Latest News Update: Mar 7, 2012

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

[ZESTCaste] Cong govt established Nodal agency for SC, ST community: Minister

http://www.siasat.com/english/news/cong-govt-established-nodal-agency-sc-st-community-minister

Cong govt established Nodal agency for SC, ST community: Minister
Friday, 2 March 2012

Hyderabad, March 02:

Countering the remarks made against the Congress government by TDP
legislator Rama Rao in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly today, Minister for
Animal Husbandry P Viswarupu said it was his government which had
established the Nodal Agency for SC, ST Community. Making a
clarification to the TDP member's remarks during the discussion on the
the demands for grants for 2012-13, he said the Congress government
was instrumental to enhance the monthly pension to physically
challenged persons from Rs 50 (during TDP's regime) to Rs 500 now.

The Minister said under the Indira Jala Prabha programme, irrigation
water was provided to ten lakh acres and advised the TDP MLA not to
confine to political speech. Mr Rama Rao said it was the late former
Chief Minister N T Rama Rao and the present TDP President N
Chandrababu Naidu who had introduced 33 per cent reservation to women
and his party had made Dalit leader G M C Balayogi as the Lok Sabha
Speaker.

He said banks were not giving loans to the SC and ST community and
they were also not getting any monetary concessions through SC, ST
corporations. Though the state government boasted that it had
introduced number of schemes to the poor, the onus lied on the
government that it ensure that the schemes were implemented
effectively.

To this, the Minister once again intervened and said it was the UPA
Chairperson Sonia Gandhi who had made Meira Kumar, a dalit leader, as
Lok Sabha Speaker. The party was always positive towards dalits and
hence Damodar Sanjiviah was made Chief Minister of the state in 1970,
Koneru Ranga Rao and Damodar Rajanarasimha as the Deputy Chief
Ministers. Congress legislator Shajahan Basha said the Congress
government had taken up the housing programme to construct 59.46 lakh
houses for the poor under Indiramma Housing scheme and so far 34 lakh
houses were completed. He said of those, as many as 17,659 houses were
allotted to Minorities and 8,039 houses had been completed so far.
Stating that the Congress government had taken up the housing
programme with clarity basis, Mr Basha said scholarships and tuition
fee reimbursement were provided by the state government to nearly 25
lakh students in the state. Deputy Speaker Mallu Batti Vikramarka
later adjourned the House to meet again tomorrow. UNI

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[ZESTCaste] Mayawati quits as Uttar Pradesh leader after poll loss

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-17283830

7 March 2012 Last updated at 08:58 GMT

Mayawati quits as Uttar Pradesh leader after poll loss

India's Dalit icon Mayawati has quit as the chief minister of Uttar
Pradesh state after her party's poor showing in crucial assembly
elections.

She said as the results did not favour her party, she had recommended
to the governor to dissolve the assembly.

In Delhi, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi vowed to "correct the mistakes"
that led to her party's dismal performance.

Congress had disappointing results in three other states, winning a
clear majority only in Manipur.

These polls are seen as a litmus test for national elections due by 2014.

The Samajwadi Party took 224 seats out of the 403 in Uttar Pradesh
legislative assembly, while Congress languished in the fourth slot
with 28. Ms Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party was a distant second with
80 seats.
'Cold storage'

On Wednesday, Ms Mayawati blamed all her political opponents - the
Congress party, Bharatiya Janata Party and Samajwadi Party - and
journalists for her loss.

"The new Samajwadi Party government will put all development and
welfare programmes in cold storage and take the state back several
years in time," she said.

"Very soon the voters will get disillusioned with the functioning
style of the Samajwadi government and remember our good governance,"
she added.
Continue reading the main story
FINAL RESULTS

Uttar Pradesh: Total seats: 403. Samajwadi Party 224; Bahujan
Samaj Party 80; BJP 47; Congress 28
Punjab: Total seats: 117. Akali Dal 56; BJP 12; Congress 46
Uttarakhand: Total seats 70. Congress: 32 BJP 31
Goa: Total seats: 40. BJP 21 Congress: 9
Manipur: Total seats: 60. Congress: 42. Others: 18

Ms Mayawati said she was confident her party would be voted back to
power in the next election.

In Delhi, Congress president Sonia Gandhi addressed a rare press
conference after meeting her party leaders.

"We will have to sit down and look at the situation and the results in
every single state and together work out a plan to correct the
mistakes we have made," she said.

Mrs Gandhi said the reasons behind the party's poor showing could be many.

"Our organisation is weak in Uttar Pradesh, our candidate choice was
one of the reasons, inflation could be another," she said.

Mrs Gandhi, however, said that the results would "not damage the
Congress party-led government" and it was premature to talk about
general elections as they were due only in 2014.

The Samajwadi Party's legislative board is meeting in Lucknow to elect
the new chief minister.

Mulayam Singh Yadav, the 72-year-old-leader of the party, is expected
to lead the government in the state.

