For Mayawati, a wasted opportunity

Early this month, the 19th death anniversary of Kanshi Ram, the founder of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), turned into a show of numerical strength for party chief Mayawati. Tens of thousands of supporters trooped into Lucknow from parts of Uttar Pradesh, and many others came in from Punjab, Haryana, Bihar and Uttarakhand. It was difficult to ignore what was easily the most massive of Ms. Mayawati’s rallies in almost a decade.

Her brother, Anand Kumar, and nephew, Akash Anand, stood with her and she spoke uninterrupted for an hour. Clearly still living under the fear of the imaginary clout of a diminished Congress in the State, she railed against dynastic politics. She ranted against the Samajwadi Party (SP), accusing it of selective amnesia when it came to the Dalits of U.P. She was riled up by the actions of upcoming Dalit leader Chandrashekhar Azad ‘Ravan’ and dubbed him an “opportunist”.

She was not all fire and brimstone, however. When it came to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), particularly Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, she was graciousness personified, thanking him for maintaining the huge parks which were built during her time as Chief Minister (2007-12). She even contrasted Mr. Adityanath’s actions with those of Mr. Yadav, painting the former largely in positive hues. If she spoke against the BJP, it was merely perfunctory in nature. She also launched into the same old diatribe of ‘shadyantra (conspiracy theory)’ by her political opponents against ‘Dalit ki beti (daughter of Dalit)’. The biggest BSP rally of recent times was, in effect, old wine in an old bottle.

The BSP chief wasted an opportunity to start afresh. This was a chance for Ms. Mayawati to turn a new leaf and talk of emerging issues in the State and the country. She chose instead to duck the issue of the Special Intensive Revision exercise in Bihar, and steer clear of ‘bulldozer politics’, the row around the Prophet’s birthday celebrations, and the recent cruelties against Dalits, particularly in Raebareli. She made little attempt to bring into focus unemployment or inflation, the struggle of zari workers, the carpet weavers, the lock manufacturers, the brassware workers, the kite ‘manja’ producers or even the closure of primary schools in the State. Or for that matter, custodial deaths and encounter killings.

This was an opportunity too to tell her supporters and detractors alike that she was not soft on Hindutva politics, a perception that has gained ground since 2014 as she has repeatedly been hitting out at the SP and Congress; the former has been out of power in the State since 2017, the latter has been in the Opposition at the Centre for more than a decade. All along, she has shied away from asking questions of the BJP, which is in power both at the State and the Centre. It did not change a bit in Lucknow. She still painted the Opposition in not-so-favourable colours.

Worse, after speaking out against dynastic politics, Ms. Mayawati happily, even brazenly, anointed her nephew as heir apparent, asking the masses to show him the same love they once showered on her. Little did she realise that Mr. Anand is a successor to a kingdom which has long since ceased to exist. The party has no member in the Lok Sabha today and merely one in the 403-member U.P. Vidhan Sabha. For the supremo of a party that does not matter in Delhi, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, and Bihar, she was being unrealistic. For comparison, the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party and the Nishad Party have six members each in the Assembly. With their dedicated though niche followers, they stay relevant.

Not so Ms. Mayawati. Once the most formidable voice of Jatavs and other marginalised groups, today she has ceded ground to Mr. Azad who is not only drawing under an umbrella the Scheduled Caste and Muslim voters, but also believes in boots-on-the-ground politics. Wherever there is an incident of cruelty towards Dalits or Muslims, he stands shoulder to shoulder with them. Mr. Anand is not to be found there. Worse, nobody questions his absence. That is a sign of irrelevance.

Indeed, the Lucknow rally, which was supposed to be a political renaissance of Ms. Mayawati, ended as an unheeded call for reformation. Mayawati-2025 is like a broken record. In Lucknow, she had the stage and a huge audience too. Yet she fluffed her lines. In the soap opera of U.P. politics, there may not many retakes available.