Saturday, January 16, 2010

[ZESTCaste] UP CM Mayawati releases 25 convicts on her birthday

 

http://www.ptinews.com/news/470361_UP-CM-Mayawati-releases-25-convicts-on-her-birthday

UP CM Mayawati releases 25 convicts on her birthday

STAFF WRITER 19:40 HRS IST
Lucknow, Jan 15 (PTI) On the occasion of her birthday, Uttar Pradesh
Chief Minister Mayawati has recommended release of 25 old and sick
convicts undergoing imprisonment in various jails of the state.

The government has already recommended it to Governor BL Joshi, CM
Mayawati said here.

The government has also decided to release of 26,336 poor inmates who
were languishing in jails due to non payment of bail amount while 960
other were also released on bail after completion of half of their
jail term.

Meanwhile, several welfare camps were organised across the state to
provide benefits of various welfare schemes being run by the state
government to people.

She also saw saw a colourful programme in which school children participated.

Mayawati also laid the foundation stones for 264 welfare schemes.

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[ZESTCaste] Funds for Mayawati's birthday collected by senior officials: Samajwadi Party

 

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_funds-for-mayawati-s-birthday-collected-by-senior-officials-samajwadi-party_1335187

Funds for Mayawati's birthday collected by senior officials: Samajwadi Party
PTI

Friday, January 15, 2010 18:40 IST Email

Lucknow: Rejecting claims of Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati
that fund raising for her birthday has been put off, Samajwadi Party
today alleged that money this time were collected through senior
officials and demanded a CBI probe into it.

"The departmental heads and the district chiefs like the DMs and chief
development officers were asked to cough up funds on the birthday and
a CBI inquiry can bring the facts before the people", leader of
opposition in the state assembly Shivpal Singh Yadav told news persons
here.

"These funds are being deposited with the senior ministers Naseemuddin
Siddiqui and Babu Singh Kushwaha," Yadav alleged.

On the schemes worth over Rs7,000 crores announced by the chief
minister today, Yadav alleged that almost 50% of it would be siphoned
off.

The Samajwadi Party leader said that his party would strongly raise
the issue of misuse of public funds and scams in the coming Assembly
session.

The party also submitted a memorandum to governor BL Joshi on "massive
rigging" in the just-concluded Legislative Council elections, Yadav
said adding the party would also hold anti-government protests on
January 19 in which party president Mulayam Singh Yadav would also
take part.

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[ZESTCaste] A plot on the moon as b’day gift for Mayawati

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/politics/a-plot-on-the-moon-as-bday-gift-for-mayawati_100304753.html

A plot on the moon as b'day gift for Mayawati
January 16th, 2010 - 4:05 pm ICT by IANS -
Lucknow, Jan 16 (IANS) To please "Behenji", some Bahujan Samaj Party
(BSP) partymen are willing to go to any lengths. On her 54th birthday,
BSP boss and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati has been gifted a
three-acre plot - on nothing less than the moon!
The special gift was made by BSP leader from Kanpur, Mahendra Singh Sengar.
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/politics/a-plot-on-the-moon-as-bday-gift-for-mayawati_100304753.html
He told reporters here Saturday that he purchased the lunar plot from
US-based Lunar Republic Society. The society openly sells plots on the
moon, said Sengar, showing the registration papers signed by its
member-secretary Margaret Hayes Barton.

The papers, however do not mention the price he paid for the plot.
Sengar took offence on being asked how much he shelled out for the
lunar plot.

"How does it matter how much it cost me; when I am gifting the plot to
my most revered Behenji, its price is immaterial. It is the feeling
that matters," he said.

Mayawati, who was known for her ostentatious birthday parties in the
past, celebrated her 54th birthday Friday without the usual cultural
extravaganza, announcing welfare programmes and development schemes
worth a whopping Rs.7,312 crore (Rs.70.3 billion).


