28 September 1999
The Times of India
UP Muslims turn to Congress, but with heavy heart
By Siddharth Varadarajan
The Times of India News Service
GONDA: Sitting amidst neat piles of vests and underpants in a small shop in this nondescript mofussil town three hours north of Lucknow, Mohammad Qadir declares that he will vote for a candidate whose record of work is the most promising. ``The party does not matter. Last time, we voted for Kirtivardhan Singh of the Samajwadi Party but he has not done anything for Gonda. This time, Muslims here seem inclined towards the Congress but there are some who will vote for the BJP as well because of Atalji's reputation''.
If Qadir is upset with the SP for fielding a bad candidate, Muslims elsewhere in UP seem to be making a more fundamental reassessment of Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav's politics. In the past two Lok Sabha elections, Hashmatullah Ansari, a typist in Faizabad, voted for the SP. Now, he says, Mulayam is unlikely to get his support. Although the rujhaan (inclination) of Muslims in Faizabad is now towards the Congress, he said, he was not particularly happy about this. ``We haven't forgotten all the riots and killings that took place during Congress rule''.
Khalid Raza Kidwai, a lawyer and former SP activist was less circumspect when asked about the SP. ``Mulayam Singh only knows how to take and not give support'', he said, a reference to the SP's failure to back a Congress government at the Centre. ``It seems to me Mulayam is in league with the BJP. In fact, I blame him equally for the demolition of the Babri Masjid. He played politics. His language was aggressive. Unhone Hinduon ke dharm ko thes pahunchaya. Aam Hindu bhi uthejit ho gaya. Ordinary Hindus got incited. He helped to make Ayodhya a big issue''.
Haji Mahboob Ahmad of Ayodhya, a plaintiff in the Masjid-Mandir dispute, agrees: ``By his words and actions, Mulayam awakened a militant Hinduism. For example, he had no need to stop the parikrama in 1990. That was a turning point in the attitude of ordinary Hindus in UP''. Many Muslims -- not just in Faizabad but elsewhere in the state -- have reached the same
conclusion: if the BJP used Ram to consolidate a Hindu votebank, then Mr Yadav used the Babri Masjid to bind the Muslims hand and foot to the SP. ``Beech mein aam aadmi pis
gaya (the ordinary man got crushed in between)'', said Akhtar, a Gondashopkeeper.
The prime beneficiary of this disillusionment has been the Congress, which has overcome the stigma of having presided over the demolition of the Babri Masjid. ``Jo hua so hua'', said one Muslim man in Allahabad. ``Sonia to bedagh aurat hai (Let bygones be. At least Sonia is untainted)''. Others say they will vote for the Congress this time because Mrs Gandhi has rejuvenated the party and given it a fighting chance.
And yet, it would be incorrect to say that Muslims are deserting the SP en masse and flocking towards the Congress.
While the overriding aim of most Muslims is to defeat the BJP -- not so much because of the Babri Masjid as for the lack of development, civic services and job opportunities -- there is confusion about which party is most likely to do the job. In most constituencies, Muslim voters appear badly divided. As with Hindus, issues of caste and class are perhaps more important than religion. In general, poorer Muslims such as weavers or wage labourers remain loyal to the SP while better educated, economically secure Muslims are turning towards the Congress. In seats
where the Bahujan Samaj Party came second in 1998, the elephant symbol is also exerting a definite pull on Muslims.
A visit to Revadi Talab, a small mohalla of Muslim weavers in Varanasi where the clatter of looms competes with conversation, sets to rest the idea that Muslims are a monolithic `votebank'. At one end of a skein of silk threads stretched on bamboo poles down the length of a lane, a man said he was going to vote for the Congress, while members of his workshop clustered at the other end said they would vote for the SP. A vegetable seller sat proudly behind a BSP
banner, while the neighbouring shop displayed a small pink CPI leaflet.
