05-13-2007, 08:40 PM (This post was last modified: 05-13-2007, 08:41 PM by ravish.)
The composition of the new State Government in Utter Pradesh indicates that the Ministers appointed are not only from the Dalit and OBC section of the society. So far the impression that was created by the media and also by most of the political parties has been that BSP is only for the Dalit and the OBC. However, in the new Ministry we find that Ms. Mayavati has appointed 8 Thakurs, 8 Brahmins, 15 OBCs and 10 Dalits plus 5 Muslims as Ministers. Perhaps her social engineering in fighting this election has paid and voters across the traditional caste line have voted for her party. Perhaps this will have far reaching implication on the future of Indian politics.
I look forward for considered views of my friends in this forum on the emerging situation.
Via email
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Dear all,
Rajdeep sardesai with his wife Sagarika Ghose waved his hands pasionately and with an intense look tried to convince his viewers that the 'Muslims'were a part of the matrix that voted in the BSP'.
That Mayawati unabashedly went about publicly wooing the Brahmins instead of the Muslims seemed to unnerve our 24 hr news channels and our secularists in the print media who were terrified of the new trend in electoral politics ushered in by Mayawati of dismissing the Muslims as a vote bank.
The media would like to perpetuate the myth that the Muslim vote is 'tactical and therefore capable of swinging an election and therefore wooing the Muslims, keeping them in good humor, offering them carrots, is a sin qua non of Indian politics. The english media which propagates the politics of minority-ism could not tolerate therefore the idea of caste over-riding the Muslims in importance. Therefore Rajdeep's angst. It was as heartrending as his sorrow when the President put paid to Lady Macbeth's ambition to rule the natives.
Now Mayawati did the following -
She demonstrated that she did not care to palliate the media, did not care for media opinion about her, her campaign or her objectives.
She demonstrated that she could do a u turn on convictions and dump 'manuvadi', 'communal', 'secular' from her lexicon, couldnt care less about what the media thought about her convictions or lack of it, demonstrated that all she wanted was to win the election and she went ahead and did it with a winning strategy and the devil take the hindmost about what anybody thought about her.
She may have had no lasting convictions, no ideology, no grand vision. But she had the courage to state her objectives - become the first dalit, first dalit woman prime minister of india, and if the road to delhi was thru lucknow, well she was going to travel it in her way, in her time and in her vehicle.
These are the most important lessons that the BJP has to learn. Who said you cannot do all this with a vision, with convictions and with firm adherence to ideology. The BJP could not demonstrate either conviction or courage.
It is no use saying she is merely reviving the Congress traditional votebank. She is not and ppl who dismiss Maya's caste calculations underestimate her intelligence.
There is no longer a pre-Mandal Brahmin vote. The post-Mandal, post BJP Brahmin in politics and Brahmin voter is a political-minded (not the traditional bureaucratic) Brahmin.
Mayawati wooed, not the Congress-voting Brahmin who is extinct today but the BJP voting Brahmin. This is the critical difference.
The Deccan Chronicle is seeing only half the truth. The truth it doesnt want to utter explicitly is that the RSS consolidated the Hindu community and the BJP reaped the benefits of the consolidation by promising to deliver on a Hindu agenda limited tho the agenda may have been. Even then the BJP neither envisioned nor promised Hindu state power.
The BJP reneged on its promise completely. It failed to deliver on any significant Hindu issue. It succeeded in many other ways but Hindus saw it as only reneging on the Hindu front.
The Hindu community as a whole, turned to alternatives. The post-Mandal Brahmins across the country, the Brahmins of anti-Brahmin/anti-Hindu dravidian Tamil Nadu grabbed the idea of a Hindu BJP, a Brahmin Jayalalithha with both hands. Both let the Brahmins and the Hindus down.Â
A dispirited Brahmin community, a dispirited Hindu community responded to mayawati's wooing altho they have not realised yet that just as she didnt promise the Muslims anything, she hasnt promised the Hindus, the Brahmins anything either.
A dispirited Hindu community is grateful that someone is acknowledging they exist and are grateful to be treated as a vote bank.
They do not realise that they have been reduced to accepting the crumbs of politics. mayawati has not promised anything so she has no compulsions or the moral necessity to deliver. This consolidation is ephimeral. it will come unstuck. And once again the Hindu vote will scatter in all directions. Hindus will vote without an agenda.
The BJP has a lot of thinking to do. But this will not happen as long as the same tired faces and voices articulate the BJP's raison d'etre<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Reply to above, via email
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->How Right you are in your observations. Political ideologies from now on can not depend on the so call "Vote Bank" politics, practiced by an oldest Indian Political ideology.
