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Thus rather than try to understand
where Mulayam is coming from so as to interpret where he might
go next, the book contents itself with a long though not always
linear chronology of the ups and downs in Mulayam’s political
career, from his days as a Lohiaite student leader to the period
after the fall of the United Front government. The authors are
also acutely conscious of the bad press that Mulayam Singh has
received. But rather than try to rationalise this, they have
sought to correct it by introducing a bias of their own, by a
defence of his rocky career.
And as they
have not clearly identified the provocation it wraps the
narrative, twisting it around this phantom attacker.
Not that
Mulayam does not need defending, for he is uncharacteristically
direct for a politician. This more than his purported battle
with the status quo has meant that his career has had much more
than its share of controversy.
He is fact
courted it within days of being sworn in as Chief Minister in
1989, when, acting on his poll manifesto he decided to make
Hindi the official language. Hindi has been the official
language of the state all along. Thus his interpretation was, at
best, one of degree. But his stridency on the issue, along with
the implicit insinuation that his English-speaking opponents
were "status-quoist" (a much maligned word) earned him
the wrath of the English press. Rather than reach out to the
fourth estate he ignored it. It was an especially unpolitic
move. For it earned him a life-long enemy in the English press.
Just over a
year later he would repeat the act with the vernacular press,
though this time his role as provocateur was limited. Instead,
by then the pace of events in Uttar Pradesh was dictated by
Delhi where the two partners in power, the Janata Dal and the
Bharatiya Janata Party, were locked in a bitter contest to
emerge as the alternative to the still larger-than-life
Congress. The key to this was the 85 per cent Hindu vote.
The BJP sought
to harvest this vote by projecting the 15 per cent minorities as
the enemy through the symbolism of mosques at Hindu holy sites
of Ayodhya, Kashi (Varanasi) and Mathura.The Janata Dal, for its
part, wanted to cut the middle out of this vote bank by
cornering the projected 50 per cent backward class vote. This
bitter polarisation cast its shadow on the media as well, which
veered sharply towards Hindu "nationalism" when pushed
to choose between L.K. Advani rath yatra and the Mandal
Commission recommendations.
It was against
this backdrop that the Mulayam Singh government in Uttar
Pradesh, besieged by aggressive kar sevaks in Ayodhya
since October 30, 1990, opened fire in an attempt to disperse
them on November 2. Several kar sevaks died, and
"Mullah" Mulayam became enemy number one of the
vernacular media. Days later the BJP pulled out of the National
Front government in Delhi leading to its collapse. The Janata
Dal too split, and it was now only a matter of time before
Mulayam’s minority government meet the same fate.
In the bitter
election campaign that followed the vernacular media was as much
an active participant as the politicians, playing on the Ayodhya
"massacres". And it won, the BJP bagging 211 of 421
seats while Mulayam’s splinter of the Janata Dal, christened
the Samajwadi Janata Party, got just 35. Mulayam’s epitaph had
been written.
But barely had
the ink dried on it when the Hindu passions drummed up during
the election campaign found expression in the bringing down the
Babri Masjid at Ayodhya, leading to riots and the dismissal of
the BJP government in UP and three other states. Though
chastened and its image bruised by the riots, the media refused
to "forgive" Mulayam. But the voters did. When
elections were next held in late 1993. Mulayam, and his new
alliance partner, the BSP, were voted to power.
The latent
flames of animosity flared again when Mulayam sought to increase
the reservation quota in UP to 27 per cent as mandated under the
Mandal Commission report, by then made into law. The decision
was opposed in UP’s four hill districts. And when Mulayam
persisted, the issue was capitalised by a low-key movement for a
separate Uttrakhand state.
In the violent
protests that followed several persons were killed and Mulayam
was once again demonised by one newspaper after another.
This time
though, he decided to hit back through his "halla bol",
(literally attack) programme.Finding itself at the receiving
end, the vernacular media meekly caved in. Until it again
smelled blood when emboldened by BJP overtures, the BSP decided
to dump its partner in a bid to form a government of its own on
June 2, 1995. Mulayam countered this by splitting the BSP,
holding a vulnerable faction hostage in the state guest house.
The truth of
the tumultuous next hours will probably never be known. But at
the end of it a BSP government was in, and Mulayam was a
national pariah.
Despite the
"universal" condemnation, he resurrected himself to
emerge on the national stage a year later, emerging as a serious
contender for the post of Prime Minister in the United Front
government.
His absence
from Lucknow helped mute the criticism until he committed
another "unforgivable" crime in 1999 by refusing to
back Sonia Gandhi in her bid for power in 1999, following the
fall of the first NDA government. This time he had gone too far
the pandits decided, his Muslim voters would never forgive him.
They were wrong once again, with Mulayam emerging as the major
force in UP while the Congress was decimated.
With election
in UP now round the corner, the media has grudgingly begun to
concede the importance of Mulayam Singh but the rift is as wide
as ever.
While the authors tacitly admit
to the centrality of the media in vilifying Mulayam, they have
fought shy of spotlighting this factor, focusing almost
exclusively on political players. Even in this the insight are
skimpy as the 200-page-book tries to cover some 40 years of UP
politics and social movements, along with elements of national
movement. If it is still worth reading, it’s because of the
famed TINA factor, there is no alternative source of information
about this enduring enigma in the nations politics.
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Yet for a
politician who has been around for over three decades, (he was
first elected an MLA in UP in 1967 and made a Minister in
1977) surprisingly little is known about Mulayam, the man. And
what is known about Mulayam the politician is from the often
highly-coloured media interpretation. For, belying his name
Mulayam has never been cushy with the media.
