Jan 18, 1999
|
|
|
|
UTTAR PRADESH Backlash Blues With Brahmins and his detractors within the ministry and BJP steppin up their revolt aganist him, Kalyan Singh finds himself pushed to a corner. By Farzand Ahmed
For all that, there was not much cause for celebration. Upper castes in the BJP are livid with him; there are loud calls from within the party and from his coalition partners for his dismissal. Worse, Kalyan recently earned the wrath of influential Hindu religious leaders who went to the extent of expelling him from the Hindu Samaj. This lethal mix would ordinarily have prompted the BJP high command to show the chief minister the door. But the party leadership -- still to recover from the drubbing in the assembly elections -- did no such thing. Kalyan had just threatened that he would recommend mid-term elections if he were removed. What prompted Kalyan to switch to the offence mode was a meeting between leaders of the Brahmin community and select ministers on the eve of Christmas. Organised by state BJP Senior Vice-President Ram Prakash Tripathy, the objective of the secret conclave was to highlight the humiliation that Brahmins, the backbone of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, have had to suffer under Kalyan's rule. They warned that if the situation is allowed to persist, the state would slip out of the party's hands. In a strange coincidence, Union Minister for Human Resources Development Murli Manohar Joshi, the champion of the Brahmins, also shared his birthday with Kalyan. As rivals within the party chose to celebrate Joshi's birthday at parallel functions in Lucknow, the message was unmistakable. The show of strength apart, they accused Kalyan of being in the clutches of a caucus that included five bureaucrats and high-profile corporator Kusum Rai, said to be a "close friend" of Kalyan's. In fact, the issue had come to the fore when a delegation of sadhus from Ayodhya failed to get an appointment with the chief minister recently. On January 2, even as Kalyan rushed to Bangalore to attend the BJP National Executive, the sadhus began an indefinite dharna in Lucknow, demanding Kalyan's dismissal.
The sadhus may have called off their dharna but the threat to Kalyan remained. Says Manoj Mishra, member of the BJP's executive council: "Ninety per cent of the Brahmins in the state are angry and ready to desert the BJP." To make matters worse for Kalyan, one of his ardent supporters, Swami Sachchidanandji Sakshi Maharaj, BJP MP, jumped into the ring declaring that the party would not be allowed to be run as a "private-limited company" of the Brahmins, a remark that did not go down well with central leaders. Kalyan's threat to put the state through mid-term polls also had allies hitting back. They asked him who had authorised him to take such a decision. Naresh Agrawal made it clear that his party, the Loktantrik Congress, was supporting the BJP-led Government for stability and development, not any individual. Raja Bhaiyya (Independent) and Raja Ram Pandey of the four-member Janata Dal breakaway group too echoed his words. To revolt against Kalyan's "unilateral" decisions, the trio boycotted the crucial cabinet meeting on December 30. Pandey said he would continue to abstain from the meetings till "I am treated with due respect". The allies have also reiterated their demand for the setting up of a coordination committee of the coalition parties to check the influence of Kalyan's caucus. In 1997, the collapse of the Kalyan government had begun with the boycott of cabinet meetings by ministers of the BSP who later withdrew their support charging Kalyan with pursuing an anti-Dalit policy. It was the breakaway groups of the Congress, BSP and JD and the Independents who bailed him out. The same leaders are turning their back on him now. Even Kalyan's trusted ministers like Om Prakash Singh admit the situation is not rosy. "If things continue the way they are, the BJP will sink," he says. And there will be no rescue teams this time. |
|
Issue Contents | Write to us | Subscriptions | Syndication BUSINESS TODAY | INDIA TODAY PLUS | COMPUTERS TODAY © Living Media India Ltd |
 |
 |
Theme parties may be passe
but Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh believes otherwise. Everything about his
birthday bash, his 67th, on January 5 centred on the number: the garland he was greeted
with weighed 67 kg, 67 lamps were lit on the occasion and an equal number of pigeons were
released. Why, there even were 67 welcome arches. 
In a bid to appease them, Kalyan on his
return fell at their feet and apologised for the misconduct of his secretariat officials.
He said he wished to bring out a new development package for Ayodhya and asked the sadhus
to prepare its blueprint themselves. 