When the question of `fatwas' is raised, a group of men sipping tea from thumb-sized kullads in Badi Bazaar all laughed incredulously. ``Who listens to fatwas these days?'', one said. ``It's each person for himself. One day Bukhari tells us to vote for the Congress, another day for SP. Why should we keep changing our mind whenever he changes his?''. ``Who is Bukhari to us when we don't even listen to our local qazi'' said another. In the end, said Aziz mian, his rheumy eyes filled with resignation, nothing matters. ``In the old days we used to have netas. Now we have chors,
dakus, pindaris and even nachaniyas (actors). Some years ago, we might have believed that voting would lead to some improvement. Not now. But what do we do? We are Indians. If we don't vote, what will we do, where will we go?''.
26 September 1999
Elections 1999: A Parivar the Sangh forgot about
26 September 1999
The Times of India
A Parivar the Sangh forgot about
By Siddharth Varadarajan
The Times of India News Service
AYODHYA: Shy, melancholic and miserably poor, Anusuya is proud to be the
daughter of a man who died for Ram. Nine years ago, Vasudev Gupta - a
mithaiwallah as ordinary as the thousands of others who sell sweets to
pilgrims in this holy town - was shot dead by the authorities.
Incited by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's (VHP) campaign to liberate the
alleged site of Ram's birthplace, he had defied official orders banning
the gathering of `kar sevaks' near the Babri Masjid. The Mulayam Singh
Yadav government took a harsh line and ordered the security forces to
open fire. Gupta was one of three Ayodhya residents killed on that
fateful day in October 1990.
Today, a small black-and-white photograph of the dead sweetseller adorns
the tiny shop that is all his family has to get by with. Gupta looks
almost serene. His son, Sandeep, who is now 16 and wants to join the
Army, cradles the frame lovingly as he poses for a photograph.
The shop is threadbare and makeshift. The sweets are gone; instead a few
wretched scraps of cloth sit irreverently amongst the small piles of
Ramnamas - saffron scarves with Ram's name - that generate some Rs 600 a
month in income.
Behind the tiny shop is an equally meagre room, home to mother, daughter
and two sons. Gupta's eldest daughter died a few years ago for want of
medical care. His youngest son, Pradeep, is mentally infirm. Now 10, he
wanders around as if perpetually in a daze. When he is very disturbed,
said Anusuya, he climbs up electricity poles and refuses to come down.
``There is no money for his treatment. We have approached the VHP and
BJP leaders for help so many times but they don't pay any attention.''
She complained that the BJP's Vinay Katiyar, who was twice MP from
Faizabad, never came to see them.
In a town where many people are coming round to the view that the BJP
raised the Ram temple issue for political rather than religious reasons,
the plight of the Gupta family is being held out as proof of the Sangh
Parivar's dishonesty.
For many years, VHP and BJP leaders promoted Vasudev Gupta as an example
of a true Ram bhakt, a man willing to die for the cause of the temple.
They would summon his wife, Shakuntala, to meetings at all hours of the
day and night to burn effigies of Mulayam Singh Yadav. ``They would use
a shaheed's wife to campaign for them,'' said Anusuya, her large eyes
welling up, ``but they never bothered to see in what condition his
family was in.''
I asked what she felt about her father, about the cause he died for.
``When he left home that morning, he didn't expect to die,'' she
replied. ``We have pride in what our father did but we feel angry when
they go out and ask for votes in his name.'' And the temple? ``If Ram
wants, it will certainly be built. But we have no faith in the BJP.''
Swami Jagannath Das, mahant of the Nirmohi Akhara - the religious order
which is the only Hindu litigant in the legal dispute over the
`Janmaboomi' site - said that if the temple was really an issue of
religion for the BJP, ``why are they scared to fight the election on
that very question? Sab satta ke liye tha (It was all for power).''
He said that Ashok Singhal of the VHP had once told him how much he and
his organisation had sacrificed for the cause of the Ram temple.
``Singhal said we have been hit by lathis and bullets. I stopped him.
`Show me one scratch on your body, one bruise, one stain of blood', I
demanded. `It was the poor who gave their lives and who suffered thanks
to you, not any of the leaders'. Singhal fell silent. What else could he
do?''
