By Farzand Ahmed

Last week, the BJP's chief minister-designate Kalyan Singh quietly sent for a few financial experts. His brief to them: assess the cost of Mayawati's fiscal profligacy in the past six months and evolve strategies to avert a financial crisis in Uttar Pradesh. In six months, Mayawati has made an additional expenditure of Rs 2,500 crore in a bid to widen her social appeal.

The Government used Rs 170 crore from the contingency funds to install more than 5,000 statues of Ambedkar and build Ambedkar parks. Of this, Rs 50 crore has been spent on Lucknow's Ambedkar Udyan. Slatedto cost Rs 70 crore, its revised estimate is Rs 170 crore.

A sum of Rs 700 crore has been earmarked for the Ambedkar Village Development Scheme which, in Mayawati's words, constitutes 10 per cent of the state's total plan outlay. Mayawati claims that Rs 250 crore has already been spent in the past five months.

Between April and August, nine new districts were created without cabinet approval. This added a burden of Rs 1,300 crore on the exchequer. The State Electricity Board was forced to spend over Rs 150 crore on electrification of Ambedkar villages, and officials expect the expenditure to touch Rs 275 crore by July 1998. However, villagers refuse to pay electricity bills, regarding it as Mayawati's gift.

AYODHYA
Cutting Both Ways
By Saba Naqvi Bhaumik

December 6, 1992, will continue to be the most defining moment in the life of the BJP. The day the Babri Masjid was reduced to rubble. It was a movement that paid rich electoral dividends to the party even as it became an untouchable in an era of coalitions. The BJP exploded on the national stage overtaking the Congress as the single largest party. But each time it tried to find an ally in its bid for power, it was reminded of that fateful day.

The BJP dropped the Ram card after it failed in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh in December 1993. It started focusing on corruption, unstable coalitions and good governance. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) was reined in. BJP President L.K. Advani made it clear that Kashi and Mathura were not on the agenda. The party even made overtures to the Muslims with Advani declaring that "we can't afford to have such a large section of society outside our area of concern".

Now, with the special court deciding to file charges against Advani, Kalyan Singh, Murli Manohar Joshi, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray and 45 others, the ghost of Ayodhya has returned to haunt the BJP. For a party trying to emerge as a responsible national force, the criminal charges under Section 120 (B) -- rioting, inciting enmity among communities and defiling a place of worship -- have caused a great deal of embarrassment. The BJP's defence is that Ayodhya cannot be treated as a criminal conspiracy; it was a "mass movement".

In Uttar Pradesh, the Ayodhya case gives the party an excuse to drop Kalyan Singh as chief minister on the ground that he will be involved in a legal battle. But this approach is fraught with danger as most of the top leadership, excluding Vajpayee, stand accused.

That is why the BJP swiftly closed ranks when news of the charges came in and left it to Vajpayee to speak for the party. "It's a strange coincidence that the charge-sheet has come when the transfer of power from the BSP to the BJP is yet to take place," he said, adding this will only benefit the BJP "as emotions over the Ram mandir will again be revived".

The leaders will first appeal against the charges in the high court. If their plea is rejected, they will have to ready themselves for trials that could take over three years. On October 17, the accused, including VHP chief Ashok Singhal, will have to appear in court. It isn't difficult to visualise the images: saffron-clad followers chanting Jai Shri Ram and Har Har Mahadev as the leaders head for the court. Those familiar images of triumphant Hindu nationalism, images that gave the BJP its electoral breakthrough and made it a pariah.

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