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[ZESTCaste] Mayawati quits, warns against SP's hooliganism

http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/detailsnew.asp?id=mar0712/at041

Mayawati quits, warns against SP's hooliganism

Lucknow, March 7 (IANS): Uttar Pradesh was likely to witness a wave
of hooliganism as the Samajwadi Party (SP) had been voted back to
power in the State, outgoing Chief Minister Mayawati said today
shortly after submitting her resignation.

In her first comments after her Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) was routed
in the State on Tuesday, Mayawati told reporters that the State would
now taste "SP culture" as had become evident in the last 24 hours.

Citing incidents of violence in Jhansi, Firozabad and Sambhal where SP
workers indulged in violence Tuesday, Maya said that very soon the
state would remember "her good governance" and repent the verdict that
they gave in favour of the SP.

Blaming the Congress and BJP of conniving to oust her from power and
get a SP government, she also accused the Congress-led United
Progressive Alliance (UPA) government of "harbouring a negative
mindset" against her and the State government. She also blamed the
media for "unnecessarily hyping irrelevant issues".

Asked whether scandals like the rural health scam had impacted on the
party, the outgoing Chief Minister answered in the negative and said
that knives would be out for the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) as well as the media when people faced the hooliganism of the SP
brass.

In Mayawati's view, Muslims voted in large numbers for the SP and
Mulayam Singh Yadav and this probably cost her the job. She, however,
underlined that her Dalit vote bank was intact and numbers would have
slipped further had that not been the case.

Mayawati said 70 percent of Muslim votes went to the SP as the
Congress appeared weak.

While the SP got an emphatic verdict of 224 seats in the 403-member
assembly, the BSP was reduced to just 80 seats, down 126 from the 206
it got in the 2007 assembly polls.

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[ZESTCaste] In Mayawati’s defeat, there’s hope for Dalits

http://www.firstpost.com/politics/in-mayawatis-defeat-theres-hope-for-dalits-237841.html

In Mayawati's defeat, there's hope for Dalits

Mar 7, 2012

Follow @firstpostin

Abhay Vaidya

Renaming districts after Dalit leaders such as Ambedkar and erecting
giant statues of Kanshi Ram and herself to project 'Dalit pride' may
have helped India's first Dalit woman chief minister to play her caste
card. But clearly, what the people in India's most populous state seem
to want is development.

This has emerged as the central message that politicians will take
home from the 2012 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh where the
people have rejected Mayawati and given a clear mandate to the
Samajwadi Party (SP) led by the dynamic and youthful Akhilesh Yadav.
The SP's clear majority with 224 seats out of a total of 403 is
nothing short of spectacular.

There are clear parallels in the voter behavior in Uttar Pradesh. AFP

Where Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) came to represent a
pompous, arrogant and corrupt government which spent huge amounts on
raising statues and memorials, the young and charismatic Akhilesh
Yadav spoke the language of development and the promise of a new UP.
This helped Akhilesh overshadow his father and veteran politician
Mulayam Singh Yadav, who had been rejected by the voters in the 2007
assembly elections because of widespread lawlessness and insecurity in
UP.

Thus, apart from the traditional support from Muslims and the OBC
Yadav caste to which Mulayam belongs, the SP emerged as an attractive
choice for Dalits and voters across caste barriers over the incumbent
BSP. Valiant efforts by Rahul Gandhi with support from sister Priyanka
to revive an organisationally-weak Congress in UP failed, while it was
another lost opportunity for the BJP to improve its numbers.

In fact, there are clear parallels in the voter behavior in Uttar
Pradesh and the recently-held municipal elections in Maharashtra when
it comes to the promise of change and dynamism. In both the states,
regional parties such as the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and the
Shiv Sena performed far better than the national parties. While both
states have sizeable Dalit populations (21 percent in UP and 18.5
percent in Maharashtra), like Akhilesh in UP, it was MNS's Raj
Thackeray in Maharashtra who won the support of a large section of the
voters, especially the youth and Dalits, across caste barriers.

The fact that both the SP and the MNS won seats in reserved
constituencies goes to show that they had the support of other
communities in addition to the Dalits. SP, for example, gained
significantly in the Mayawati-stronghold of Poorvanchal dominated by
Dalits, Kurmis and OBCs indicating the strong anti-incumbency trend
and their vote for change under Akhilesh. The SP also won 56 of the 85
reserved constituencies in UP, as against just 17 won by the BSP.

As in the case with Akhilesh, Raj Thackeray's appeal to the people in
Maharashtra was to vote for anti-incumbency and in favour of change
and development. Ironically, the Dalits in Maharashtra have been used
and abused by political parties primarily because of disunity and
multiple Dalit factions led by their various self-serving leaders.

The leading Republican Party of India (Athavale) faction, for example,
entered into an alliance with the Shiv Sena-BJP for the Maharashtra
civic polls, rather than the Congress-NCP with whom it had an alliance
in the past. While the RPI won just one seat in the Mumbai civic
polls, its support gave an edge to the Shiv Sena-BJP candidates in
many seats.

The disillusioned among the Dalits, however, preferred to vote for Raj
Thackeray across cities in the hope of a new leadership. The
direction-less politics of Dalits over the past many decades in
Maharashtra has been eloquently captured in Anand Patwardhan's latest
documentary, Jai Bhim Comrade.

