Some years back Mayawati had tried to rope in upper caste Brahmins and with this maxim she had made Satish Mishra the second most key leader in the party. This strategy helped her when she won the 2007 Assembly elections to become chief minister with the support of the Brahmin. But soon this alliance ceased to work.

Since then she has been desperately trying to evolve some kind alliance with Brahmins but it did not work to her advantage. During these years she was virtually turned a political non entity. Now after the murder of Vikas Dubey she has started feelers to the states Brahmin chieftains. As the move to win over Brahmins she tweeted in Hindi on Sunday; “The BSP believes that an entire community shouldn’t be tortured and put in the dock for the crime of one wrong person. The fear and terror in the community should be removed”. She further said: “The government shouldn’t do anything which makes the Brahmin community feel scared, terrorised and unsafe”.

She resorted to this strategy at a time when other political parties have been refraining from even mentioning Vikas Dubey. Its worth mentioning that she has refrained from commenting on many important incidents of dalit torture that happened in UP and in other parts of the country. Her stand on lynching was also of the evasive nature.

Her statement precisely aims at expanding her support base which has of late been on severe decline. Emergence of Bhimsena of Chandrashekhar has simply eroded her base amongst the Dalits. Losing the dalit support base by a dalit leader would certainly not augur well to rope in support of other castes and lay the base for a major alliance of Dalits and Brahmins. Incidentally her statement; “:selectively targeting Dalits, backwards and the Muslim community in the name of action against anti-social elements of Uttar Pradesh also appears to be politically motivated”, has failed to have any impact especially on the Dalits.

It is really sad that the no serious effort is being made to project Dalit as a major voice in the current political scenario. On March 15, Chandrashekhar Azad announced the formation of a new political party called Azad Samaj Party (ASP) but the fact cannot be denied that his organisation has not put any dalit agenda or politics in the public domain.

It is known that the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which has converted from Bahujan to Sarvajan, is now on the verge of collapse by using such a formula because BJP has used its very formula to take away a large part of its constituency and has taken it under the umbrella of Hindutva.

Azad claims to follow Kanshi Ram’s political ideology. But it also lacks clarity. It is known that Kanshi Ram mobilized the Dalits with the slogan "Baba tera mission adhura, Kanshi Ram karenge pura" (Incomplete Mission of Babasaheb will be completed by Kanshi Ram) but did he ever define the mission of Babasaheb’s politics. Did he follow Babasaheb’s ideological and agenda-based politics? Did he ever adopt Babasaheb’s mass movement based politics? Did he launch any land movement for land allotment of land to landless Dalits? It is a known fact that BSP came to power four times but did not implement its slogan. There is no denying the fact that Mayawati has done the biggest injustice in 2008 by not allocating land to Dalits and Adivasis under the Forest Rights Act, as a result of which millions of Dalit and Adivasis are facing the threat of eviction.

Neither Kanshi Ram nor Mayawati strived to formulate a Dalit agenda? It is a fact that they did not follow the ideology or policy of Babasaheb as doing it would put them in more confrontation with the state power. While Mayawati talked of caste, it is a known fact that Babasaheb never asked for votes in the name of caste. All his politics was based on class interest.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that the BSP leadership pursued the politics of opportunism and bargaining politics. BSP join hands with the anti-Dalit BJP three times for the greed for power? It is really unfortunate that neither Kanshi Ram nor Mayawati could repose their trust in the Dalits for launching a protracted mass movement.

It is irony that the dalit leader who claim to represent the aspirations of the Dalits do not have a clear concept of the policy that ought to be followed for empowerment of Dalits. This is the reason that young aspiring dalit leaders are caught into the quagmire of material gains rather than unleashing a class war. Can they deny that their utter confusion about a definite agenda has confused the dalit voters which was exploited by the BJP. Has not the Bahujan politics of caste and community indirectly strengthened the Hindutva politics of the BJP?

Mayawati ought to realise that her design has no relevance. The political realities and narratives have changed. Old primordial relations are undergoing change. Vikas Dubey may have been symbolising the aspirations of the Brahmins, but he was certainly did not represent the aspirations of the Dalits. The tactics of Mayawati simply underlines the electoral buccaneering.

Mayawati would not be the ultimate beneficiary of the political clout of deceased Vikas. Other parties would also strive to exploit it. It is said that sixty per cent of ordinary Brahmins are angry with the Yogi Adityanath because only the Brahmin criminals were killed.

But whether this Brahmanical anger will succeed in bringing about any change in the governance is not clear. If at all the dalit leaders intend to assert their relevance in the national politics, they have to launch a wider struggle against the caste discrimination. The BJP government has no constructive agenda for the Dalits. It is playing on Hindu-Muslim binaries, propagating hate and resorting to violence. One thing is quite significant that the poor and dalit eventually had to become victims of the communal violence. This must stop.

No doubt the increasing disillusion of Dalits with the BSP and Mayawati’s reluctance to nurture Dalit leadership has opened up the political space for Azad. The rise of Bhim Army has also been helped by the decline of the BSP. The dalit leadership must realise that there is no short cut and they must uncover new emancipation of Dalits. (IPA Service)