Back in the Gupta family shop, there is no customer in sight. Sandeep
carefully dusts his father's portrait and hangs it on the wall. Anusuya
adjusts her dupatta and goes back to pushing away the swarms of flies that
are buzzing around.
The Times of India
A Parivar the Sangh forgot about
By Siddharth Varadarajan
The Times of India News Service
AYODHYA: Shy, melancholic and miserably poor, Anusuya is proud to be the
daughter of a man who died for Ram. Nine years ago, Vasudev Gupta - a
mithaiwallah as ordinary as the thousands of others who sell sweets to
pilgrims in this holy town - was shot dead by the authorities.
Incited by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's (VHP) campaign to liberate the
alleged site of Ram's birthplace, he had defied official orders banning
the gathering of `kar sevaks' near the Babri Masjid. The Mulayam Singh
Yadav government took a harsh line and ordered the security forces to
open fire. Gupta was one of three Ayodhya residents killed on that
fateful day in October 1990.
Today, a small black-and-white photograph of the dead sweetseller adorns
the tiny shop that is all his family has to get by with. Gupta looks
almost serene. His son, Sandeep, who is now 16 and wants to join the
Army, cradles the frame lovingly as he poses for a photograph.
The shop is threadbare and makeshift. The sweets are gone; instead a few
wretched scraps of cloth sit irreverently amongst the small piles of
Ramnamas - saffron scarves with Ram's name - that generate some Rs 600 a
month in income.
Behind the tiny shop is an equally meagre room, home to mother, daughter
and two sons. Gupta's eldest daughter died a few years ago for want of
medical care. His youngest son, Pradeep, is mentally infirm. Now 10, he
wanders around as if perpetually in a daze. When he is very disturbed,
said Anusuya, he climbs up electricity poles and refuses to come down.
``There is no money for his treatment. We have approached the VHP and
BJP leaders for help so many times but they don't pay any attention.''
She complained that the BJP's Vinay Katiyar, who was twice MP from
Faizabad, never came to see them.
In a town where many people are coming round to the view that the BJP
raised the Ram temple issue for political rather than religious reasons,
the plight of the Gupta family is being held out as proof of the Sangh
Parivar's dishonesty.
For many years, VHP and BJP leaders promoted Vasudev Gupta as an example
of a true Ram bhakt, a man willing to die for the cause of the temple.
They would summon his wife, Shakuntala, to meetings at all hours of the
day and night to burn effigies of Mulayam Singh Yadav. ``They would use
a shaheed's wife to campaign for them,'' said Anusuya, her large eyes
welling up, ``but they never bothered to see in what condition his
family was in.''
I asked what she felt about her father, about the cause he died for.
``When he left home that morning, he didn't expect to die,'' she
replied. ``We have pride in what our father did but we feel angry when
they go out and ask for votes in his name.'' And the temple? ``If Ram
wants, it will certainly be built. But we have no faith in the BJP.''
Swami Jagannath Das, mahant of the Nirmohi Akhara - the religious order
which is the only Hindu litigant in the legal dispute over the
`Janmaboomi' site - said that if the temple was really an issue of
religion for the BJP, ``why are they scared to fight the election on
that very question? Sab satta ke liye tha (It was all for power).''
He said that Ashok Singhal of the VHP had once told him how much he and
his organisation had sacrificed for the cause of the Ram temple.
``Singhal said we have been hit by lathis and bullets. I stopped him.
`Show me one scratch on your body, one bruise, one stain of blood', I
demanded. `It was the poor who gave their lives and who suffered thanks
to you, not any of the leaders'. Singhal fell silent. What else could he
do?''
Back in the Gupta family shop, there is no customer in sight. Sandeep
carefully dusts his father's portrait and hangs it on the wall. Anusuya
adjusts her dupatta and goes back to pushing away the swarms of flies that
are buzzing around.
17 September 1999
Elections 1999: Lord Rama helps and hinders in Allahabad
17 September 1999
The Times of India
Lord Rama helps and hinders in Allahabad
By Siddharth Varadarajan
The Times of India News Service
ALLAHABAD: Politicians may never wash their dirty linen in public but unfortunately for them, they have little control over what their dhobis might do.