Unlike Mayawati who frittered away her opportunity to focus on
development and good governance, the new SP government led by Mulayam
Singh – Akhilesh will be expected to chart a new course for UP, more
on the lines of Nitish Kumar's Bihar where good governance has become
a talking point. As also demonstrated by Gujarat, there's all round
support from voters when governments engage in effective governance
and ensure productive investments in infrastructure such as good roads
and power.

Such steps help the economy in the state bringing in employment and
revenues. When that happens, everyone benefits, including the Dalits.
Hopefully, that's the story that will unfold in Akhilesh Yadav's Uttar
Pradesh.

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[ZESTCaste] How Mayawati blew it (Opinion)

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/how-mayawati-blew-it/921385/

How Mayawati blew it
Virender Kumar Posted online: Thu Mar 08 2012, 03:51 hrs
Why she junked the rainbow, fled to her core vote

Why has the BSP lost despite the world-class F1 race tack, the Yamuna
Expressway, the plus-seven per cent growth, and those impressive
stone-and-granite symbols of Dalit pride which have changed the face
of Lucknow and Noida? Ask anyone who travelled in UP in recent weeks.
In the general sense of disaffection with the government, three points
stand out.

One, complaints of pervasive corruption, so much so that the poor had
to pay for getting their pension, Indira Awas or NREGA wages. Two,
that hers was a "bureaucratic, insensitive" government, with no
redress of grievances, not even when MLAs tried to intercede. Three,
that it was a government which cared only for the Dalits.

Interestingly, unlike others, the Dalits generally remained
enthusiastic supporters of Mayawati, crediting her for giving them a
sense of security and dignity. Post-results, it seems, Mayawati has
again become a leader of Dalits, exactly where she stood before 2007
when, for the first time, non-Dalits voted for the BSP in large
numbers, helping it get an absolute majority.

Her promise of restoring the rule of law had then caught the
imagination of a people fed up with Mulayam Singh Yadav's jungle raj.
She changed her language: from a champion of Bahujan, she turned into
a votary of Sarvajan. Her party shed its old, anti-upper caste
rhetoric. Did she rise to the demands of an inclusive, sarvajan
mandate? For an answer, let us trace, briefly, the journey of her last
five years.

After taking over as chief minister in May 2007, she announced two
bold initiatives: the over 1,000-km-long Ganga Expressway project and
a scheme to open the agriculture sector to private investment. The
first, running from Basti in the east to Noida in the west, could have
opened up vast tracts in UP's most backward hinterland to
urbanisation, and growth that comes with it. But it was stalled by
land acquisition and environmental roadblocks. The second, which had
the potential of sowing the seeds of a green revolution, was abandoned
because, as Mayawati said, intelligence reports suggested that farmers
did not like the idea.

She took a third initiative: she started work on those grand
memorials, a total of five in Lucknow, including two expansive ones
dedicated to Kanshi Ram and B.R. Ambekdar, and a third, equally huge,
in Noida, each costing several thousand crores. Everywhere, she
installed her own statues along with those of Ambedkar, Kanshi Ram,
Jyotiba Phule, Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj and other Dalit icons — as
many as 12 in Lucknow alone. In a state which has for long ranked
among the lowest in socio-economic indicators, how could this promote
Sarvajan Hitay? This was Mayawati's first self-inflicted blow to her
sarvajan platform.

Her party leaders, in the meantime, went berserk. Within six months, a
minister was allegedly involved in the murder of a girl in Faizabad;
after another six months, an MLA was arrested for rape in Agra.
Another six months and a third MLA, along with the district BSP
president, and helped by the police, forced his way into the house of
an engineer in Auraiya and allegedly tortured him to death just
because he refused to pay for Mayawati's birthday celebrations. Many
more such incidents followed.

Mayawati couldn't stop any of this.

So, when the Lok Sabha elections were held in 2009, the BSP found
itself beaten to the third place by the SP and the Congress. Worse, it
could win only two of the 17 reserved seats. This was stage one of
Mayawati's undoing.

Assembly elections were almost three years away. If she wanted,
Mayawati could still make amends and push administrative and policy
initiatives to regain public trust. But rattled by the defeat, she
took a big leap back: she junked her inclusivist mandate and sought
the safety of her traditional Dalit supporters.

She announced that party general secretary Satish Mishra, who many had
begun to see as her No 2, would stay away from politics and, instead,
concentrate on the party's legal work. The State Advisory Committee
under Mishra, which had been constituted on the pattern of Sonia
Gandhi's National Advisory Committee, was rendered defunct. Mishra was
no mass leader and his belittling did not alienate any section. But
Mayawati's action sent out a message to the Dalits that she is the
only leader of the BSP, that no one else mattered. Non-Dalits were
also listening.

What damaged Mayawati and the BSP hard was the systematic emasculation
of her MLAs. All of them were answerable to the party's local
coordinators, who are regarded as Mayawati's eyes and ears. Most of
them are Dalits. Without the coordinator's approval, an MLA could not
even hold a meeting or make a statement to the media. If there was a
local grievance, the coordinator would decide how it would be taken up
and with whom. They kept everyone on a tight leash. This destroyed the
MLAs politically, particularly the non-Dalits.

