Kanshi Ram – Are memorial parks 'grounding' his legacy?
By Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay Oct 09, 2011 12:52PM UTC
Five years ago Kanshi Ram died, two years after a debilitating stroke.
He was active politically for three and a half decades out of which he
spent half the period organising Scheduled Caste government employees.
He formed one organisation after another – from the odd-sounding All
India Backward and Minority Employees Federation (BAMCEF) to Dalit
Soshit Samaj Sangharsh Samiti (DS4) before finally taking the plunge
and forming the Bahujan Samaj Party in 1984.
In less than a decade the party announced its 'arrival' and carved out
a niche in Indian politics. In the 1989 Lok Sabha election, the BSP
made its debut in Lok Sabha with two members – one each from Uttar
Pradesh and Punjab. It increased its tally to three in 1991 and Kanshi
Ram became a member of Lok Sabha for the first time.
Earlier he had contested the famous Allahabad bye election in 1988
that saw VP Singh riding the Rajiv Gandhi wave after Big B's
resignation from his Lok Sabha seat. Prior to this, BSP and Mayawati
had made their presence felt in two other bye elections – Bijnor and
Haridwar, both in UP. In the 1991 elections, the BSP won 10 assembly
seats from UP and secured a vote share of around ten percent
announcing its political arrival in the state.
This recap is essential to understand that despite being an 'outsider'
in Indian politics, Kanshi Ram re-established an agenda – missing in
Indian politics since Dr B R Ambedkar's death. It was because of the
efforts of Kanshi Ram that the Dalit issue came out of the folds of
existing parties. After 1991, 'incorporation' and 'tokenism' of the
Dalit issue was a matter of history.
Like all 'outsiders' not having the privilege of being born either
into a political fraternity or joining a pre-existing political
entity, Kanshi Ram oozed confidence to the point of arrogance. He
created his demigod-like image and trained his protégé – Mayawati – to
do similarly. Supporters looked at them in awe as they matched Upper
Caste leaders in megalomania. Finally, one among the ati-Shudras had
found a 'place' in the political 'Varna Vyawastha'.
There can be no two views that deviations from the pristine goals that
Kanshi Ram set for his party began in his lifetime and he did little
to put a stop to it. Maybe he did not wish to do so because in his
view a little bit of partaking in the 'party' that political parties
indulged in whenever on power, was a must for the BSP also. He once
told me in an interview that his party will "play every game" before
making their own games.
I am not however sure if Kanshi Ram would have approved the games
being staged in memorial parks in his name that are coming up all over
UP and the most controversial of them inNOIDA gets inaugurated in just
a few days.
His legacy lives not in the megalomania of party leaders but in the
shift in the power equation that's taken place throughout UP. And, in
the 'outing' of the Dalit agenda.
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