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[ZESTCaste] Dalits see English as social leveller

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Dalits-see-English-as-social-leveller/articleshow/5449983.cms

Dalits see English as social leveller
TNN, 16 January 2010, 03:11am IST

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court may have touted English as the flagbearer
of knowledge economy but the role of the Queen's language as a "social
leveller" is witnessing a renewed push for English education among
weaker sections.

Six decades after independence, there is a newfound zeal among
intellectuals that English will not only equip SCs/STs for "new
economy jobs" but also aid them in breaking free from the pernicious
caste system.

The love for English as the new lingua franca is visible. In her
fourth tenure as CM of UP, Mayawati made English compulsory in primary
education in the state. While importance of foreign language in a
globalised world is valid for all, the SC leader's decision could be
seen as flowing from her icon Ambedkar's thoughts.

Her move stands out in the face of opposition from well-heeled rivals
who see it as "cultural subversion". SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and
MNS leader Raj Thackeray have made a strong pitch for mother tongue
over English.

Their opposition contrasts with acceptability of English among dalits.
"If some people have to join the process of modernity, they have to
learn the tricks of the trade. English is one of them," says Vivek
Kumar, a faculty in JNU and a keen follower of dalit trends.

Chandrabhan Prasad, who celebrates the birthday of Macaulay on October
25 in respect for the man who introduced English education, plans to
put English in the pantheon of dalit gods. "I will build a temple to
English in a school of a dalit this year," he told TOI.

The pro-English mood has its roots in Ambedkar who saw "English" and
"urban landscape" as the twin tools for social liberation. For him,
English was the game changer - before its advent, dalits saw their
destinies as "preordained" which later they saw as "man made".

The foreign language is seen as the catalyst in social transition.
Educationist Bhalchandra Mungekar says, "Jobs create vertical and
horizontal social mobility while caste, which is immobile, played an
ascriptive role. With English came new skills and the system is fast
becoming achievement-oriented."

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[ZESTCaste] ‘Landlords exploited Dalits in Aldur’

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/47070/landlords-exploited-dalits-aldur.html

'Landlords exploited Dalits in Aldur'
Aldur, Jan 15, DHNS:

''People with vested interests among the upper class are responsible
for the pathetic life condition of Dalits in Machagondana Halli,''
said JD(S) District Convener K T Radhakrishna.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, after listening to the grievances of Dalits
in Machagondana Halli, Radhakrishna said that Dalits in the region
were being exploited by landlords and people from upper class in the
region. Moreover, they were also trying to take away Dalits land.
"Those people did not allow Dalits, who live in huts without any basic
facilities, to come to the mainstreams of the society," he charged.
There is no legal hurdle before the government to issue title deeds to
Dalits. The Dalit colony is situated outside the college campus, he
said adding that lack of political will is the only reason why title
deeds were not distributed to Dalits.

At any cost, Dalits, who dwell in the colony, should not be shifted.
Moreover, they should be given title deeds for their land and
infrastructure should also be provided for their colony, Radhakrishna
emphasised. Government should take initiative to reclaim land
encroached by upper class people in the region, he added.

Memorandum to DC

JD(S) and BSP workers submitted a memorandum seeking title deeds for
Dalits of Machagondana Halli colony to the Deputy Commissioner R
Narayanaswamy. They alleged in the memorandum that a local person had
encroached about 10 acres of land near the Dalit colony in
Machagondana Halli. They charged that those people's representatives
neither raise voice against the land encroachment, nor help Dalits in
the colony.

'Report ready'

Chikmagalur Taluk Tahsildar Veena said that the Gram Panchayat had
submitted memorandum seeking sites few months back. The Revenue
Department officials had already conducted survey in 10 acres of land
and a plan was also prepared. The complete report has been submitted
to sub division officer Dayanand, she said adding that there is no
legal obstacles in providing sites for deserved Dalit families.

Tahsildar clarified that the charges of negligence made by Gram
Panchayat members against Revenue Department officials is far from
truth. All initiatives were taken to help Dalits in time, she added.