Mayawati kept underlining that the Dalit agenda remained her top
priority, nothing else. She gave a new thrust to the Ambedkar village
project, under which basic facilities are provided on priority in
villages that have substantial Dalit population. She introduced
reservation for Dalits in contracts. She ordered that the government
pay membership fee of Dalits so that they became members of primary
cooperative societies and, therefore, eligible for loans. The DGP was
told to personally visit homes where a Dalit was the victim of a
crime. She ordered a special campaign to give land to the landless
Dalits. All this was as it should be. But in all other matters, the
administration kept functioning in its usual uncaring, inefficient
ways. For example, the police would promptly attend to complaints of
Dalits, not others. And if the complaint was against a BSP man, it
would not even lodge an FIR until it got a green signal from above. It
was this reverse discrimination that blew apart her Sarvajan Hitay
slogan.

Meanwhile, crime and corruption flourished; her trusted men Babu Singh
Kushwaha and Naseemuddin Siddiqui were caught for alleged corruption.
Two CMOs were shot dead in Lucknow, a deputy CMO was found dead in
Lucknow jail under suspicious circumstances. As Mayawati increasingly
came under attack, she fled to the safety of her core vote. Read her
speeches over the last few years and the refrain is that everyone is
gripped by "Dalit-virodhi mansikta", trying to bring down a "Dalit ki
beti". Even Julian Assange was "Dalit virodhi".

The undoing of Mayawati's sarvajan platform was complete. Since in a
state like UP, no one can win an election by courting one or two
communities, the BSP's defeat was a foregone conclusion.

Any lessons from this for the Samajwadi Party? One, the SP should
recognise that it has got a mandate for governance from a people fed
up with Mayawati's misrule. Two, it has to respect the fact that
behind its victory is the support and goodwill of people across
Hindu-Muslim, forward-backward and rural-urban divides. Nothing else
can explain its win in Lucknow. It should remember that as long as it
was a party of Yadavs and Muslims, its best score was 143 in 2002.
Three, the SP should be on guard against those who can tar the new
government. Unlike Mulayam Singh Yadav, who has avoided using the
stick even when necessary, Akhilesh Yadav has shown he is made of
sterner stuff. The space and support the father gives the son could
hold the key to the SP's success.

virender.kumar@expressindia.com

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[ZESTCaste] Mayawati: UP will miss my governance

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/up-will-miss-my-governance-mayawati/articleshow/12181408.cms

8 Mar, 2012, 03.35AM IST, ET Bureau
Mayawati: UP will miss my governance

LUCKNOW: Accusing BJP and Congress of communalising the elections,
outgoing UP chief minister Mayawati reminded everyone that her core
support base was intact and that the Bahujan Samaj Party's 'good rule'
will be missed by the people of UP as 'hooligans' of the Samajwadi
Party take over.

Indeed, the difference in vote share between the victorious Samajwadi
Party and Mayawati's BSP is just 3.3%. But the minor shift in vote
meant a difference of 146 seats. BSP won in 80 seats, down from the
decisive mandate of 203 seats the party commanded in 2007.

"You all know that Congress raised the issue of reservation for
backward Muslims for their political gains soon after the Vidhan Sabha
elections were declared and this was opposed strongly by BJP,"
Mayawati said, adding that BJP wooed the upper caste communities and
OBCs (other backward castes).

"Due to this, there was a fear in the Muslim community that BJP may
come to power. Finding Congress weak and thinking that OBCs and upper
castes would vote for BJP, Muslims voted not for Congress but SP," she
said. She claimed that nearly 70% of Muslim vote went to the Samajwadi
Party.

Speaking to the media after tendering her resignation to governor BL
Joshi, earlier in the day, Mayawati showed no signs of being
dispirited after the defeat and appeared determined to build BSP into
a position of strength during her time in the opposition. "Our party
will revive its cadre and work on taking the people beyond the
Hindu-Muslim mindset," she said, adding that BSP would also bring
newer sections of the society into the party fold.

She said UP was in a bad shape when she took over and her government
achieved great strides in development and improving the law and order
situation despite a negative attitude towards the state by the Centre.

In a departure from convention, she agreed to take questions from the
media. Responding to questions, she said the Dalit vote was not get
splintered, and remained with BSP. "All across the state, Dalits have
voted for BSP. This is the reason BSP is number 2. Otherwise, it would
have been left far behind.... My position would have been like that of
Lalu (Prasad) in Bihar," she said, thanking all members of the Dalit
community and others who voted for BSP.

She said the new SP government will take the state backwards and a
rule of strongmen will take over. "Very soon the people of the state
will get fed up with the functioning of the SP government and remember
the good governance during BSP rule," she said. The people of UP will
also hold the media responsible for BSP's loss, she said.

