Caste equilibrium essential for political
stability in North India

By Kedar Nath Pandey

I am returning to political imbro-glio in Uttar Pradesh for the third time in less than three weeks. The reason being that it is the largest State in terms of population, and it also sets political trends for the entire country. If the heart is diseased, human being don’t survive for long. By inference the UP politics mirrors the political equations in the rest of the country.

A closer examination of the sweeping changes in the State politics reveals that there is a deep polarisation on the basis of caste and creed. It is not good for the national politics as a whole. As a matter of fact, it would be a mistake to dismiss the political drama in Lucknow as merely a no-holds-barred race to occupy the throne. Whatever has happened in the political arena cannot be divorced from both the conflict and concord between different segments of the civil society.

It is now clear that the real force responsible for pitchforking Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav is the coming together of three powerful castes in UP – the Yadavs, the Jats and the Thakurs. In the past the three have fiercely competed with each other for political hegemony but have now come together to oust the Dalits tacitly backed by the Brahmin-Bania-Kayastha lobby. A further caste component to this dogfight is the Lodh sub-caste represented by former UP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh, who has thrown his weight behind the Samajwadi Party (SP) chieftain.

Interestingly, past and present political affiliations of these competing castes is opportunistic, the only motivation is the lure of power. For instance, Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh, who, apart from being a passenger over the past few decades in several parties or alliances including the Janata Dal, the United Front, the Congress and the NDA, has also been the bitterest political opponent of Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav, can hardly explain his new found love for a Samajwadi Party-led alliance in the general political idiom. It is the compulsions of Jat politics in his base Western UP that has propelled Mr. Mulayam Singh to his present political stance.

Similarly, Mr. Rajnath Singh, who headed the BJP Government in the UP just last year, was certainly not motivated by his party’s interests or that of the Sangh Parivar to quietly facilitate the installation of the Mulayam Singh Government. The BJP leader who unabashedly wears his Thakur logo on his sleeves has been in the forefront of the campaign to oust Ms. Mayawati for her onslaught against the Thakur barons. It is not surprising that one of the first announcements by the new Chief Minister has been the withdrawal of cases against Thakur leaders with criminal affiliations. Nor is it a coincidence that the only two leaders whose faces are brandished by posters in Lucknow today are Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mr. Rajnath Singh. The fall of the BSP-BJP Ministry may have been an embarrassing collapse of a vital political alliance for the BJP; however, for the Thakur lobby in the party’s UP unit, it has been a splendid victory over the Dalits and their Brahmin backers in the BJP.

Even a greater political irony is represented by the support extended to Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav by two of the main battering rams of the Ram Mandir movement – former BJP Chief Minister of UP Kalyan Singh and Bajrang Dal chief Vinay Katiyar. It is these two leaders who had endlessly berated the Samajwadi Party chieftain as, "Mullah Mulayam" when the latter as Chief Minister had dared to confront the saffron wave engulfing Ayodhya. Today, Mr. Kalyan Singh and his party are an integral part of the Mulayam Singh regime, while Mr. Katiyar along with Mr. Rajnath Singh have been instrumental in persuading the BJP to facilitate the installation of the new government.

Once again, it is futile to explain the stances adopted by leaders like Mr. Kalyan Singh and Mr. Katiyar in terms of traditional politics or ideological preferences. It is the alliance between Mr. Kalyan Singh’s Lodh and Mr. Katiyar’s Kurmi caste brethren with the Yadavs in UP against the Dalit-Brahmin axis that alone can provide the correct answers to the political scenario in the State today.

Indeed, the coming together of ideologically antagonistic leaders clearly signals the final nail in the coffin of Hindutva politics in the State. With caste politics taking over so comprehensively in UP, there may not be much political mileage in the construction of the Ram Mandir, whatever be the latest bulletin from the Archaeological Survey of India. Much of the propaganda campaign by the BJP, that the installation of Mulayam Singh-led Government would help revive the Ayodhya movement, is actually just a ruse to hide the reality of communal politics being overwhelmed by an internecine caste war in which Muslims are mere spectators.