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[ZESTCaste] Fact Sheet: No place for Dalits in Telangana JAC

http://www.greatandhra.com/ganews/viewnews.php?id=18596&cat=15&scat=16

Fact Sheet: No place for Dalits in JAC


Dalit groups forming part of the Telangana Joint Action Committee are
fretting and fuming at the JAC leaders for ignoring them in taking
decisions on taking forward the Telangana movement.

The way Madiga Reservation Porata Samithi Manda Krishna Madiga was
treated at the JAC meeting a couple of days ago resulted in a lot of
heart burn among the Dalit groups. "He has every right to express his
opinion. Why should his mike be snatched away? Would they do the same
thing if TRS president K Chandrasekhara Rao was speaking?" a Dalit
leader said.

Krishna Madiga also pointed out that whenever the JAC leaders address
a press conference, they would not allow a single Dalit leader to
speak. "Take any photograph published in the media. You would find
only upper caste leaders in the front row, while we are seen only in
the back rows," he said.

The Dalit organisations are also threatening to go independently,
alleging that the political parties were fighting for one-upmanship
rather than fighting for the Telangana cause. "There is no proper
representation for SCs, STs, BCs, women and minorities in the JAC. All
those who are taking decisions are only from upper castes. How can
they ensure social justice in the Telangana? We will chalk our own
plans at the grassroot level," Krishna Madiga wondered.


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[ZESTCaste] Dalit youth allegedly made to eat human excreta

 

http://beta.thehindu.com/news/states/tamil-nadu/article80946.ece

Tamil Nadu
MADURAI, January 15, 2010
Dalit youth allegedly made to eat human excreta
D. Karthikeyan

A 24-year-old Dalit youth was allegedly made to eat human excreta at
Melakoilpatti village coming under Nilakottai circle and Batlagundu
police station limits in Dindigul district.

P. Sadaiyandi, in his complaint to the police, has said that on
January 7 a group of Thevar Christian youth stopped him near the
village salon and abused him by his caste name for daring to defy the
ban on Dalits wearing footwear in the streets where upper castes live.

The group comprising Arockiasamy, David, Selvendran, Kennedy,
Kannadasan, Peter and Anbu beat him up. Two of them then forced his
mouth open and thrust excrement down his throat. They later smeared
his face with it.

The Dalits of Indira Nagar in his village came to his rescue and took
him to the hospital where he underwent treatment. However, fearing
repercussion, Sadaiyandi did not file a complaint against them
immediately and waited till the next day.

The Batlagundu police on Friday, January 15, filed a case against
Arockiasamy and 20 others under Sections 147, 148, 341, 323, 355, 324,
506 (2) of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 3(1) (10) and 3(1)(3) of
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities
Act),1989. No arrest has been made so far.

Meanwhile, the youth who had attacked Sadaiyandi have also lodged a
complaint with the police alleging that it was a drunken Sadaiyandi
who had picked up a quarrel with them and attacked them.

Madurai-based non-governmental organisation Evidence, which conducted
a field study, found that animosity between the Dalits and Thevars had
been there for sometime after a ruckus on Christmas Day.

A. Kathir, Executive Director, Evidence, said that complaints had been
sent to National Human Rights Commission, State Human Rights
Commission and Chief Secretary.

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[ZESTCaste] Nepal: Musahar kids turn school-goers

http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=Musahar+kids+turn+school-goers&NewsID=221551

Musahar kids turn school-goers
Last Updated : 2010-01-15 12:36 PM
The Himalayan Times - Saved Articles(s)

Govinda Chhetri

JHAPA: People of Musahar community, enlisted as Dalits have started
education campaign in their communities. Realising that their
backwardness was due to lack of education, parents have taken
initiation to send their kids to schools.

Chandreswor Sada, central chairperson, Musahar Utthan Society-Nepal,
said, "We have started sustainable education campaign in our
community."

He added, "We were humiliated as the media also highlighted our
community as a mice collecting community.'' He claimed that the media
can now see their children in schools.

About the campaign, Sada said, "We have a policy of boycotting parents
from the society if they do not send their kids to school.'' Balaram
Sada, eastern regional coordinator of the community, said that each
village will have a chief to see whether the guardians send their

children to school or not. Sada added, "There is no Musahar
representative in the Constituent Assembly but we

hope that the new statue would also be

in our favour."