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[ZESTCaste] Mayawati government projects may run into hurdle with Samajwadi Party

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2111674/Mayawati-government-projects-hit-Samajwadi-Party-hurdle.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Mayawati government projects may run into hurdle with Samajwadi Party

By Akash Vashishtha

Last updated at 7:34 PM on 7th March 2012

The two development zones in Uttar Pradesh west - Gautam Budh Nagar
and Ghaziabad - may undergo a complete revamp, if the Samajwadi Party
(SP) insiders are to be believed.

Though the new government is yet to be sworn in, key party
functionaries said the two revenue earning districts, close to the
national Capital, might witness a complete transformation.

The party's office-bearers have already got down to the job of
reviewing the status of several projects undertaken by the Mayawati
government.
SP office-bearers are reviewing the status of several projects in
Ghaziabad, Gautam Budh Nagar and Noida undertaken by the Mayawati
government

SP office-bearers are reviewing the status of several projects in
Ghaziabad, Gautam Budh Nagar and Noida undertaken by the Mayawati
government

Sources said the party high command was kept informed of the state of
affairs in Gautam Budh Nagar and Ghaziabad over the last five years.

One of the sources said two giant developers with numerous projects in
Gautam Budh Nagar and 'who almost acted as personal firms of Mayawati
and her family' would be the ones to be reined in first by the new
government.

'Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway areas became the hub of
corruption during Mayawati's rule. They (the companies) looted the
farmers. They sold off Noida land to builders, leaving very little for
the farmers,' Veer Singh Yadav, president of the SP in Noida and close
to chief ministerial candidate Mulayam Singh Yadav, alleged.

'The interests of farmers will be of prime consideration now,' he added.

The new government might also spell trouble for liquor baron and
property developer Ponty Chadha in Noida. The group's business centre
in Sector- 32 might also face a review.

'We are looking at ways to see if that land can be returned to the
farmers. Two sectors were combined and sold off to Wave City and the
bids manipulated to help Chadha win. We kept protesting against it and
Akhilji and Mulayamji are aware of it,' Veer said.
Liquor baron Gurdeep Ponty Chadha
Mayawati

Several projects undertaken by Mayawati's (right) government will be
reviewed. Property developer Ponty Chadha may also run into trouble
with the new government

'We intend to write to the party high command and demand the
cancellation of the allotments. Fresh tenders should be invited and
the allotments made in a fair and transparent manner so that the
revenue goes directly to the government exchequer and not into some
politician's account,' he added.

He also said that a letter would be sent to the new chief minister
demanding a 'thorough and proper investigation' into all the scams
that occurred in the district and seeking a probe against a number of
Noida and Greater Noida authority officials.

'All culprits should be punished. We have the names of many such
officials in the Noida authority and we will write to the CM and get
them probed. There were several officials who also acted as BSP agents
during the elections and distributed cash to garner votes for
Mayawati. We have those names as well,' an SP loyalist said.

Projects in the scam-hit Noida Extension would also be re-examined.
'This area was riddled with corruption during Mayawati's rule. In SP's
tenure, no land will be forcefully acquired. If there happens to be an
urgency, land will be taken at six times the market rate, as per our
manifesto,' Fakir Chand Nagar, the district party president, said.

The Yamuna Expressway area is also on the SP radar. The party has
already assured farmers that land would not be snatched away from them
as was done by the last government.

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[ZESTCaste] Mayawati quits; here’s why she lost UP

http://in.news.yahoo.com/mayawati-lost-plot-224418848.html

Mayawati quits; here's why she lost UP
By RADHIKA RAMASESHAN | www.telegraphindia.com – Wed 7 Mar, 2012

Bahujan Samaj Party chief and the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister
Mayawati tendered her resignation to Governor B L Joshi after her
party was routed in the assembly elections in the state.

Mayawati, reports say, avoided the media persons and preferred to meet
the UP Governor quietly, entering the Raj Bhavan from the back door.

However, television images showed a smiling BSP chief handing over her
papers to the Governor and also exchanging pleasantries with him.

The BSP won only 80 seats as compared to the 206 seats that it had
garnered in the 2007 assembly elections.The elections were still
half-way when bureaucrats at the Uttar Pradesh secretariat, save a
couple of Mayawati die-hards, emphatically said that the state was
headed for a regime change.

On the pancham sthal (fifth floor) of Sachivalaya (secretariat), the
wager was on the quantum of losses she would suffer. The most
charitable estimate was she would drop from her 2007 high of 206 seats
to around 110; the unkindest was she would plummet to 60 or so and
perhaps trail the BJP.

Mayawati's election discourse and body language seemed defensive from
the start ' she was mostly countering the corruption allegations
against her government. In between, she got offensive when she branded
protesters at a meeting as the paltu kutte (lap dogs) of her
opponents.

Pancham sthal was the repository of absolute power in Mayawati's
dispensation. Although physically bereft of the magnificence and awe
other seats of authority such as the Kremlin commanded, the occupants
of its cabins inspired the fear of God in supplicants. They were the
only conduits to the then chief minister.

At the top of the pecking order was Mayawati's cabinet secretary
Shashank Shekhar Singh, followed closely by Net Ram, Navneet Sahgal,
Fateh Bahadur Singh and Brij Lal. Lal was the director-general of
police. He and Fateh Bahadur were removed by the Election Commission.