Last month, when the municipal authority came to demolish some illegal extensions in the Fatehpur Bichua quarter of this city, one of the houses targeted belonged to Hiralal, a shy, white-haired man with spindly legs who happens to be the dhobi of Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, Union HRD minister and three-time BJP MP from Allahabad.
Since the minister lived nearby, he tried to save the situation. However, the local police inspector refused to listen to him. ``This is a local matter, sir. You have no jurisdiction'', the officer is reported to have said as the demolition crew went about its business.
Ordinarily, such an incident would have gone unnoticed. But since this is election time, Dr Joshi's `failure' to protect his washerman has not done his reputation any good. Lord Rama, it is being said, threw Sita out of the house on the complaint of his dhobi but Murli Manoharji ``could not even save the house of his dhobi!''
In the city, Dr Joshi is an unpopular man even with BJP supporters. Whether warranted or not, he has acquired a reputation for being arrogant and aloof. People complain that he is always surrounded by commandos. ``If he were to stand as an independent'', said Atmaram Dubey, a clerk, ``he would lose his deposit. If he wins this time, it is only because of the personal appeal of Atalji.'' Similar views were expressed by a broad cross-section of people at all of Allahabad's
pulse points: the university, the courts, the AG's office.
Hiralal smiled when I asked him what he thought of the Ramayana comparison. ``That is what people say. Ham kya jane?'' What kind of person is Dr Joshi, I asked. ``He is a very nice man. I have known him since the time we charged 10 paise to do all the ironing. He is a real scholar (vidhwan).''
Of all the terms used to describe him, it is `scholar' which Dr Joshi, formerly a physics professor at Allahabad University, most revels in.
Dr Raghu Sinha, a professor of psychology at the university, has known the BJP leader for many years. ``Joshi tries very hard to be a cut above the rest'', he said. ``he likes to think of himself as a `scientific' Hindu''. Sinha remembers a lecture where Dr Joshi claimed that all scripts originated from the zero symbol. ``He was brandishing charts. It was all very ridiculous''.
Others like former Allahabad University Executive Council member Vijay Kumar Sinha are extremely critical of Dr Joshi for not taking classes for some 17 years before retirement in 1994.
Dr Joshi has cultivated a sense of detachment and intellectualism but there is still a menacing tinge to his demeanour. At a public meeting in Katra mohalla on Tuesday, he stressed that all the religions which originated in India revered Ram, listing the faiths for added emphasis. ``Ram is the symbol of the unit and integrity of India,'' he said. Clearly, in this construction of national identity those who do not worship Ram have no place.
As we sat waiting for Dr Joshi to arrive, a group of singers were singing Ram bhajans with gusto. A mosque nearby sounded the azaan. ``Where is this coming from?,'' asked Dr Narendra Kumar Singh Gaur, minister for higher education in UP, irritatedly. The bhajan singers started singing louder and beating their drums more frenetically. There was much merriment all around. I asked Dr. Gaur whether he thought Muslims would ever support the BJP. He laughed. ``They will. But not for a long time''.
The meeting had been organised not by the BJP but by a local Ramlila committee. Nevertheless, the audience was exhorted to ensure Dr Joshi's victory. Dr Joshi never once asked for votes; instead, he said he would always be `available'. The temple issue may have been temporarily
shelved but Ram is still very much the BJP's central political metaphor. The organisers called Dr Joshi the `Bajrang Bali of India'. He protested and said the title belonged to Mr Vajpayee ``but if you make him Ramchandraji, then I can be Hanuman''.
The BJP activists -- many of whom are upset that the Ayodhya issue has been put on hold for
the next five years -- roared with approval but the irony of the situation was probably lost on them: The Ram Mandir has extinguished itself as a political cause at the very point at which Atalji has metamorphosed into Ram. The mythic kingdom of Ayodhya has to make way for the more important throne of Delhi.
The Times of India
Lord Rama helps and hinders in Allahabad
By Siddharth Varadarajan
The Times of India News Service
ALLAHABAD: Politicians may never wash their dirty linen in public but unfortunately for them, they have little control over what their dhobis might do.
