"She does not care for the media," lament media men. As always, even after she won majority in the UP Assembly Mayavati, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo, did not answer the calls from TV chennels for interview. Many politicians crave for interview in such channels. Not she. More. "Nor did she issue any manifesto for her party", mourn the constitutionalists. Further. Her competitors offered just about everything to all to win votes. But she offered nothing to her constituency - the poorest of the poor - that needs from two square meals a day to about everything to live above poverty.

She offered them no free colour TV. No free sarees or dhotis. No free gas stoves. No loan waivers. Though they needed all these. What makes her constituency impregnable to temptation by others? The answer lies in BSP's history. Her mentor Kanshi Ram founded the BSP with the 'Shudras' and the untouchables, the 4th and 5th in the social hierarchy as the core. Their craving for attention and recognition is several centuries old. He ensured that their craving remained the party's soul. The soul of the BSP could not be bought by freebies given by other parties. Again, the BSP was not was just a party FOR them. It was openly and violently AGAINST the three upper social strata, the Brahmana, Kshatriya and the Vaishya _ the 'Manuvadis' as Mayavati had branded them.

BSP's call was that 'they should be beaten with shoes'. Kanshiram had vowed to destroy the caste system. But he ended up building a party-based on one set of castes versus another, just as every caste reform movement became caste-driven in the end. He perhaps realised that caste was the vehicle, not an impediment, for the lower castes to mobilise themselves for upward movement in a democracy. Only in pre-democratic societies caste was an impediment to upward social mobility. Thus was born the BSP in anger and hate for the upper castes. As it grew, its anger grew, not abate. Soon the BSP grew fast and peaked within its constituency. But it needed the last mile connect to win majority. This forced it to look for alliances outside to secure the support needed to reach power.

In a democracy this calls for deals with the devil. And for BSP this meant dealing with the devil it had long targetted as its adversaries, the 'Manuvadis' _ a seemingly impossible task. But Mayavati simplified this complex task by emphasising the common roots of the 'Manuvadis' and BSP's own constituency _ the Hindu religion. She knew that the upper caste has a natural weakness for Gods. That's the precisely point she exploited. The BSP's secular symbol of elephant became the elephant God Ganesha overnight. But one God, Lord Ganesha alone, was not adequate. So Mayavati turned to the trinity of Hindu Gods _ Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara _ also in addition to Ganesha.

This was to provide a healing touch to the Manuvadis hurt and humiliated in the past with BSP's 'beat-them-with-shoe' war cry. Thus the Gods that 'Manuvadis' worship reverently, repackaged the BSP and intermediated between 'Manuvadis' and the BSP constituency _ the 'Mayavadis'. Among the three 'Manuvadi' varna castes, the choice of Mayavati fell on the Brahmans who are more easily pleased once their favourite Gods are invoked. Also the Brahmin community being large in UP, with as much as 14 per cent voting capacity, that also made political sense. In every district in UP the BSP organised Brahamana Sammelans to retail its new reverence for the Hindu Gods. Thus was built the 'Manuvadi-Mayavadi' _ read Brahmin-Dalit alliance. So the war cry of 'beat-the-upper-castes-with-shoes' was dissolved in the common root of Faith in God.

Mayavati went one step further. She said "Brahman sankh Bajayega; Hati Aghe Badte Jayega" meaning "the Brahmin will blow the conch and the elephant, that is BSP, will move forward." She also announced in every meeting how she has given over 80 seats for the Brahmins and how many for other forward castes. Neither the BJP nor the Congress could think of doing anything remotely similar. Only Maya could do that, and openly say it also!

This was how the 'Manuvadis', who till a few years back, were BSP's hate figures, became part of its electoral calculus. Democracy turns the aggressive into accommodative by forcing it to ally with moderate parties. But in UP it turned into an alliance of castes, not parties. Here Gods, not CMPs, intermediated the alliance. The seats shared between the 'Manuvadis' and 'Mayavadis' settled its political terms! QED: The 'Manuvadi'-'Mayavadi' alliance in UP was forced by democracy and intermediated by Gods! It won in the end. Thus has emerged a moderate BSP which can never go back to its founding hate with legitimacy.

Courtesy: www.newindpress.com, May 15, 2007