The BSP office on Mall Avenue, the approximate equivalent of Lutyens's
Delhi, was politically dwarfed by the "fifth floor" despite being a
far more daunting structure with its padlocked gates. Ministers and
MLAs wanting to meet Mayawati had to wait for days to seek an audience
with Shashank Shekhar or Sahgal and even return empty-handed.

According to Lucknow lore, a minister who once "dared" to disturb
Fateh Bahadur during his evening workout was told off by a flunkey
that a repeat might cost him his job.

Uttar Pradesh politics is based on the mai-baap matrix. In the absence
of individual entrepreneurship and incentivisation, the political
system is the principal source of patronage: from getting jobs in
government and recommendations for the private sector to swinging
contracts and securing gun licences, the neta plays patron saint even
if he sins every now and then.

BSP sources said that with power shifting to the bureaucracy, they
were unable to play patron to restive clients. "Ministers were
ciphers. Those that could feather their nests did so with gusto.
Others fell by the wayside," a source said.

Mayawati had virtually stopped interacting with her leaders and
cadres. Occasionally when a complaint was lodged against a BSP
official or a minister, she directed her bureaucrats to axe him.

Sources said she had "little or no idea" of how the numerous schemes
she announced were working on the ground, whether the target groups
were benefitting or whether the BSP's zonal co-ordinators had
allegedly abused them.

BSP insiders recalled that Mayawati had her ears to the ground when
she thrice ran a coalition with the BJP. "It seems she was on
perpetual notice. That sense of insecurity induced her to work hard
and show results," an insider said.

"Because she was able to hold her own against the BJP, despite it
being the larger party, people started seeing her as a woman of
substance. It seems when she got a majority, she became complacent."

Sundered from her roots as it were, Mayawati's winning caste
formulation that yielded an absolute majority in 2007 started to
crack.

When she embarked on a "Brahmin appeasement" drive through political
confidant Satish Mishra, her core voters, the Jatavs (who form the
creamy layer among the Dalits), were openly resentful. Afraid of
losing their support, she did a full circle and directed her policies
only at the Dalits.

An oft-heard refrain in the Dalit areas was: "Our Behenji is being
sacrificed because she worked for us."

If the upper castes, principally the Brahmins and Thakurs, found
themselves booked under the Prevention of Crimes against the Scheduled
Castes/Scheduled Tribes Act every now and then, the Muslims ' who had
voted for her in large numbers ' alleged their complaints were never
heard by police and the administration.

In Moradabad, where a large number of Muslims run small brassware
units out of home, a common grouse was they were slapped with "hefty"
penalties ' between Rs 80,000 and a lakh ' for allegedly defaulting on
back payments for power.

Barring the Jatavs, across the caste and community spectrum, voters
wondered what was in it for them if they were to re-elect Mayawati to
power. Especially when she had no manifesto to offer.

Mayawati's incremental votes had largely slipped out of the BSP's caste sieve.

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[ZESTCaste] Punjab’s dalits deserted Cong

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/nation/north/punjab%E2%80%99s-dalits-deserted-cong-195

Punjab's dalits deserted Cong

March 8, 2012
By Tanveer Thakur
Correspondent
CHANDIGARH

The election results in Punjab have come as a shock to the Congress,
which is still finding it hard to believe that it has actually
snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. As the dust begins to settle
after the results, a picture is finally starting to emerge.

The one reason which is paramount for the Congress' poor performance
in Punjab is that its traditional dalit votes, which form 30 per cent
of the total electorate of the state, have deserted the party.
However, a look at the voting pattern of dalits in the last two
decades would tell that they have shifted away from the Congress. With
the Akali Dal allying with the BJP, the upper caste Hindu votes have
gone with the alliance and made it a formidable force in the state.
Ever since the BSP made an entry into Punjab politics, it has got a
slice of dalit votes. In 1992, the party won nine seats with a vote
share of 16.32 per cent, but by 1997 the figure was down to 7.48 per
cent and it won just one seat. The share shrunk further to 5.69 per
cent in 2002 and to 4.1 per cent in 2007. The party did not get a
single seat during these two elections. The share of the BSP increased
to 4.3 per cent in the current elections.
However, the Congress in the state has remained indifferent to the
slow exodus of dalit votes from its fold.

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[ZESTCaste] Joseph Tharamangalam: Caste in politics is linked to grim realities

http://gulftoday.ae/portal/a1fd5d9d-3856-4c6e-8b80-3422378163d1.aspx

Joseph Tharamangalam: Caste in politics is linked to grim realities
March 08, 2012

Why is caste such a dominant feature of Indian social life? According
to Andre Beteille, in his article "India's destiny not caste in
stone," Feb 21, it is because of electoral politics and the media
which keep caste alive. India's constitution may also have played a
role. While creating a nation of citizens and citizenship rights it
also kept caste alive. Outside of politics many changes, slow but
steady, have transformed caste practices and caste consciousness in
such areas as inter-dining, inter-caste marriages and caste-based
occupations.

