Mulayam enters and Mandal bites the dust

NEW DELHI: Mulayam Singh Yadav’s third innings as chief minister of UP has resulted in a sea change in politics in the state.
Already, the upper castes and the backward castes have come closer at the ground level for the first time since V P Singh mandalised politics 13 years ago, plunging the nation into social turmoil. And communal harmony prevails in the state despite the VHP’s repeated attempts to ‘‘kamandalise’’ the atmosphere through its trident and ‘‘Ram raksha sutra’’ ceremonies.
This is a significant change.But will this welcome change at the ground level, that has upset the electoral calculations of both the Congress and the BJP, last long enough? Chances are that it might. For, there are reasons why neither the BJP, nor the Congress can afford to antagonise Mulayam at this juncture.
While the BJP is determined to keep the door open for a negotiated settlement of the Ayodhya dispute, regardless of what the VHP thinks on the issue, the Congress doesn’t want to be seen saying no to the secular alliance that has taken over in UP under Mulayam’s leadership.
Moreover, Mulayam has already buried the past, opening a direct channel of communication with both the Prime Minister and Sonia Gandhi.
Their reasons for keeping Mulayam on their right side might be different but the end result is the same. The SP supremo now looks stronger than ever before. The PM’s advisers think that Mulayam might be extremely helpful in pursuing the ‘‘negotiated settlement’’ line. Sonia’s advisers feel that Mulayam would reciprocate the party’s gesture at the Centre when the Congress would need the SP’s support during and after the Lok Sabha elections next year.
But Mulayam doesn’t like to discuss the intricacies of these political compulsions. He doesn’t even comment on the plight of the BSP. Nor does he harp on the fact that the BSP and the VHP are perhaps the only two groups that stand isolated at the ground level today. All that he is prepared to say in this context is that ‘‘the worst reign since the Emergency is happily over with the exit of the Mayawati government’’.
‘‘Let us make a new beginning and turn UP into a model state,’’ he says. As chief minister, Mulayam says, he has to serve ‘‘the cause of all the 170 million people of my state, and not any particular party, caste or community’’. He, however, issues a mild warning: ‘‘My government shall see to it that nobody disturbs the peace in UP.’’