What Maya thinks of pacts

Speaking at a two-day seminar organised in the Capital by the Observer Research Foundation on Uttar Pradesh: The Road Ahead,May 23-24,2008,Mishra identified coalition governments as an affliction of the state,painting single-party rule as the cure. There is no doubt about the fact that coalition governments since 1989 have resulted in great loss for the state of UP and single-party rule in UP after a long time will surely go a long way in changing its face, he said.

Later in the address,Mishra described UP as the state which has been reeling under coalition politics. He went on to blame coalition governments alongside social disparities for the states dismal economy. Apart from coalition governments and populist measures of these coalition governments,social disparities have also resulted in economic deterioration in UP, he said.

The seminar was held in May last year after the BSP came to power with a majority,breaking UPs 14-year-long tryst with fragmented verdicts. Mayawatis anointment as a prime minister-in-waiting in the national imagination was to come a couple of months later during the trust vote drama in July,when the Left parties propped her up as a candidate for the post. The Left may have turned coy on Mayawati for PM subsequently,but in his presentation in May,Mishra was already boldly connecting the dots between UP and the rest of the country,via the Centre.

Mishra spoke of the discouraging response of the Centre to UPs need for special packages. It is for this reason that the BSP is of the view that unless (it gets) political power at the Central level also,such impediments will always come in (the way of) achieving the desired economic growth not only in UP but also other backward areas of the country in the same manner.

The man who is said to have strategised and also implemented the BSPs audacious bid to woo the upper castes,especially Brahmins,that finally forged the winning social coalition in 2007,drew a conceptual distinction: We cannot compare the concept of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam with the philosophy of Sarv Samaj of the BSP because the philosophy of the welfare of Sarv Samaj aims at sharing political power by all sections of the society,only then it will be possible to give full expression to the ancient concept of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam. Without the sharing of political power the concept of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam will remain a hollow claim.

Describing the BSPs achievement in UP as a silent but strong and forceful revolution,he pointed out that European history is replete with instances of blood revolutions and wars to eradicate disparities while in India and presently in UP,the BSP is doing a great service to the nation by bringing about the same result without any bloodshed,through the ballot and not the bullet.

Aware,perhaps,that the challenge remains of reinventing the BSPs image and politics to meet its enlarged ambition,Mishra said: It is not identity politics which matters for the BSP,rather the concern of the BSP is the identity of those individuals who have not yet been given their due.

He offered a strikingly tender analogy,entirely at odds with the frankly aggressive brand of politics that has long been the BSPs calling card: They (the weaker sections) need greater assistance through various measures in the same manner as parents give maximum attention to their weakest child so that he may also become strong like his other brothers and sisters. The rise of the BSP may,on the face of it,seem Dalit-oriented but it encompasses every section of society with a greater thrust on the growth of the weaker sections.

The mellow tone extended again uncharacteristically for the BSP to a plea to the media: You (the media) have to have a positive attitude,you have to take a positive view,you have to also bring into light the positive actions of the state,the good things of the state instead of only highlighting one or two incidents that take place out of 18 crore people living in the state of UP.