From Manmohan to Mayawati

At the cost of sounding elitist, I cannot but shudder at the prospect of what the many television channels are uttering; that as an alternative to Manmohan Singh and LK Advani, the still born UNPA alliance may be rallying around the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati and projecting her as the Prime Minister…. And all this under the guise of keeping at bay the communal forces. The thought of the erudite Man Mohan Singh giving way to Mayawati, of whose economic ideology and foreign policy nothing much is known except that it reeks of opportunism can only be described as revolting.

I am no supporter of the Advani camp or the NDA but I suppose that if the UPA is really on its way out, Advani is any day more preferable to Mayawati. Advani (and Vajpayee) in their Jan Sangh days were as much rabble rousers as Mayawati is today- in fact Advani was quite a bit of a rabble rouser as late as the eighties in his rath yatra days, but the NDA regime under Vajpayee was largely a regime of moderation except for the perennial black spot of the post Godhra riots in Gujarat.

While it is clear in largely measure what the stand of the UPA is on most issues and also the stand of the NDA and even of the dinosauric communists – be it on economic reforms or foreign policy or other domestic issues; no one knows of any ideology that the Bahujan Samaj Party under Mayawati professes on any of these fronts. Their history and origins back from Kanshi Ram were all about empowerment of the Bahujan Samaj – now expanded to include Sarvajana Samaj and enlarging their political space by displacing upper caste run parties. Their principles were largely based on opposing this and opposing that and very rarely proposing any thing constructive.

Any idea on what Mayawati’s stand is on civil aviation – whether the present aviation policy needs a relook and support provided to the airline industry? Or for that matter on foreign policy, what is her stance on issues like relations with Myanmar or China, the separatist movements in Nagaland and else where or the Naxalites that run parallel governments in large parts of the country.

When we look at the UPA or the Congress, its largest partner or for that matter the NDA and the BJP, its largest partner, I know what I can expect to get if I vote for them. There is a fair idea of where Advani wants to take the country if he gets to be Prime Minister – it is reasonably clear that he will carry forward the legacy of Atal Behari Vajpayee. And Manmohan Singh has made it clear what he wants to achieve in the remaining months of his tenure if he wins the trust vote. But what can I expect out of Mayawati, I am not quite sure. A strong dose of anti Congress and anti Samajwadi rhetoric in the morning and some more abuse for the BJP in the evening, may be acceptable from the opposition benches if at all, but hardly so from a Prime Minister.

It is true that most of India’s Prime Ministers have been from the upper castes and largely Brahmins. By all means have a Dalit or a Bahujan Prime Minister; may be the time has come …. But let us have an eloquent man or woman who has a vision for the country and knows more than just to oppose what others logically and thoughtfully propose.