I hope from now on every political party and leader takes a lesion.
I personally feel that at present the Civil Servants and Diplomats have "loyalty" to so called "Dynastic Family" (Western Media propaganda since Indian Independence) now taken up by Indian English Media. Real Gandhi who dedicated his life for Independence movement, his philosophy of "Ram Rajya" is no more followed by Congress Party, except his name for their own agenda.
True Indians have buried the caste equation long back ( except rare out burst in villages) BUT Indian and Western Media would like to keep it open by digging it from time to time. If Mayawati's formula works for the nation, Media has to change its attitude.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Perhaps this will have far reaching implication on the future of Indian politics.
I look forward for considered views of my friends in this forum on the emerging situation.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Mandal days are over. In place of reservation to OBC and first Muslim view should be thrown into garbage. Treat every citizen with equal rights. People just want food, education, health facility, environment to earn decent living and religious freedom.
My take, UP election is a beginning but need more efforts to solidify unity among every group. Bihar is still very much Yadav and Kumri society and UP is not an exception.
Election result may give shock to Arjun Singh. MMS and Dynasty. They all failed, people had showed them middle finger.
I hope, in UP Mayawati treat everyone with dignity. In UP, Yadav and Jatav don't like each other. I hope Jatavs restrain themselves, otherwise we may see worst kind of riots in UP between Jatavs and Yadav. I very well remember one of those riots in 1977. Jatavs are poor community and Yadavs are rich, pampered and with hot balloon attitude.
Yadav can join hands with SIMI and other Mullah variety to destroy peace in UP.
Best outcome, VP Singh failed and time to bury Mandal commission with nice head stone fit for sinner.
Paswan and Laloo Yadav should worry more. OBC nonsense is out and gone.
DMK and Ramdoss can still continue hating Brahmins; it may still work in TN.
Rest of India, forget about reservation in private sector, whoever will try, will never comeback in power. Upper caste is not fool.
Arizona Congress man should reconsider his bill on Dalit atrocities in India.
As a symbol, this is good for India. We should wait and see whether Mayawati will use this opportunity and move state in a right direction or waste punishing others.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Along with her, 19 cabinet ministers, 21 Ministers of State with independent charge and nine Ministers of State were also administered the oath of office and secrecy.
The cabinet ministers are Naseemuddin Siddique, Sudhir Goel, Ramvir Upadhayaya, Lalji Verma, Indrajit Saroj, Sukhdev Raj, Thakur Jaiveer Singh, Swami Prasad Maurya, Meghram Bhatti, Lakshmi Narain, Rakesh Dhar Tripathi, B S Kushwaha, Jai Narain Rai, Babu Chouhan, Nakul Dubey, Daddu Prasad, Narain Singh, Ram Prasad Choudhary and Dharam Singh Saini.
Â
The Ministers of State (Independent Charge) in UP are: Ram Achal Rajbhar, Anees Ahmed Khan, Ayodhya Prasad Pal, Yamuna Nishad, Omwati, Anand Sen Yadav, Badshah Singh, Ranganath Mishra, Vinod Kumar, Fateh Bahadur, Lakhiram Nagar, Avdesh Verma, Raghunath Prasad, Ram Heth, Rampal Verma, Anant Kumar Singh, Avadh Pal Singh, Yashwant, Ratan Lal Ahirwal and Daddan Prasad.
The nine Ministers of State are: Sangram Singh, Abdul Manan, Yogesh Raj Singh, Vidya Choudhury, Rajesh Tiwari, Jai Singh, Daddan Mishra, Hari Om and Yashpal Singh.
Among the ministers, Siddiqui is BSP national secretary and Lalji Verma is state party chief.
Senior leader Swami Prasad Maurya, former BSP legislature party leader, who lost from Dalmau seat, was also made a minister
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Maya wants quota for upper caste poor</b>
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Uttar Pradesh's new Chief Minister Mayawati strongly favoured reservation for economically weaker sections among the upper castes and religious minorities.
...
"If the Centre brings an amendment (to the law) providing for reservation for poor among the upper castes and the religious minorities we will welcome it. If not not, then we will take our own measures to help these weaker sections in Uttar Pradesh," she said. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>UP result a blow to UPA </b>
Pioneer.com
Arun Nehru
The results of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election are out. Unlike the prediction of several poll pundits and psephologists who talked of a hung Assembly in the State, the people have voted decisively in favour of Ms Mayawati. For the first time since 1991, there is a single party Government in the State.