Those who have been following UP’s caste topography should not be surprised at the emerging caste equations. There are several key parameters that need to be recognised, the most important of which is the complete political marginalisation of Brahmins who had so long ruled the roost in the State by manipulating other castes, sub-castes and outcastes. This has been brought about by the rising social clout of upper backward castes like the Jats, Yadavs, Lodhs and Kurmis and more recently by the abandonment of the upper caste club by the Thakurs. The plight of the Brahmins have been further compounded by the rising political ambitions of the Dalits who are no longer ready to accept patronage and protection with parties like the BSP actually demanding virtually a reversal of traditional roles.

In fact, the real political loser in UP’s social order today is the Brahmin. Traditionally, the backbone of the Congress, the Brahmins had survived the decline of the party by switching their loyalties to the BJP, which, in the early 1990s, seemed to be the ideal alternative. Unfortunately for them, much like the Congress, which has now become a pathetic political fossil in the State, the BJP too seems to be rapidly heading the same way. This leaves the Brahmins along with their traditional allies Banias and Kayasthas the humiliating choice of either being an appendage of the rising backward castes or the combative Dalits.

To some extent, this is true for all the major North Indian states, the most glaring example being Bihar where the Brahmins are being steadily pushed from political centre stage to the corner. Significantly, several decades ago, the same story had been enacted in the southern states. It is perhaps when the North acquires the same caste equilibrium as in the South that politics too will become more stable and comprehensible. INAV.

Life in Pakistan-occupied- Kashmir

By Hari Om

The people of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Northern Territories (NT) are up in arms against Islamabad. Some of the major political formations which are actively involved in the anti-Pakistan crusade include Shabir Choudhry's Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), Abdul Hamid Khan's Balawaristan National Front (BNF), Mumtaz Mohammad Khan's Afro-Asian People's Solidarity Organisation (AAPSO) and Mir Mohammad's European Union of Public Relations (EUPR). Each one of these outfits is reiterating again and again the demand in favour of a dispensation that empowers the people of PoK and NT to shape and control fully their political and economic future outside the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. In fact, leaders of all these parties, without any exception, are repeatedly saying that self-rule is their motto, their watchword and their battle-cry and that the people of the occupied areas do not want to have any kind of truck with Pakistan. The upshot of their whole campaign is that the Pakistani ruling elite has only reduced the inhabitants of these areas to a nullity for all practical purposes. Yet another refrain of theirs is that the Pakistani rulers have established in their own homeland a political system under which their life is not one of political and economic aspirations but of mute penury and toil.

It needs to be noted that it is not for the first time that the occupied areas are witnessing popular revolts against Pakistan. The people of these areas have been expressing themselves against the Pakistani establishment and its policies from time to time ever since 1948. It was in December 1948 that the then Indian Prime Minister ordered cease-fire to bring the Pakistani-sponsored war on J&K to an end. It was this action which dumbfounded the Indian Army in the sense that it had the Pakistani invaders- regular and irregular- on the run and enabled Pakistan to retain control over a considerable portion of the J&K territories it had captured after pillage and murder.

Whatever the Indian Prime Minister did under no situation could be interpreted as an act of farsighted statesmanship. In fact, it was the biggest blunder on his part. And, it is because of this folly that the people of PoK and NT are paying the price, with the Pakistani rulers perpetrating on them all sorts of barbarities and making ther life ''a hell''. It is indeed difficult to avoid the conclusion that he alone is responsible for the pitiable condition of these people.