Last month, when the municipal authority came to demolish some illegal extensions in the Fatehpur Bichua quarter of this city, one of the houses targeted belonged to Hiralal, a shy, white-haired man with spindly legs who happens to be the dhobi of Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, Union HRD minister and three-time BJP MP from Allahabad.
Since the minister lived nearby, he tried to save the situation. However, the local police inspector refused to listen to him. ``This is a local matter, sir. You have no jurisdiction'', the officer is reported to have said as the demolition crew went about its business.
Ordinarily, such an incident would have gone unnoticed. But since this is election time, Dr Joshi's `failure' to protect his washerman has not done his reputation any good. Lord Rama, it is being said, threw Sita out of the house on the complaint of his dhobi but Murli Manoharji ``could not even save the house of his dhobi!''
In the city, Dr Joshi is an unpopular man even with BJP supporters. Whether warranted or not, he has acquired a reputation for being arrogant and aloof. People complain that he is always surrounded by commandos. ``If he were to stand as an independent'', said Atmaram Dubey, a clerk, ``he would lose his deposit. If he wins this time, it is only because of the personal appeal of Atalji.'' Similar views were expressed by a broad cross-section of people at all of Allahabad's
pulse points: the university, the courts, the AG's office.
Hiralal smiled when I asked him what he thought of the Ramayana comparison. ``That is what people say. Ham kya jane?'' What kind of person is Dr Joshi, I asked. ``He is a very nice man. I have known him since the time we charged 10 paise to do all the ironing. He is a real scholar (vidhwan).''
Of all the terms used to describe him, it is `scholar' which Dr Joshi, formerly a physics professor at Allahabad University, most revels in.
Dr Raghu Sinha, a professor of psychology at the university, has known the BJP leader for many years. ``Joshi tries very hard to be a cut above the rest'', he said. ``he likes to think of himself as a `scientific' Hindu''. Sinha remembers a lecture where Dr Joshi claimed that all scripts originated from the zero symbol. ``He was brandishing charts. It was all very ridiculous''.
Others like former Allahabad University Executive Council member Vijay Kumar Sinha are extremely critical of Dr Joshi for not taking classes for some 17 years before retirement in 1994.
Dr Joshi has cultivated a sense of detachment and intellectualism but there is still a menacing tinge to his demeanour. At a public meeting in Katra mohalla on Tuesday, he stressed that all the religions which originated in India revered Ram, listing the faiths for added emphasis. ``Ram is the symbol of the unit and integrity of India,'' he said. Clearly, in this construction of national identity those who do not worship Ram have no place.
As we sat waiting for Dr Joshi to arrive, a group of singers were singing Ram bhajans with gusto. A mosque nearby sounded the azaan. ``Where is this coming from?,'' asked Dr Narendra Kumar Singh Gaur, minister for higher education in UP, irritatedly. The bhajan singers started singing louder and beating their drums more frenetically. There was much merriment all around. I asked Dr. Gaur whether he thought Muslims would ever support the BJP. He laughed. ``They will. But not for a long time''.
The meeting had been organised not by the BJP but by a local Ramlila committee. Nevertheless, the audience was exhorted to ensure Dr Joshi's victory. Dr Joshi never once asked for votes; instead, he said he would always be `available'. The temple issue may have been temporarily
shelved but Ram is still very much the BJP's central political metaphor. The organisers called Dr Joshi the `Bajrang Bali of India'. He protested and said the title belonged to Mr Vajpayee ``but if you make him Ramchandraji, then I can be Hanuman''.
The BJP activists -- many of whom are upset that the Ayodhya issue has been put on hold for
the next five years -- roared with approval but the irony of the situation was probably lost on them: The Ram Mandir has extinguished itself as a political cause at the very point at which Atalji has metamorphosed into Ram. The mythic kingdom of Ayodhya has to make way for the more important throne of Delhi.
16 September 1999
Elections 1999: Kala Bachcha as weather vane
16 September 1999
The Times of India
Kala Bachcha as a Weather Vane
By SIDDHARTH VARADARAJAN
KANPUR: Its not often that a journalist sets out in search of a dead man in order to discern how people are going to vote.
