All for bahujan samaj

Published : Oct 25, 2002 00:00 IST

The war of words between arch-rivals Mayawati and Mulayam Singh Yadav touches a new low at the Bahujan Samaj Party's `dhikkar rally' and at the Samajwadi Party's `thoo thoo rallies'.

THESE days, in order to show their strength and to consolidate their vote banks, politicians in Uttar Pradesh do not hesitate to stoop to any level, in terms of actions or the language used.

Some of the statements made by Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leaders Kanshi Ram and Mayawati at the party's `dhikkar' rally (condemnation rally) in Lucknow on September 28, for example, crossed all limits of decency in political conduct. The rally was organised to protest against Samajwadi Party (S.P.) president Mulayam Singh Yadav's remarks describing Mayawati's pet Ambedkar park project as aiyyashi ka adda (den of vices).

Addressing the mammoth rally, party president Kanshi Ram exhorted the participants to chase Mulayam Singh Yadav out of the State. Referring to Mulayam Singh's 10-day trip abroad, Kanshi Ram said: "He has gone only for 10 days now. Once he comes back, make him run so much that he runs away from the State for ever."

Mayawati, whose rivalry with Mulayam Singh in U.P. politics has become legendary, was equally aggressive. "He has all along been practising the politics of Dalits and backwards. If Dalits and backwards desert him, he will be back to his traditional calling of grazing buffaloes,'' she said. Dairying is the traditional occupation of the Yadavs. Blinded by their hatred against Mulayam Singh, both Kanshi Ram and Mayawati crossed the threshold of decency in the use of language many times during the course of the rally. Mulayam Singh, they said, deserved to be eliminated politically for insulting B.R. Ambedkar, the messiah of Dalits.

These utterances brought back memories of the verbal duel between Mayawati and S.P. State president Ram Saran Das during the 1996 Assembly elections, when they abused each other on a live television programme. Mayawati described Mulayam Singh as a "goonda" (hoodlum) and Das retaliated by calling her a "goondi". So much heat was generated on the talk show that it had to be abandoned midway.

The S.P. too has not lagged behind in raising the stink in the State's politics. While Kanshi Ram and Mayawati were spewing venom against Mulayam Singh, S.P. workers were spitting abuses at the BSP in rallies held at various places in the State. The `thoo thoo' rallies organised by the S.P. were meant to remind people that BSP leaders were opportunists, who would stoop to any level for the sake of power.

At the rallies, it was pointed out that while the BSP talked of Ambedkar as a messiah, it had no hesitation to take the support of the BJP whose Member of Parliament (now Union Disinvestment Minister) Arun Shourie had insulted Ambedkar in his book Worshipping False Gods.

While real problems such as power shortage, unemployment, the State's poor financial condition, lack of development and poverty remain unresolved, crores of rupees from the exchequer is being wasted on meaningless rallies.

They merely end up disrupting public life. For example, authorities in the districts took over both private and public transport buses to ferry people for the `dhikkar' rally. Zealous BSP workers travelled on trains without tickets. They pushed out genuine passengers and created mayhem inside the coaches and on platforms. They were reports of scuffles between the rallyists and other passengers and vendors on railway platforms.

Nineteen BSP rallyists were killed in a stampede at the Charbagh railway station. Four rallyists, who were travelling atop a train, were burnt to death after they came into contact with high tension wires overhead. While all the might of the state was used to gather the crowd from across U.P., there was no one to ensure that the rallyists returned home in an orderely manner. Once the rally got over, all hell broke loose on the railway platforms as tens of thousands of rallyists descended on them.

Mayawati, who was instrumental in gathering the mammoth crowd, immediately ordered an inquiry into the disaster. However, she did not visit the railway station. Instead, she left for Jammu the same evening where she was to address an election meeting. That the real problems of the people fail to get any attention was clear from the manner in which innumerable representations Mayawati received at the rally lay abandoned in a heap at the back of the dais.

It is always the same story politicians remain busy calling each other names and organising political shows of strength. Be it the `dhikkar' rally, or the `thoo thoo' rallies, or the umpteen Ayodhya-centric programmes of the Sangh Parivar, the real issues figure nowhere in their agendas.

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