The total population of the Musahars is around 10,000 in the district.
According to the earlier census, the Musahars inhabit some 18
districts of the country. Likewise, a national report puts the total
population of Musahar at 178,300. However, the community claims that
their population is above a million.


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[ZESTCaste] Dalit leaders to gherao parliament over Ambedkar memorial

 

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_dalit-leaders-to-gherao-parliament-over-ambedkar-memorial_1335191

Dalit leaders to gherao parliament over Ambedkar memorial
PTI

Friday, January 15, 2010 18:51 IST
New Delhi: Dalit leaders from various parties have threatened to
gherao parliament and hold protest march on April 30 if their demand
for a Rajghat-like status of honour to BR Ambedkar's memorial here is
not met.

"We have been seeking the same status for Baba Saheb Ambedkar's house
in Alipur Road, where he breathed his last, as has been given to
Rajghat, the cremation place of Mahatma Gandhi.

"We had submitted a five point memorandum in this regard to President
Pratibha Patil on December 6 and to Union Minister for Social Justice
Mukul Wasnik on November 24 last year. But, we have not received any
assurance from the Centre on our demands," former union minister Ram
Vilas Paswan told reporters, after chairing a meeting of an umbrella
Dalit organisation Ambedkar Parinirvan Bhumi Samman Karyakram Samiti
here today.

Apart from Paswan, Udit Raj (Indian Justice Party), Indresh Gajbhiye
(BJP), Charanjit Atwal (Akali Dal), Ramdas Athwale (Republican Party),
and JD Seelam and H Hanumanthappa (Congress) are patrons of the
Samiti.

Most of these members were present in the meeting today. The Committee
members will seek an appointment from the prime minister during the
upcoming budget session of parliament next month over the same issue,
Paswan said, adding the protest march could turn into a thanksgiving
march if the demand is conceded by then.

The Samiti had on December 6 last year held a massive public meeting
on Alipur Road over the same demand.

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[ZESTCaste] Cong leaders disown controversial 'caste list'

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/Cong-leaders-disown-controversial-caste-list/articleshow/5450421.cms

Cong leaders disown controversial 'caste list'
Dipak Mishra, TNN, 16 January 2010, 12:50am IST

Prevention of Atrocities Act, state Congress chief Anil Kumar Sharma
and AICC Bihar in-charge Jagdish Tytler are desperately trying to
wriggle out of the soup they find themselves after distribution of the
list of BPCC office-bearers with their castes affixed against their
names. They included Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar.

Both Sharma and Tytler are now disowning the list distributed to the
media. Sharma claimed that the list shown by the media was 'fudged'
and not the actual list released to the media. Tytler lost his cool at
the media declaring that the 'caste list' shown by the media was
'leaked out' and had not been released officially. "You find out who
brought the list. It is an internal document. So many things are
mentioned in internal papers. But what is important is what comes out
officially," Tytler told reporters here when asked about the leakage
of the controversial list.

Tytler for the first time after he assumed charge of Bihar Congress
also attacked the media saying, "It is the media which has damaged me.
Just because you have power it does not mean you have to misuse it. If
you are serious why don't you find out who stole the list... who took
that list away, which was for our internal consumption." He insisted
that the 'official' list released by the Congress does not carry the
name of Meira Kumar as an office-bearer.

Apparently, the two have been feeling the heat of the faux pas of
releasing the 'caste list by mistake.' With Rahul Gandhi scheduled to
visit Bihar to give fillip to his plan of enrolling youths in the
Youth Congress, this is the controversy the AICC did not want at all.
The AICC is reportedly seeking legal advice on the case filed by a
little known political activist, Vidhan Chandra Rana, under the SC/ST
Prevention of Atrocities Act. The best way out, in the opinion of a
senior party leader, is to disown the controversial 'caste list'.