When I first encountered Kala Bachcha on the pages of Theft of an Idol, a book about collective violence by the American political scientist, Paul Brass, he had already been dead five years. Kala Bachcha -- literally `black child' -- was the nom de guerre of Munna Sonkar, a small-time slumlord and politician from Babupurwa, south Kanpur. Hero to his scheduled caste community of Khatiks and villain for others, Kala Bachcha was allegedly involved in the anti-Muslim riots which convulsed this dying industrial city after the demolition of the Babri Masjid.
In the marketplace of combustible rumours that all cities become during and after riots, Kala Bachcha was variously said to have killed Muslims and moved from mohalla to mohalla protecting Hindus but also to have saved his Muslim tenants. Though nothing was finally proved the myth of Kala Bachcha being a `protector of Hindus' was an attractive one for those who claimed the main victims of the violence had been Hindus, not Muslims. The BJP decided to make a leader out of him. Amidst much fanfare, he was nominated for a reserved seat in the November 1993 assembly elections.
Calamitous Cycle
Even though Kanpur is a BJP fortress Kala Bachcha lost by a few hundred votes. Three months later, some bombs were hurled at him by `unknown assailants', killing him instantly. The BJP tried to use his funeral to whip up support but the city administration, then in the hands of the Samajwadi Party, denied them this opportunity. It was said that `Muslims' had killed Kala Bachcha so two Muslims were murdered in revenge. However, riots did not break out, mainly because the normally calamitous cycle of retaliation and counter-retaliation ended there.
Since then, much has changed in Kanpur. Popular disenchantment with the Kalyan Singh government and the sitting BJP MP is running extraordinarily high; civic services are nonexistent, roads are a nightmare to negotiate. As commonplace concerns come to the fore, communal tension has receded. And with that, the myth of Kala Bachcha has undergone a curious transformation. Today, in Babupurwa and other areas where Khatiks live, the man who in life was a BJP hero has re-emerged, in death, as an anti-BJP icon.
What kind of person was he, I asked a family in the Khatkiyana of Babupurwa. ``He was a gem (heera)'' a man answered. ``That is why the BJP killed him off''. But why would the BJP kill one of its own? ``He was not one of them'', a woman said animatedly. ``They used him. During the riots, he didn't lift even his finger against anyone. He saved so many Muslims''. ``And what has BJP done for us anyway? Our men have no jobs. And look at the state of the roads'', said another woman. One man said Kala Bachcha was such a great figure that a 'vilayati babu' (an Englishman) had written a whole book about him.
In the Muslim mohallas nearby, I asked people what they thought of Kala Bachcha. People were circumspect. "He had earned a name for himself'', said one man at a tea stall, who identified himself as Ilyas. But one can earn a name through good deeds as well as bad, I said. Everyone laughed. "You have answered your own question'', Ilyas said smilingly.
In Colonelganj, where Dalits live side-by-side with Muslims, a Khatik said that local RSS activists had blamed the Muslims for the murder in order to start a riot. "But Kala Bachcha saved Muslims so we know they would never kill him''. The myth of Kala Bachcha, it seems, has come full circle. From a man whose 'anti-Muslim' credentials had led the BJP to co-opt him, he has become a 'pro-Muslim' leader that the BJP deliberately decided to abandon.
Rumours and Myths
Mr S K Mehra, an acerbic 88-year-old former journalist, chronicler of the city and collaborator of Paul Brass, dismissed the allegation of BJP involvement in Kala Bachcha's murder. So did the CPM activists I spoke to. It seems a member of the Kanpur underworld whose sister had apparently been raped by Kala Bachcha had done the killing.
And yet, as with so many other rumours and myths, it is not the question of their veracity that is interesting but the reasons for their circulation. Perhaps the charge of BJP complicity in the murder of a revered figure from the community is the Khatik's way of squaring his decision to turn against the BJP in this election with the fact that Kala Bachcha had been a BJP leader. Or perhaps not.
Either way, it is probably time the vilayati babu returned to Kanpur to write another book.
