to
strike. Like an elephant he never forgets real or imagined
insults. For instance he never forgot his bitter rivalry with a
then powerful UP Janata Dal leader Reoti Raman Singh. Later, he
wooed Singh, promising him the moon, so much so that the latter was
mesmerised into leaving the Janata Dal and joining the Samajwadi
Party. He has not been heard of again. Shortly after he joined
his name was dragged into a sodomy-murder scandal that had hit
Lucknow at the time and Reoti Raman Singh literally went into
political oblivion. Laloo does not wait to strike. He hits out at
the spot which is not good politics. He does not hold back words.
At a Janata Dal national executive meeting when there was a move
by the Bihar lobby to replace S.R. Bommai as the party president,
Laloo when angered merely nodded towards his men, supposedly senior
members of the party. They stood up to a man and caught the
dissenters, in this case the national executive members from
Karnataka, by the collar. Others rushed to separate them but the
Bihar leader refused to intervene. He earned enemies for life',
and today his isolation is largely a result of this politics. At
the political level again they share the same constituency: Yadavs,
Muslims and a sprinkling of others. The Muslims in particular, have
been targeted by both these leaders for a fair share of emotive
rhetoric. Mulayam has been a bit more successful than Laloo, in
that the latter did have some trouble with this vote bank in his
last election and was bailed out by central leaders, including V.P.
Singh, who set up camp in Bihar. Both have instilled a false sense
of security in the Muslims by exaggerating the threat posed by
forces like the BJP. Their success really lies in their ability
.to project themselves as the true saviours of the community.
The Left parties had initially, supported both the Yadavs
whole-heartedly. Laloo was a hot favourite until recently. He has
been dropped by his old comrades and is still smarting under the
rejection. Mulayam Singh was the other Left bete noire, with both
the communist parties ignoring the reservations and even opposition
of their state units to support the UP Yadav. There has been
considerable cooling of relations since, although the break that is
so evident in Bihar, is not yet formalised in Uttar Pradesh. That
is perhaps largely due to Mulayam Singh's political management that
he has not completely alienated the Left. Laloo says, "I do not
care, I do not need anyone." Mulayam maintains silence.
The Congress has initially opposed both the Yadavs vehemently. In
fact Mulayam Singh and Laloo Yadav had risen to political
prominence through their strong opposition to Congress policies.
But over the last years, whenever either had problems with the
central leaders of their own or allied parties, they began flirting
with the Congress. Reports of clandestine meetings between a Yadav
and some Congress leader find their way into the press, leading to
a flurry of political activity as senior leaders rush to Patna or
Lucknow to assuage the angry Yadav.
The same is happening now. But there are crucial differences.
Both the Yadavs are supposedly talking to the Congress. There is a
threat of real rebellion as the current Prime Minister who is of
the same party and the same government has managed to hit them
where it hurts. Or at least allowed them to be hit. They are both
in trouble over alleged money transactions and the United Front is
not giving them bail. At the Steering Committee Laloo Yadav and
Mulayam Singh sought to raise the issue, but found themselves
isolated with no sympathy from the others. In fact West Bengal
Chief Minister Jyoti Basu went so far as to say that the meeting
had not been called to discuss "personal" issues and the two were
prevented from derailing the agenda as it were. But despite their
well publicised confabulations with the Congress, the United Front
has refused to react. There is no activity and none of the leaders
are rushing to the Yadavs seeking to placate them. They now find
that their kind of politics has left them with no friends. Once
the chips are really down, no one is willing to come to their
rescue.
Not even their second in line men. Laloo Prasad Yadav's trusted
lieutenant Ranjan Yadav who handled all his affairs, and was beside
his side continuously has left him. Mulayam Singh has open
differences with his political confidante Beni Prasad Verma, who
has developed his own ambitions courtesy Gowda. The vote banks are
fickle and move with the times. There is every indication that what
the Yadavs considered as their own preserve, is ready to, move on.
The saga is about to end. The talks with the Congress amount to
the last desperate act of drowning men. They are aware that the
party does not hive a life line, but they are reaching out in the
hope that just by appealing to clutch on to something they will
fend off the inevitable. That rarely happens, not even in
politics.
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