That the forces of modernisation are associated with what sociologists
call a move from particularistic to universalistic forms of social
relations is a generally accepted view and should come as no surprise.
We saw this happen in India with the coming of the railways which
simply could not provide separate coaches for different castes.

So let us grant that the changes Beteille notes are taking place with
the caveat that he may be over-stating the case. The fact that the
more than three lakh manual scavengers of India are almost exclusively
drawn from Dalit communities must provoke some serious thinking about
the issue. It would also be interesting to know much inter-dining and
how many inter-caste marriages have taken place in the Tamil Nadu
village where Beteille did his PhD research some six decades ago.

To restrict access: The problem with Beteille's argument is that it
ignores some critical dimensions of caste that doggedly persist and
perhaps underpin some India-specific features of the country's
development path. These dimensions are sustained by a material base
defined by vastly different control over resources and the means of
coercion. These are now deployed, not so much to enforce rules of
purity/pollution, but to restrict access to vast numbers of Dalits and
Other Backward Classses (OBC) to resources and opportunities old and
new.

The politics of caste cannot be understood if seen outside this
context and delinked from these realities.

Social indicators: A widely noted paradox about India's development
can shed some light on the endemic deprivations suffered by the lower
castes. Despite its high growth India fares very poorly in almost all
measures of social indicators provided by major international and
Indian organisations (e.g., the Human Development Index or HDI, the
Multiple Poverty Index or MPI, the Global Hunger Index or GHI) in
comparison with developing countries at the same or even lower levels
of economic growth and per capita GDP.

Its low HDI ranking (119 in a list of 169 in 2010 — compared with
China's 89) is attributable to its exceptionally low indicators of
basic education and health. It ranks particularly low in such measures
as Infant Mortality Rates, malnutrition, underweight and stunted
children and pregnant women who are underweight and anaemic. Even more
scandalous is India's ranking in the GHI with a ranking of 66 out of,
below even its south Asian neighbours except Bangladesh; the country
is home to the single largest pool of hungry people in the world, 255
million who make up 21 per cent of its population.

The MPI provides a similar scenario; 455 million making up 55 per cent
of the population, are MPI poor and eight Indian states contain more
MPI poor people than 26 of the poorest African countries combined.

Behind these figures are two significant facts about Indian society:
first the country has an unusually large underclass, and second,
prominently figured in this class are the lower castes (especially the
Dalits) and the Scheduled tribes. In all the relevant social indictors
the figures are considerably worse (difference of 10 per cent or more)
for these groups.

For example, while 55 per cent of Indians are MPI poor the figures for
SCs and STs are 65.8 and 81.4 respectively. Note also that the worst
performing states are generally the ones with high proportions of SCs
and STs.

System of violence: The abysmal socio-economic condition of the lower
castes is not a random occurrence but is embedded in historically
inherited structures that have resisted radical change. India's
historical failures — aborted land redistribution, neglected
agriculture (except during the Green Revolution period of
the1960s-70s) and a soft approach in attacking caste iniquities — have
helped to maintain these structures. In this context it is interesting
to look at another enigma in India's trajectory, its very poor record
in primary education (e.g. in contrast to East Asia) during the same
period when it made great strides in scientific, technical and other
forms of higher education spawning the now famous Indian middle class.

One explanation for this massive failure is that early planners
pursued a misguided view that it was the latter forms of education
that India needed for rapid economic development. But there is another
explanation in which caste figures as a factor. A benign version of
this view is that upper caste Indians, following their habits of the
hearts, simply did not see the merit of educating the lower castes.

A less benign version argues that the project of educating the low
castes may have met with resistance from the upper castes who feared
that such a project and consequent upward mobility of the lower castes
would jeopardise the control and management of their low caste
workers, dependents and servants. Having done fieldwork in rural Bihar
and observed such dynamics at work, I see some merit in this last
argument.

Finally, it is important to note that this structure is maintained not
just by ideology and pollution rules but also by considerable
violence. It is indeed a system of structural violence manifested by
constant threats and periodic outbursts of physical violence employed
by land owing upper castes threatened by changes in established
relationships and also by the lower castes who dare to resist or
retaliate. "Atrocities against Dalits" — ranging from murder, rape and
arson to such humiliating practices as parading Dalit women naked in
the village and making the victims consume human excreta, are
reasonably well documented.

India's parliamentarians regarded these as serious enough to enact the
"Atrocities against Dalit Act" in 1989. While the effectiveness of the
act is disputed, Dalit activists insist that the act cannot be
implemented without political pressure from below.

In the wake of recent patterns of economic growth that are further
marginalising rural dwellers and agricultural labourers, concerned
activists and scholars such as Amartya Sen (whose famous studies on
Indian famines have noted the disproportionately high numbers of
Dalits victims in Indian famines) have called for the building of
"countervailing power" through better political organisation of
underprivileged groups.

What, then can we make of Beteille's suggestion that caste would
simply have disappeared if only it had been kept out of the domains of
politics and the media? To be sure, he has an important case about the
misuse of caste by self-serving politicians and media persons. But the
prescription for depoliticisation of caste is surely a non-starter.
Perhaps a better route would be the one traversed by Kerala where the
political mobilisation of the lower castes was integrated into broader
rational-legal and universalistic forms of organisations across caste,
community and religion into modern forms of trade unions and parties.