With the battering the Congress has received, the ruling UPA at the Centre seems to be in wilderness. As of today, it lacks both authority and direction. One wonders what development will take place in Uttar Pradesh. One thing, however, is certain: The long-held notion that the precedents of Goa, Jharkhand and Bihar can be repeated in Uttar Pradesh has been belied with the BSP's thumping victory in the Assembly election.
The verdict of the people is clearly against Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav's Government. It is also a mandate against criminalisation of politics, which saw a revival in the State during the Samajwadi Party's rule. There is, however<b>, a caution for Ms Mayawati. She should resist the temptation of playing the politics of confrontation. If initiated, it will take an ugly turn.</b>
In the recent past, the Congress has been humbled in six Assembly elections - Bihar, Mumbai, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Punjab and now Uttar Pradesh. <b>The party may meet the same fate in Goa and Himachal Pradesh. The politically sensitive State of Gujarat may well produce the biggest disaster for 'secularists' at the end of the year as Chief Minister Narendra Modi is set to win a record third term on account of sheer performance.</b>
With the BSP's victory in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, it is now a difficult situation for all political parties with a national presence - the Congress, the BJP and the Communists. The objective of the Congress will be to continue to lead the UPA despite its loss in the State. The BJP should introspect as to why it could not project itself as the alternative to the SP, as the BSP has successfully done. The Left will want to continue to exercise power without responsibility, as it never had anything at stake in Uttar Pradesh.
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While in some sense Behenji did deliver a blow to Arjun Singh, I think this is a cop-out. The idea behind reservations is that either a community is backward or forward. Whats needed is a quota for the 'upper' castes. There is no such thing as poor-upper-caste and rich-upper-caste. The game of quota-politics (cynical or not) needs to be taken to its logical conclusion. Behenji has to deliver on that or face loosing her brahmin-votebank.
If we look the possible scenarios of 2009 General Elections, I believe there are two possibilities:
There are two possibilities:
1) BJP gets less than 120 seats. Congress gets around 75. A third front supported by Left and Congress. Mayawati gets 50+ in UP. She becomes PM of India and makes a Brahmin as UP CM.
2) BJP gets about 160 seats. Congress gets around 75. Mayawati gets 50+ in UP. NDA forms government. She becomes Dy. PM of India and makes a Brahmin as UP CM.
from above link
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Misra took pains to make his audience believe that Brahmins were never the exploiters of the have-not Dalits.
'In the traditional Hindu society, the Brahmin survived only on 'bhiksha' (alms) while the Thakur and Yadav remained the powerful landowner who exploited the poor Dalit at will,' was the oft-repeated reminder that made Misra gel with the socially downtrodden.
He would make it a point to make Brahmins go to the nearest Dalit pockets for the goodwill rallies and not vice versa.
'And that really worked to repose confidence among Dalits that this bond was here to stay,' asserts Misra, who strongly believes that 'the success of the Uttar Pradesh experiment would go a long way in eventually re-writing the political destiny of the nation.' </b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This is very amusing and yet the power of caste politics and what Mayawati brings to the table. Gujju BrahmaSamaj says brahmins of gujarat are going to show BJP and Congress the importance of brahmins as votebank. Both have abused brahmins <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->
They claim that Modi's constituency has 94K brahmins and they are going to unite and teach Modi a lesson. If Modi doesnt like brahmins then brahmins dont like Modi..
Muppalla,
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->If we look the possible scenarios of 2009 General Elections, I believe there are two possibilities:<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Between now and 2009 - there's a long long time. For 2009, it'll be interesting to see if Cong will field Manmohan as a PM or Rahul? The UP elections was disaster as far as Rahul was concerned but he'll be acclaimed as a hero for holding on to his grandma's jagir - Amethi. Someone has to pick the tab in Cong HQ for this fiasco and others in recent elections at - Bihar, Mumbai, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Punjab. Manmohan should watch his back, Gandhi clan coterie will surely make him scapegoat soon enough.
Cong was planning on a post poll alliance to pull some shots and the complete rout leads them to where they started with - outside the gate barking in their highest secular pitch and fortunately there's plenty competition there. Expect those old charges against Mayawati (Taj corridor scam) to resurface soon. It remains to be seen if Mayawati rules from the center bringing all sections together or just panders to fringe elements of here party. She could well use this second chance to set UP straight but I'm not that skeptical: ..look at her Council of Ministers, nearly half her ministers have criminal charges against them.
Can G.Subramaniam or someone go over the polls and see where they missed the big picture? Were the polls based on virtual reality and hence incorrect or were tehy mere propaganda to infleunce any voters?