The Times of India
Kala Bachcha as a Weather Vane
By SIDDHARTH VARADARAJAN
KANPUR: Its not often that a journalist sets out in search of a dead man in order to discern how people are going to vote.
When I first encountered Kala Bachcha on the pages of Theft of an Idol, a book about collective violence by the American political scientist, Paul Brass, he had already been dead five years. Kala Bachcha -- literally `black child' -- was the nom de guerre of Munna Sonkar, a small-time slumlord and politician from Babupurwa, south Kanpur. Hero to his scheduled caste community of Khatiks and villain for others, Kala Bachcha was allegedly involved in the anti-Muslim riots which convulsed this dying industrial city after the demolition of the Babri Masjid.
In the marketplace of combustible rumours that all cities become during and after riots, Kala Bachcha was variously said to have killed Muslims and moved from mohalla to mohalla protecting Hindus but also to have saved his Muslim tenants. Though nothing was finally proved the myth of Kala Bachcha being a `protector of Hindus' was an attractive one for those who claimed the main victims of the violence had been Hindus, not Muslims. The BJP decided to make a leader out of him. Amidst much fanfare, he was nominated for a reserved seat in the November 1993 assembly elections.
Calamitous Cycle
Even though Kanpur is a BJP fortress Kala Bachcha lost by a few hundred votes. Three months later, some bombs were hurled at him by `unknown assailants', killing him instantly. The BJP tried to use his funeral to whip up support but the city administration, then in the hands of the Samajwadi Party, denied them this opportunity. It was said that `Muslims' had killed Kala Bachcha so two Muslims were murdered in revenge. However, riots did not break out, mainly because the normally calamitous cycle of retaliation and counter-retaliation ended there.
Since then, much has changed in Kanpur. Popular disenchantment with the Kalyan Singh government and the sitting BJP MP is running extraordinarily high; civic services are nonexistent, roads are a nightmare to negotiate. As commonplace concerns come to the fore, communal tension has receded. And with that, the myth of Kala Bachcha has undergone a curious transformation. Today, in Babupurwa and other areas where Khatiks live, the man who in life was a BJP hero has re-emerged, in death, as an anti-BJP icon.
What kind of person was he, I asked a family in the Khatkiyana of Babupurwa. ``He was a gem (heera)'' a man answered. ``That is why the BJP killed him off''. But why would the BJP kill one of its own? ``He was not one of them'', a woman said animatedly. ``They used him. During the riots, he didn't lift even his finger against anyone. He saved so many Muslims''. ``And what has BJP done for us anyway? Our men have no jobs. And look at the state of the roads'', said another woman. One man said Kala Bachcha was such a great figure that a 'vilayati babu' (an Englishman) had written a whole book about him.
In the Muslim mohallas nearby, I asked people what they thought of Kala Bachcha. People were circumspect. "He had earned a name for himself'', said one man at a tea stall, who identified himself as Ilyas. But one can earn a name through good deeds as well as bad, I said. Everyone laughed. "You have answered your own question'', Ilyas said smilingly.
In Colonelganj, where Dalits live side-by-side with Muslims, a Khatik said that local RSS activists had blamed the Muslims for the murder in order to start a riot. "But Kala Bachcha saved Muslims so we know they would never kill him''. The myth of Kala Bachcha, it seems, has come full circle. From a man whose 'anti-Muslim' credentials had led the BJP to co-opt him, he has become a 'pro-Muslim' leader that the BJP deliberately decided to abandon.
Rumours and Myths
Mr S K Mehra, an acerbic 88-year-old former journalist, chronicler of the city and collaborator of Paul Brass, dismissed the allegation of BJP involvement in Kala Bachcha's murder. So did the CPM activists I spoke to. It seems a member of the Kanpur underworld whose sister had apparently been raped by Kala Bachcha had done the killing.
And yet, as with so many other rumours and myths, it is not the question of their veracity that is interesting but the reasons for their circulation. Perhaps the charge of BJP complicity in the murder of a revered figure from the community is the Khatik's way of squaring his decision to turn against the BJP in this election with the fact that Kala Bachcha had been a BJP leader. Or perhaps not.