Just ask the anti-India and pro-Pakistan elements in the Indian administered Kashmir to compare the life of the people of the so-called Azad Kashmir (PoK) and NT with the one they enjoy under the Indian Constitution and they will find the difference. Take, for example, the political life of the people of the PoK. The people of PoK have a sham legislative assembly. It has no power whatsoever to adopt measures keeping into consideration the hopes and aspirations of the people. The so-called President of PoK is no more than a puppet of Islamabad. The status of the PoK Prime Minister and his Council of Ministers is no different. They have no power to take decisions to the happiness and well being of the people they govern. On the contrary, they use all brutal methods to crush what they call hostile political elements and promote the Pakistani cause. It is the Islamabad-appointed Minister of Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas (MKANA), who enjoys absolute and unbridled executive powers. As a matter of fact, the Prime Minister and his Council of Ministers, like the MKANA, are responsible to Islamabad. They hold their office so long as they enjoy the confidence of their alien masters and function strictly as per the directions of the MKANA. Their only duty is, it seems, to endorse and implement the decisions of Islamabad and strengthen its stranglehold over the occupied areas and they discharge this duty religiously in order to enjoy the loaves and fishes of office and for the sake of personal power and profit.

The story of the Press and judiciary in PoK is equally lamentable. Both these institutions work under heavy restrictions. The judiciary is committed more to Islamabad than to the hapless and suffering people of PoK. No wonder the people have lost their faith in this vital institution and left themselves to God and anarchy. The press is not given any freedom to ventilate the grievances of the people, including their complaints regarding the denial of civil liberties and gross violation of human rights. Nor is it allowed to criticise the anti-people and anti-democratic policies and actions of the powers-that-be in PoK and Pakistan, which are all calculated to thwart and delay indefinitely the realisation of the people's most cherished goal of complete responsible Government outside Pakistan. Not just this, No press person can dare to comment on the utter failure of the authorities to cater to the basic requirements of the enslaved people such as healthcare, education, safe drinking water and power supply. Anyone who musters courage to reflect on their miseries invites the wrath of Islamabad and its henchmen in PoK.

The life of the people of NT comprising Hunza, Nagar, Chitral, Gilgit, Balistan, Ishkoman, Bunzi, Astore, Skardu and so on is even worse. This part of J&K is directly ruled from Islamabad and in the interests of Pakistan alone. In fact, these areas stand totally merged with Pakistan and through deceit and against the United Nations's resolutions on J&K. People of these areas do not have even a sham assembly. They have what is called Northern Areas Legislative Council (NALC). This council does not enjoy even those powers which are being exercised by any local body anywhere in Pakistan. This so-called legislative council is presided over by a minister appointed by Islamabad and he ''performs his duties like a king of ancient age''. All the powers- political, economic and administrative- are invested with him. He can enact any number of laws without consulting the NALC, which can be dismissed by him ''anytime''. He can also ''employ anybody from Pakistan as chief of judiciary on contract basis''. What sort of administration of justice this contractor provides is not difficult to imagine.

However, the worst part of the whole situation is that the people of these areas, also called Balawaristan, are treated like slaves. They are ''without any constitutional status''. According to the chairman of BNF Abdul Hamid Khan, ''the people of Balawaristan are the poorest in the world, because all of their resources are being usurped by Pakistan''. Though their annual revenue contribution to the Pakistani exchequer is to the tune of 20 billion rupees, Islamabad spends only Rs one billion on NT. A substantial part of this amount is also used to meet the expenditure on the Pakistani Army stationed there in Balawaristan to maintain law and order and check ''fissiparous'' tendencies there and disburse salaries to the employees.

The people of Balawaristan have ''no right to file a writ petition in Balwaristan (which is more than 72,00 sq kms in size and which houses a population of around two millions) or anywhere in the world against human rights violations''. The truth in the words of none other than the chairman of the BNF is that the people of the areas have ''no civil rights'' and ''no representation in any of the decision-making forums''. As for the press, it does not enjoy any freedom.

All this should open the eyes of those in Kashmir who want the state's merger with Pakistan. They should feel proud that they are part of secular, democratic, liberal, pluralistic and exceptionally generous India.

They should also not forget that they enjoy full legislative, executive and residuary powers plus power of taxation, with New Delhi catering to all of their financial needs and other requirements and giving full freedom to elect a Government of their own choice. One can only hope and pray that good sense would finally prevail and outfits like All-Party Hurriyat Conference, Jamait-e-Islami and Hizbul Mujahideen would give the cult of violence and help the civil society lead a peaceful and dignified life. Even otherwise, they have no other option. India under no situation would allow another partition on religious lines.