Dissident Congress leaders, who have been gunning for the head of
Sharma, have got a god sent opportunity to get after Sharma and also
Tytler. They are camping in Delhi, meeting top party leaders and
pointing out towards the embarrassment caused to the party. The
political adversaries have not lagged behind. CM Nitish Kumar was
quick to dub the Congress as a party mired in caste politics and
trying to rake up caste tension as it was dying in Bihar. The 'caste
list' is turning out to be a nightmare for the Congress.

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[ZESTCaste] Crumbling Yadav Bastion

http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/nation/crumbling-yadav-bastion

BY Dhirendra K. Jha | 16 January 2010

Crumbling Yadav Bastion

Amar Singh's troubles are only a sign that a caste group long used to
power is now finding itself short of options.
Nearly everyone in Guvar village agrees that the Samajwadi Party (SP)
is the sole political outfit worthy of their vote. But it is proving
hard for them to come to terms with the possibility that the party may
never return to power in their state.

"Reason? Muslims, what else?" replies Samarath Singh Yadav, the
sarpanch of the Yadav-dominated village in Kanpur Dehat district of
Uttar Pradesh, as he instructs other villagers to maintain silence.
"Muslims take both their religion and politics seriously," he goes on,
"Mulayam Singh Yadav has annoyed them, and so they have dumped him.
Without Muslims, he has no chance." Samarath, however, falls silent on
whether he would continue to support the SP even if Mulayam's party
fails to remain in the reckoning of UP politics. It's an inner
conflict that troubles many voters who identify themselves with the
Yadav caste, which was on the ascendant all through the 1990s, until
recently.

Ramsnehi Yadav, a resident of nearby Goriratan-Bangar village,
explains the predicament—after nearly two decades, many of the
region's Yadavs feel left at a loose end, with a sudden loss of
political heft backing them. Muslim voters drifting away from the SP,
as recent electoral results suggest, would mean that regaining this
power would be tough. But the SP is still their party. "Other parties
do not count Yadavs, whether it is the Congress or BSP (Bahujan Samaj
Party). That's why thinking of any other party is impossible. It's a
question of dignity," he says.

CRACKS IN THE FORMULA

To the extent that Yadavs represent a vote base, it is in flux not
just in UP but across a much wider region. Specifically, in
neighbouring Bihar as well. If in UP they have by and large backed
Mulayam Singh Yadav's SP, in Bihar they have rallied in support of
Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), which also relied heavily on
the additional support of Muslim voters. With intense political
fragmentation, most electoral fights have been three- or four-cornered
ones, which meant that winning just about a third of the votes was
enough to win Assembly seats. Together, Yadav and Muslim voters could
deliver that. But alone, Yadav voters would not be able to. They
account for only a tenth of the two states' electorate. Hence, the
worry of marginalisation.

There has been a fallout at the top level of the SP already, in the
shape of a leadership crisis. The recent resignation of Amar Singh as
SP general secretary can be traced to a bitter duel he has had with
another general secretary, Ramgopal Yadav, a relative of Mulayam.With
word out that Muslim support for Mulayam cannot be taken for granted
any further, even plenty of Yadav voters have started looking farther
afield for other options. For the first time after two decades, their
vote could be up for grabs. "A community that once tastes political
power always opts for bigger alternatives," says Ashok Yadav, an
independent MLA from Yadav-dominated Shikohabad in Ferozabad district.
He admits, however, that "at the moment, Yadavs do not really have a
clear-cut view of an alternative".

The crumbling of Mandal politics—that guided the political destiny of
North India for two decades by building a social coalition based on
the bedrock of Muslim-Yadav unity—has meant political dethronement of
Yadavs. A visible shift of Muslims away from Mandal forces—primarily
the SP in UP and RJD in Bihar—has left Yadavs in the lurch. With the
prospect of Muslims no longer voting in tandem, Yadavs, who account
for merely around 10 per cent of the population in the two states, are
faced with a situation where on their own they can make SP or RJD
candidates win only in a handful of constituencies. In most other
constituencies, they would simply be wasting their votes if they
continue with their old political line as Mulayam and Lalu have only
shown depletion in their base with no sign of any other social group
getting attracted to them. It is this situation that has left the
erstwhile wielders of political power in the cow-belt at the
crossroads.

