By Faisal Fareed, TwoCircles.net,
Lucknow: Opportunism is the second name of politics. Who can understand this better than upper caste Hindu-Brahmins. From an age of Tilak Tarazu Aur Talwar, Inko Maro Jutey Char’ in 1984 when the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) was born much water has flown in river Gomti. Circa 2011, ‘Brahmin Shankh Bajayega, Hathi Badta Jayega’, the political system in UP has gone a sea change.
It was quite evident during the Brahmin Bhaichara Sammelan at Smriti Upvan organised by BSP and addressed by Chief Minister Mayawati in Lucknow on Sunday. The formula of social engineering Brahmin-Dalit combination which had yielded results for BSP in 2007 elections, was once again revived by CM Mayawati. In 2007 she gave tickets to 89 brahmins and 43 emerged victorious.
This time, CM Mayawati is no novice and accordingly she has played the caste card quite shrewdly. The brahmins who had gathered in large numbers bearing tilak on their forehead and blowing conch shells, had thought that they will be provided with much needed impetus. The situation was different, CM Mayawati cajoled them but with a sarcasm. She announced that both Congress and BJP are projecting ‘Thakurs’ as Chief Minister of UP.
“The Congress will hand over the state to Digvijay Singh and BJP will give the chair to Rajnath Singh-both are thakurs,” she said.
The message was clear, ‘brahmins have no other choice but to support BSP; else play a second fiddle to their bete noire thakur community. It is evident that Brahmin-Thakur community don’t see eye to eye with each other in UP are often are poles apart during polling.
If the sops are considered, CM Mayawati demanded reservation for poor upper caste Hindus. The demand did not hold much water as she had made this demand for every community through her numerous letters to the Prime Minister.
There was also resentment that only family members of national general secretary of BSP Satish Chandra Mishra and energy minister Ramveer Upadhyay got prominence from brahmin community during Maya’s regime.
“It is true I had given recognition, posts and tickets to their family members but it is due to their diligence and hardwork,” she said. The message being that token representation is all the community can get from BSP government.
If the impatient crowd which had brought good number of people wearing saffron, the bottom-line of Maya’s address took out their steam. “We do not believe in caste politics. My government works on ‘sarvjan hitay sarvjan sukhay’ policy. We work for the poor and downtrodden in every community,” she retorted.