Yes, we have abolished untouchability, the need today is to abolish
the material base of the system that sustained untouchability, now
spawning newer forms of discrimination and violence.

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[ZESTCaste] ‘Mandal leap’ worries Congress

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Mandal-leap-worries-Congress/articleshow/12182475.cms

'Mandal leap' worries Congress
Subodh Ghildiyal, TNN | Mar 8, 2012, 06.16AM IST

NEW DELHI: The UP debacle is confronting the Congress with a serious
dilemma - what should it do with the great 'Mandal leap' it took to
woo backward classes which has not delivered results but tied it to
promises that can be a political risk.

The poll promise of sub-division of OBCs and scheduled castes are
flagship commitments that, Congress leaders say, cannot be junked
midway without looking flippant. It cannot wish its poll manifesto
away because it has stoked expectations. They were devised as
strategic moves to woo 'most backward castes' and non-jatav dalits who
resent the dominance of their stronger brethren. But executing them
can be a political risk since the Congress now hopes to collaborate
with the SP and BSP at the Centre to buffer itself from the Trinamool
Congress.

A quota card was aimed to hit yadavs among OBCs, and jatavs among SCs
- core constituencies of Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati. While
promised in UP, these issues are part of Centre's 'to do' list and
pending with the social justice ministry.

A senior leader said the Congress would carry out these policies at
the Centre. "The part of our UP manifesto that can be implemented in
Delhi would be done," he said.

A 'go slow' on Mandal card would mark premature end to the paradigm
shift in Congress policy to break the OBC-dalit code after continued
failure over two decades in UP. Pushed aggressively by Rahul Gandhi,
Congress made it the highlight of its manifesto and campaign rhetoric.

The faith in the new policy showed in Congress nominating high number
of yadav candidates in Samajwadi den of central UP, helped by the
campaigning of Samajwadi rebels like Union minister Beni Prasad Verma.
The party also deployed Mayawati-foes like P L Punia to polarize
non-jatav dalits.

Congress faces a serious issue on what is to be done with OBC leaders
like Verma. The SP rebel was built up disproportionately to his
political clout and failed to deliver. However, downsizing him would
play directly into SP hands, and could hurt its chances with backwards
in the 2014 polls.

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[ZESTCaste] Poll results: Samajwadi Party chief snatches dalit fortress from BSP

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/poll-results-samajwadi-party-chief-snatches-dalit-fortress-from-bsp/articleshow/12173026.cms

7 Mar, 2012, 12.22PM IST, TNN
Poll results: Samajwadi Party chief snatches dalit fortress from BSP

LUCKNOW: The Samajwadi Party also swept the reserved assembly
constituencies for the scheduled castes winning more than half of them
way ahead of the BSP that is actually known for its dalit base.

Of the total 84 reserved constituencies, the SP won 54, while the BSP
could win only 17. The Congress got four, BJP three, RLD two and
others took the rest. This shows that the SP not only got the support
of Muslims and backward classes but also of dalits. In fact, in a
reserved constituency, parties face real test of their support since
every party puts up dalit candidates that splits the votes. The one
having more support of other castes and communities wins eventually.

In 2007,the BSP had won 62 out of the total 89 reserved
constituencies, SP 13, BJP seven, Congress five, RLD and Rashtriya
Swabhiman Party (RPS) one each. A look at BSP's performance makes it
clear that the party has not been impressive in reserved
constituencies. But this time it was less than expectations.

Sample this: In 1993, out of the total 88 assembly constituencies
reserved for dalits, the BJP grabbed 38 followed by the BSP and the SP
with 23 each, and four others.

In 1996, again the BJP was top runner with 36 seats followed by the
BSP with 20, the SP 18, the Congress four, and 11 others. The scene in
2002 changed with Mulayam Singh Yadav's party grabbing maximum 35
seats followed by the BSP with 24, BJP 18 and others 11. The results
of the 17 reserved constituencies in the Lok Sabha is also more or
less the same. In 1999, the BSP won five seats in comparison to seven
by the BJP, Loktantrik Congress Party one and SP five. In 2004, the SP
was the leader with eight followed by BSP with five, BJP two and
Congress and RLD one each. In the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, SP won 10 and
BSP five. The BJP and Congress won two each and RLD one.

In 2007 assembly elections, the BSP got a small percentage but crucial
brahmin votes, which helped it sweep the reserved constituencies.

Dalits are around 21% of UP's population. The state has a total 66
scheduled castes (dalits). Of these, jatavs are 56.3% of dalit
population followed by pasis with 15.9% and dhobi, kori and balmiki
together are 15.3% population.

Political analyst pointed out that though the BSP is a dalit-based
party, only the jatav sub-caste is staunch supporter of the party
because Mayawati is also a jatav. The other sub-caste change also
support the BSP but they also change their stand depending on the
candidate fielded by other parties in the reserved constituencies.

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