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Social engineering is the buzzword Vipin Agnihotri
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav may be political competitor, but at present both of them are pursuing a common objective - to woo upper castes in general and Brahmins in particular. With Brahmins becoming a much sought-after vote bank in Uttar Pradesh in the wake of the formation of the Mayawati Government, Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh too has launched an initiative to woo them. As a matter of fact, Mulayam Singh Yadav main emphasis is on "atrocities" being committed on Brahmins and other upper castes under the Mayawati regime. If sources are to be believed, the alleged misuse of the Prevention of Atrocities Act will be the cornerstone of the SP's programme. It has come into the notice of The Day After that Mulayam Singh Yadav wants to introduce his social engineering formula, bringing Brahmins and Yadav's together on the lines of the Brahmin-Dalit political equation evolved by Ms. Mayawati. Interestingly, for wooing Brahmins, Mulayam Singh Yadav is banking on Faizabad-based Sanatan Samaj Party and its associate unit Sanatan Brahmin Samaj. Little has been heard of the party but party president Kripa Shankar Mishra claimed, that it had an established presence in the State. "Established in 1989, my party had around 840 "shakhas" (branches) in 10 States and units in all 70 districts of Uttar Pradesh," pointed out Mishra. When asked about the main reason behind his collaboration with Samajwadi Party he said that the "atrocities" being committed on the Brahmins in number of districts of the State has led to alliance with SP. On the other hand, Maywati, who has launched the ambitious Dr. Ambedkar Integrated Rural Development Scheme - her own brainchild - emphasized how she intended to insure the vital interests of those belonging to upper castes as well. "During my past three stints as chief minister of the state, I had focused on development of villages with a dominant Dalit population only; but this new scheme being launched today aims to bring into its ambit all villages irrespective of their Dalit component," Mayawati said. The chief minister went on to add that "unlike the past, when Dalit dominated villages were given precedence over others, we will now have a whole lot of other villages too so that members of upper castes also derive the same benefits in times to come." It is worth pointing that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati is quite keen to replicate U.P. in Gujarat in the coming Assembly elections, by presenting a united front of upper castes and backward classes against the Congress and the BJP. BSP would contest all the 182 seats in the State. Satish Chandra Misra, arguably number two in the BSP, is perhaps the latest political entrepreneur in UP. Not so long ago, Misra was a senior lawyer with political ambitions. Had he joined the Congress, he might have been waiting in a long queue for a darshan of Rahul Gandhi. In the BJP, he would have been marginal to the existing party hierarchy. In the BSP, on the other hand, he has within the space of two years become the party's key strategist, even being given his own helicopter to go on the campaign trail, a privilege reserved until now for the party's supreme leader. The entire Brahmin alliance strategy was, and is, Misra's brainchild. He came up with it just as a far-sighted new managing director might come up with a new business strategy. As long as a party continues to provide opportunities for all, it will keep growing. Hardcore loyalists might crib about ideological dilution, but a growing business offers its own rewards. | |
Ever
since, Mayawati gave a drubbing to political parties opposing her, the
political leaders in Uttar Pradesh are busy learning the semantics of
social engineering. Mulayam Singh and his Samajwadi Party, the first
casualty to such strategy is busy in re-arranging the caste equations
but Mayawat seems to be a step ahead of her supposedly wily opponent.
She is spreading her net and convincing caste Hindus that her rural
uplift programs would encompass them too.