Sure, there is the question of political dignity, which still weighs
heavily on the minds of many Yadav voters. Yet, in many areas—and this
includes Ferozabad-Etawah-Mainpuri which is considered the Yadav belt
in UP—this question has started getting obscured by the eruption of
intra-caste differences, stoked by a combination of grievances of
those who gained little in material terms from the Yadav dominance of
politics, and those who prospered from patronage but have no clue how
to retain their newfound privileges. Says Kailash Yadav, principal of
Gyanasthali Senior Secondary School at Etawah, "Mulayam and most top
Yadav leaders of his party belong to the Kamaria subcaste of Yadavs.
It is this subcaste that received most of the benefits from Mulayam's
rise to power. The other subcaste of Yadavs, Ghosi, got nothing—
despite the fact that Ghosis, who account for nearly two-thirds of the
Yadav population in central districts of UP (the SP bastion), have
been supporting the party wholeheartedly for two decades."

Ghosis, who have traditionally been relatively better off among
Yadavs, claim to have led Yadav caste assertion in the state. It was
Ghosi leaders, they say, who led the caste's social awakening in the
early 20th century, giving them the consciousness that has helped
their emergence on the political stage. The first Yadav upsurge, they
point out, began as early as 1912 when a Yadav Mahasabha was organised
at Brahmawar-Lajpur village in Shikohabad at the behest of Ghosi
social leaders. "Choudhary Amir Singh of this village presided over
the Mahasabha… [which] resolved that the Ahirs (another term for
Yadavs) have Kshatriya lineage. It formed a committee of four members
with a specific objective to establish an educational institution for
Ahirs. It was because of the work of this committee that an Ahir
Kshatriya School was set up at Shikohabad in 1916, which was later
promoted into Ahir Kshatriya Degree College. All these early Yadav
leaders were Ghosis," says 89-year-old Narottam Singh Yadav, a retired
school teacher of Brahmawar-Lajpur village. Though born later, in
1921, he says that he remembers his father telling him "how the
leaders had emphasised the necessity of education to break the
upper-caste supremacy". As a mark of protest, local Ahirs even began
wearing the sacred thread that was supposed to be the sole privilege
of Brahmins.

This revolutionary fervour, in Narottam's telling, is what laid the
ground for the Lohia brand of politics that was to come in the 1960s
and 1970s, a subaltern assertion on which Mulayam and his fellow
Samajwadis rose to political prominence. And yet, it is on this very
turf that the SP has faltered. Narottam credits Mulayam for taking up
the Yadav cause and for some development work, but attacks the SP's
politics for destroying the education system that had once formed the
basis for the Yadav upsurge a century ago. "Although Mulayam did a lot
for us and the area, we are not happy with him. He ruined the
education and spread corruption. Not all Yadavs are with him now," he
says.

OLD NEMESIS CALLED ALIENATION

Mulayam cannot dismiss what he owes the Ahir Kshatriya Degree College,
renamed Adarsh Krishna Degree College in 1967 (by the then CM Charan
Singh). "At the height of the Sangh Parivar's Ram Janmabhoomi
agitation, Mulayam Singh Yadav held a public meeting in the ground of
this college in 1991 and assured Muslims that 'Babri Masjid par koi
parinda parr nahin maar payega' (Nobody will be able to touch the
Babri Masjid)." It was this statement that changed UP politics and
turned Muslims in his favour," says Dr RP Pande, former principal of
this college.

Shikohabad MLA Ashok Yadav, whose grandfather was a key figure in
establishing the Ahir Kshatriya School, observes: "Mulayam Singh Yadav
and Kalyan Singh (the former BJP leader) were products of the Ayodhya
episode. UP's agenda has changed now, and both have become redundant."

Indeed, the SP's shocking loss in the recent bypolls held on Mulayam
Singh Yadav's home turf, particularly in the Ferozabad Lok Sabha
constituency as well as the Assembly seats of Bharthana, Bidhuna and
Etawah City, suggests that Yadav voters have started getting restive
about their future.

