Piyush Srivastava on why Mayawati ditched tie-up with Mulayam Singh Yadav
If one looks back at history, both leaders have been very opportunistic when it comes to alliances.
Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav does not have a great track record when it comes to alliances, which perhaps explains why BSP supremo Mayawati categorically rejected his overtures. In fact, if one looks back at history, both leaders have been very opportunistic when it comes to alliances.
Let us go back to the time of Kanshiram, founder of the BSP and mentor of Mayawati. Kanshiram was in a position to win the 1991 Lok Sabha by-polls from Etawah on his own, but he accepted the offer of support from Mulayam. He again agreed to an alliance with the SP in 1993 Assembly elections and projected Mulayam as CM. Kanshiram's idea that the BJP should be kept at bay had got legitimacy with the help of slogans like 'Mile Mulayam Kanshiram - Hawa Ho Gaye Jai Sriram.'
Kanshiram went all out to accommodate Mulayam. But when he wanted to make Mayawati CM in 1995 with the help of the BJP due to political compulsions, Mulayam showed his true colours His henchmen locked her in a room of the state guest house in Lucknow and manhandled her. In turning down Mulayam's offer, Mayawati may have had that incident in mind Or did she? The surprising thing is Mayawati's love for SP members is no secret.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have inducted Arun Shankar Shukla alias Anna Maharaj in her party in 2009 and fielded him from Unnao parliamentary seat. Anna was one of the SP leaders who had manhandled her in 1995. She also fielded mafia-turned politician Mukhtar Ansari and his brother Afzal Ansari, one-time favourites of the SP chief, from Varanasi and Ghazipur, respectively, in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. Guddu Pandit, a habitual offender and Debai MLA of the SP, also got Maya's instant patronage when she came to power in 2007.
Obviously then, the "guest house incident" is not the real reason behind Mayawati's refusal. She knows any alliance with the SP will only benefit Mulayam and his son, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav. While the Yadav community will never vote for a BSP candidate in elections, her Dalit supporters will easily support Mulayam's nominees on her call.
Mayawati also knows Mulayam keeps looking for an opportunity to ditch his partners. The SP leader got this opportunity last in June 2012, when he elbowed aside West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and went along with the Congress to support Pranab Mukherjee's presidential bid. But the Congress can't count on him either. Analysts will remember the "ditch of all time" in 1999 when he promised the SP's support to Sonia Gandhi as PM and then backtracked. Sonia is not alone.
In 1989, Mulayam had dumped his friend Chandrashekhar for V.P. Singh, the then PM. Later, he dumped Singh in 1990 and supported Chandrashekhar as PM in the name of a "new experiment in politics".
The CPI(M) and CPI fared no better. They are the worst victims of Mulayam's flip-flops as he has ditched them at least seven times. The most remembered occasion is from 2008, when he deserted them overnight and supported the UPA on the Indo-US nuclear deal. Such a list will easily make Mayawati keep distance.
Closure eludes Badaun 'rape' case
The Badaun incident continues to stay in headlines. The CBI had a problem with the postmortem examination, which concluded that the private parts of the two teenagers gang-raped and hanged on May 27 were damaged. The agency wanted to exhume the bodies for a second autopsy.
But what they didn't know was that flood water would take over the area where the graves were located on the banks of the Ganga.
Many villagers allege that Pappu Yadav and his two siblings, who are the accused in the case, are molesting every poor woman in the village.
They are also said to be involved in every crime that gets them money, from bullying to illegal mining. The villagers also allege that a number of lawyers have lined up to educate the duo about how to beat lie detector tests in court.
The help Pappu Yadav and his men are getting in court is in stark contrast to the lot of the poor and uneducated village residents. When asked pointed questions by the CBI, many of them fumble for answers while some don't even understand what they have been asked. Despite this, the CBI wants to-the-point answers to their questions from these people, so much so that those who don't answer according to their instructions are now being put in the category of "accused". Help needs to be arranged for these people so they are able to comprehend the court proceedings. We would also do well to remember that the initial findings and the closure report of the CBI in the Aarushi Talwar case and Pratapgarh's DSP Zia ul-Haq case had initially been rejected by the court.
Qureshi keeps all in good humour
Uttarakhand Governor Aziz Qureshi is a true politician. While holding additional charge as UP Governor for a month - June 17 to July 17, 2014 - between the departure of B.L. Joshi and arrival of Ram Naik, he tried his best to consolidate his position at the cost of crossing political barriers.
A Congressman for many decades, Qureshi has told the media in off-the-record conversations that he was writing a book on "marvellous leaders of India, namely Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Rajnath Singh".
His wish was honoured and this "message" smoothly travelled to the BJP leaders. Qureshi also issued orders to all government officers in UP that they hang a picture of Modi in their cabins because he felt it would "better inspire them to work honestly".
But so far the Modi-led NDA government has not fallen for Qureshi's sycophancy. If sources are to be believed, while Rajnath has a positive feeling for Qureshi, Modi doesn't like someone who has crossed all political and ideological barriers to stay in prominence.
Ram Naik, on the other hand, sounds pragmatic when he says, "A governor should immediately step down after the change of power in the Centre."
It's not just the BJP Qureshi has been trying to woo though. The governor has so far stood by the Akhilesh Yadav-led SP government on the issue of rising rapes, to the point of saying famously that "Even god can't stop rapes in UP."
The stop-gap governor also signed the long pending Bill to provide minority status to Rampur's Ali Jauhar University, which was a dream project of UP's Urban Development and Minority Affairs Minister Azam Khan. The "Mahamahim" was allegedly doing all this to remain a UP or Uttarakhand Governor and keep the SP in good humour.
-> Here is an example to show just how serious CM Akhilesh Yadav is about development in UP. Last year, the UP State Industrial Development Corporation booked land for those interested in opening manufacturing units in Hardoi's Sandila area, in exchange for huge sums. But the UPSIDC posted a letter dated July 14 to investors, stating there were errors in their application forms and they could contact the corporation by 5pm the same day to make necessary correction. All of them received the letter on July 16!