I think this thread has links to all the polls- pre and during elections.
<!--QuoteBegin-Mudy+May 11 2007, 02:52 PM-->QUOTE(Mudy @ May 11 2007, 02:52 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin--><!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Also her past dubious record on Taj corruption case, Kanshi Ram death controversy and her liberal use of colorful & not so diplomatic words do not inspire confidence.
.............
Overall, situation appears to be grim<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yes, governance is always bad in UP. But if you compare with current center, UPA government (Dal scam, "Q' scam', Nuke deal, 1857, Muslim first, OBC reservation......) , Mayawati is much better. She is not using Indian Embassy to protect her people. She is not using EJ or Middle East to win election. She is not using Oil money from Iraq. No Die-nasty here. Her kids are not staying in Luthen's bungalows like Queen.
Mayawati don't get funding from abroad or influenced by NGOs or EJ, which is good. She is not polished, but better than polished crooks ruling India. She is not singing for Marx or Pope like current commie PM of India. Whatever, she is able to fight election in every state.
[right][snapback]68601[/snapback][/right]
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Mudy, You always think of national interest and thats why reading you is good for the soul.
We also need to understand that UP-Bihar region has suffered the most throughout history- decline of the large Hindu kingdoms, the Delhi Sultantate zabardasti rule, the Mughal Mansabdari, the British Zamindari systems, INC misrule( After Gobind Vallabh Pant and Rajendra Prasad it was down hill all the way) and the jahaliya period of the social engineering turds_the Mulayam and Lallo Yadav rule. So lets hope that there is a five year period of the heart of India to recover. First Bihar threw out the rascals and now UP has done the same.
Need to see how UPA will thwart the development by withholding funds or worse releaseing them slowly. BSP has to do something to kick start the economic development after taking care of Law and Order. Maybe attract private capital.
INC starts speaking after the shell shock!
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>We failed to transform goodwill into votes, says Sonia Gandhi</b>
PTI
Wednesday, May 16, 2007Â 12:39 IST
NEW DELHI: Terming the party's performance in Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls as 'very disappointing', <b>Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday blamed it on organisational failure and asked partymen to gear up for assembly polls in Gujarat and Goa.</b>
In her first comments after the UP polls, <b>Gandhi said though the communal forces have been dealt a severe blow, 'our performance has been very disappointing'.</b>
"We mounted a spirited campaign throughout which we witnessed a great deal of goodwill and support towards our party. <b>But organisationally we were not able to transform that goodwill into votes,</b>" she said at the Congress Parliamentary Party meeting, attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other senior ministers.
"We now face a stupendous challenge, a challenge that we accept and that we will meet with hard work and determination," Gandhi said.
<b>Observing that assembly polls were to be held in Gujarat very soon, she reminded the partymen that BJP would 'undoubtedly raise communal tensions and passions'.</b>
<i>{Coded signal. INC will stage a Godhra. Modi better get his State IB on full alert to prevent any future tragedies.}</i>
Congress did well in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls and <b>'this gives us both hope and confidence that the people of the state which gave birth to the Father of the Nation will vote for strengthening Gujarat's traditions of secularism and social harmony',</b> the Congress President said.
Referring to the ensuing assembly polls in Goa, she said here too the party was confronting the BJP whose 'single-point programme is communal polarisation'.
<b>Charging the BJP with unabated attacks and atrocities on religious minorities in BJP-ruled states, Gandhi said though Congress in these states has exposed the communal designs of the BJP</b> 'but I do feel that Central government should take serious note of these dangerous trends'.
Turning to the Gujarat fake encounter killing, she said that the nation was witnessing shocking revelations on the manner in which sections of the Gujarat police have been allowed to kill innocent people in the garb of fighting terrorism.
It was apparent that these sections enjoyed high-level patronage and this also reflected utter and deliberate contempt for the rule of law to promote ideological prejudices, she said.
"This also reflects the blatantly partisan attitude of the State government where an issue of human rights has been given a communal colour", Gandhi said.
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The problem with the Indian politicians in opposition is that they let the INC get away with a lot of crimes. INC has still not paid the price for the mass killings of Sikhs in Delhi under Rajiv Gandhi's leadership. Hence they can keep throwing the mud at other parties. Same thing with the Bofors case. A misplaced sense of noblesse oblige.
Sonia, Rahul blame party organistion for UP failure
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, who campaigned extensively in Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, today blamed the party's organisational weakness and failure in the state for its "very disappointing" results.
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->She also said that almost 15 per cent of those elected to the UP Assembly had criminal records of some sort.
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How many are from Congress?
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