Mayawati’s resignation

In a moment of pique the BSP leader, Ms Mayawati, has decided to resign from the Rajya Sabha. She felt aggrieved, if somewhat exaggeratedly, that she was not being allowed to speak on an issue concerning ‘Dalit samaj’. It has been uncharitably suggested that this ‘dramatic’ gesture was meant to distract from the rather pitiful position her party has been reduced to in the last assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. The BJP benches may feel that they are entitled to mock Mayawati and her claims to Dalit leadership after the sweeping and comprehensive victory the saffron party had notched in the assembly poll.

Notwithstanding the BSP’s dismal performance in the last election, Mayawati remains the most well-known face  of Dalit identity and aspirations. And, these aspirations simply do not evaporate into thin air just because a political party loses a round of elections. The BJP claim to have a mandate does not automatically garner for it the leadership of the Dalit community, just as projection of a ‘Dalit’ face in the presidential election has not made the BJP an exclusive repository of Dalit welfare and well-being. 

There is much wrong with the Mayawati leadership model. Her record as Chief Minister many times over can at best be described as mixed; her morals have often been found wanting. But there was a time when despite her all too apparent flawed leadership model she was useful to the BJP national leadership; she had ill-advisedly allowed herself to lend her support and presence to the Narendra Modi campaign in the immediate aftermath of the bloody Gujarat riots in 2002.  Today the arrogant BJP may find her dispensable but that is short-sightedness. An electoral loss does not mean a complete and total collapse of a leader’s social and political relevance, just as a victory does not itself bestow inclusiveness on the victor. Already, within three months, the BJP sweep in UP is producing its own quota of social tensions and animosities in village after village, with the Dalits and other minorities being at the receiving end. Politics is losing its capacity for accommodation. Mayawati’s departure, sadly, depletes the representative legitimacy of the parliamentary institutions.