"Ghosis always treated Mulayam as their own, but Mulayam did nothing
for us," says Shiv Prasad Yadav, the Ghosi leader who wrested the
Bharthana Assembly seat that was vacated by Mulayam Singh Yadav after
he became a Lok Sabha member. Of all the Yadav-dominated seats lost by
the SP in recent bypolls, this one has its own significance. For it
was here that intra-caste differences among Yadavs saw their first
expression in the state.

Even before the polling, it was clear that Shiv Prasad Yadav,
contesting on a BSP ticket, had the majority backing of Ghosis in the
constituency, as against the SP's Kamaria vote base. The election, in
fact, had become such a prestige issue for Ghosis across the entire
region that independent MLA Ashok Yadav, a well-regarded local Ghosi
leader, held a series of public meetings in support of the BSP
candidate in Bharthana.

Shiv Prasad Yadav's victory has deepened the divide between the two
Yadav subcastes in all nearby areas. "Mulayam harmed us the most. He
never allowed any Ghosi leader to grow beyond a point. We have,
therefore, decided to support and elect the leaders from our own
subcaste," says the new Bharthana MLA.

That is more than just a small piece of bad news for the SP, which is
so low on self-confidence at the moment that it seems desperate to
retain influence among voters who were once loyal to the party.
Winning back Muslim support could be a saving grace. As of now, this
looks highly improbable, and could require a big blunder on part of
the Congress, which is back in the fray.

But there is another big party in contest, the BSP, led by UP Chief
Minister Mayawati. On its part, the BSP is also trying to capitalise
on the new feuds that have broken out among the state's Yadavs. It is
no coincidence that of the total 14 party legislators who owe
allegiance to this caste, as many as 11 are Ghosi Yadavs. And yet,
there is a limit to which the BSP can gain from Mulayam's crumbling
Yadav vote base. This is because there has been an underlying standoff
between Yadav and Dalit politics in the state which does not look like
abating anytime soon. As political observers put it, Yadav voters may
be only too glad to see Mayawati lose power in UP.

"Most Yadavs in UP see BSP as the party that has stripped them of
political power," observes Pande, "In a few constituencies, the BSP's
Yadav candidates may succeed in mustering caste votes because of
personal preferences, but in most others, Yadav voters are likely to
vote in vengeance to get Mayawati out of power. Wherever the SP
candidates are not in a position to win, the Yadavs, by and large, are
likely to vote tactically to defeat the BSP candidates."

Of the remaining parties, the BJP is unlikely to get too many Yadav
votes, adds Pande, "Because this caste's two decades of political
unity with Muslims under the leadership of Mulayam has secularised
them so thoroughly that only a miracle can turn them over to the Sangh
Parivar."

ADVANTAGE CONGRESS

In Pande's reckoning, it is the Congress that has most to gain in UP
now. This might sound strange. In all these years, the party has had a
patchy record in attracting Yadav favour, and none of the party's
Yadav leaders—Chandrajit Yadav, Shyamlal Yadav, Balram Singh Yadav,
Ram Naresh Yadav and Laxmikant Yadav—could ever get beyond their own
local spheres of influence. Certainly, they were not seen as 'Yadav
leaders' in the sense of identity politics. There is a historical
reason. After Choudhary Charan Singh formed a coalition of peasant
communities in the state in the 1970s, the Congress lacked even
symbolic Yadav presence. And once Mulayam emerged as Charan Singh's
successor in the 1980s, he attracted Ghosis, Kamarias and other
Yadavs.Yet, Hindi-belt politics has taken such a dramatic turn, that
for the first time since Independence, the Congress, more than any
other party, seems to have emerged as the best bet for tactical voters
in the country's largest state.

"There are times when there is a sea change in politics," as the
89-year-old Narottam Singh Yadav puts it, on the SP's growing
desperation, "It then does not matter what you say or what you do."
This is a lesson that Mulayam Singh Yadav might have to learn the hard
way.


------------------------------------

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