In the democracy, every government is accountable to the people, for democracy is, as defined by Abraham Lincoln in the famous Gettysburg Address, for the people, by the people and of the people. Governments in India are no exception and periodically they have to face the people. Only the political parties can form the governments in the democratic system. Therefore elections are the battlegrounds for the political parties. Political parties lock their horns to either keep or snatch the political power.

The big political battle is the coming election in UP, so far the biggest state in India. The major contenders for the power are the ruling BSP, marginalized Congress, fragmented BJP and leaderless SP. This is the mother of election as far as elections are concerned. This election is prelude to the union election. Besides SP, which is the regional party, all other political parties have stake in the national government. Election in UP will give indication of what is happening in Congress, BJP and more importantly, the BSP. The BSP, so far, has not ruled in the centre. If the BSP succeeds in the UP elections to retain power, it will sound death knell to the Congress and battered the BJP.

After the transfer of power to Indians, Congress was able to retain maximum seats from UP for the lower house and ruled the state of UP for decades. It is important to understand the caste dynamics. UP boasts of over 22 percent population of Dalits, mainly from Chamar community. In democracy, the numbers and alliances matter. Chamar is the largest caste in the North India. It outnumbers any other caste in the North India. It will not be a wonder to call Chamars the national caste of the North India. The Chamar belt spreads from Maharashtra to Punjab. They are in majority in the caste configuration. The Congress party tried very hard to befool the Chamar caste. One of their tactics was to raise a leader from this caste, to counter Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, the liberator of all the Dalits, including Chamars.

The leader that congress party promoted was Jag Jivan Ram, who was from Bihar and belonged to the Chamar caste. The numerical strength of the Chamars is so influential that Jag Jivan Ram could have become the Prime Minister of India, but because he was in the Congress fold, the maximum position he could reach was the Deputy Prime Minister of India. It is interesting to see how even the co-opted Chamar by the Congress have such a strength. It is a simple thinking which will demonstrate the power of Chamars. Just imagine if the Chamars in North India rally their support to one single political party.

It is important to note that the Bahujan Samaj Party (the BSP) was called the Chamar Party, and why not. The main support of the BSP is the Chamar caste, and the Chamars, have been the most widespread caste. The great Ravidas commands disciples from Rajasthan to Bengal and Punjab to Maharashtra.

The strategy of the BSP is not only limited to the Chamar caste, though it is sufficient to mobilize them to get power to affect the organs of politics in the North India. The party grew from strong core of Chamars and subsequently, as Christopher Jaffrelot noted, evolved into “Dalit Party”. In this phase of the BSP, it brought under its organization the Dalits from other Scheduled Castes by systematically targeting policies. There are several schemes that the BSP government put in place to empower the Dalits from all other castes.

The third phase in the BSP’s evolution is to become truly “Bahujan Samaj Party”, this is to say, the party of the oppressed majority in India, that is, the SCs, STs, OBCs and minorities. This was the aim of the social organization, BAMCEF, started in Maharastra, which soon contributed to development of national movement. It started with a simple, but very powerful strategy. This strategy was basically aimed at creating two contenders for power in India. In every political revolution, the emergence of the two groups for the power is important. The caste system makes thousands of groups fight against each other. This infighting among the lower castes is due to no identification of their common political enemy, and that is the axis of Bramhan and Baniyas.

On the social mobilization level, the BAMCEF still has a long way to work in making a true “Bahujan Samaj”, but it seems that politically the BSP has escaped that phase by becoming a “catch all” party. This is a phrase borrowed from Dr. Jaffrelot. The political arena is different than the social arena. It is possible for the BSP to gain political power, but how to realize the original goal of the party of creating Bahujan Samaj will still be a big question.

The reasons the BSP faces difficulty in social mobilization of the OBCs, particularly in the state of UP, is the lack of social movement among the OBCs and their leaders. Both Yadavs, Mulayam and Lalu, started with social movements, but after coming to power, based on their strengths of castes, did nothing to sustain the social movement. The case of Mayavati is different. She has never left the social movement or the goal of social change. This is the reason why Mayavati is succeeding where others are failing.

Only Mayavati is aiming at solving the real issue in India, the issue of caste and its problems. The other political parties including the Congress and the BJP have no fixed position on the caste system and annihilation of it. They have never talked openly about ending the caste system. The BJP supported the caste system and also the stalwarts in the Congress, including Gandhi and Nehru, supported the caste system.

The bigger question is how can any political party rule India for long without talking about the basic issue in Indian politics that is the caste system. It is not possible. The moment the Congress or BJP talk about ending the caste system, the political class, that is the higher castes and industrialists, which is core constituency of these parties, will have to lose its priviledges. The upper castes in India are not samurais of Japan to forgo their priviledges for making a better nation. In this situation, the BSP remains only option for the Dalits (in the north in any case they should rule because of their numerical strength) and for the OBCs( OBCs have only regional parties and no strength in the national movement unless Dalits take up their issues).

The minorities in India have no friends in the Congress and the BJP. The BSP is the only party that gives them proportionate representations in the candidatures of central and state elections. In fact, the census data is indicating that over 70 percent Muslims in India claim that they are backward classes. The most beneficial option for them, in this case, is to support the BSP. The net cast by the BSP is wider than any political party in India, and therefore, it has the more chances to catch maximum votes. The question remains to be answered how Mayavati is going to mobilize and ally with the regional party. As far as she is concerned she is destined to become the next Prime Minister of India.

The pattern of evolution of the BSP in UP is a benchmark for the Dalits in other states in India. With the population of Dalits in some states more than 20 percent (except in Maharashtra which is the bastion of Amnedkarite movement, the population is just about 13 precent, but in the states of Bihar, Begal, Andhra and Tamil Nadu which is enough to get the power in the state assemblies), they might gain quite a lot learning from people in UP.

Author – Mangesh Dahiwale

Written on – November 28, 2011

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