Either way, it is probably time the vilayati babu returned to Kanpur to write another book.
12 September 1999
Elections 1999: Will BJP be cowed by dung in Kanpur?
12 September 1999
The Times of India
Will BJP be cowed by dung in Kanpur?
By Siddharth Varadarajan
The Times of India News Service
KANPUR: In the political imagination of Uttar Pradesh, gobar (cowdung), has
an oracular significance similar to that of the chapati. During the war of
independence in 1857 in Avadh, it is said that dried cowdung and chapatis
were circulated by the insurgents as a call to arms. But gobar can also be
profane. When Jagatveer Singh Dron, sitting BJP MP from Kanpur, went to the
Gwaltoli locality recently, the residents dragged him into the middle of a
vast expanse of slush and cowdung and told him to say whatever he had to
from there. When this correspondent visited the locality, excited residents
pointed out the spot where the ``terrified MP had stood briefly before
fleeing''. Several people claimed they threw gobar at him. Though the BJP
campaign headquarters denies this, the city certainly believes that the MP
was clobbered. Cowdung may not have flown thick and fast but rumours
certainly have.
In the lower middle class Peeli colony, 201 of the 202 households have
resolved to boycott the elections. Kamala Dixit, who describes her family as
``kattar BJP'', is one of those leading the planned boycott. Roads in the
locality look more like drains. Bal Chandra Mishra, BJP MLA, got the
approach to his house cleaned but didn't bother about the rest, residents
allege. ``The last time the mayor came, the men gheraoed her. Next time, we
women will beat her up,'' said a housewife.
Whatever the BJP's stated achievements at the national level, the average
voter here is primarily concerned about the state of his city. Crudely put,
Kanpur has become the armpit of Uttar Pradesh, a foul and noxious place
where there is virtually no road that is not potholed or marked by
gut-wrenching furrows, where garbage lies piled up at every street corner,
where whole localities have not received a drop of municipal water for
years.
Kanpur has had a BJP mayor since 1996, 11 out of 12 of its MLAs are BJP, as
are all three MPs from the region. Mr Dron, who has been winning since 1991,
is hoping to get elected for the fourth time. What has angered voters,
however, is his stand that MPs should not be blamed for local problems. In
poor and lower middle class areas, the anger against the BJP hits you in the
face. Everyone gleefully narrates stories - some true, many apocryphal -
about how Mr Dron has been chased away from various localities by
broom-wielding women and gobar-throwing urchins.
Of course, there is little enthusiasm for the other parties, although the
Congress, which came third last time, is going to be the prime beneficiary
of the anti-BJP wave. In Muslim and Dalit areas, residents are unambiguous
about their preference for the Congress over the Samajwadi Party and the
BSP. Elsewhere too, the Congress does seem to have built up support, but
again only by default.
Despite this, CPM leader Subhasini Ali warns that the Congress will find the
going tough. ``The upper castes are more than 30 per cent of the population.
And the Congress organisation is weak so they not be able to get out the
vote.''
The Times of India
Will BJP be cowed by dung in Kanpur?
By Siddharth Varadarajan
The Times of India News Service
KANPUR: In the political imagination of Uttar Pradesh, gobar (cowdung), has
an oracular significance similar to that of the chapati. During the war of
independence in 1857 in Avadh, it is said that dried cowdung and chapatis
were circulated by the insurgents as a call to arms. But gobar can also be
profane. When Jagatveer Singh Dron, sitting BJP MP from Kanpur, went to the
Gwaltoli locality recently, the residents dragged him into the middle of a
vast expanse of slush and cowdung and told him to say whatever he had to
from there. When this correspondent visited the locality, excited residents
pointed out the spot where the ``terrified MP had stood briefly before
fleeing''. Several people claimed they threw gobar at him. Though the BJP
campaign headquarters denies this, the city certainly believes that the MP
was clobbered. Cowdung may not have flown thick and fast but rumours
certainly have.
In the lower middle class Peeli colony, 201 of the 202 households have
resolved to boycott the elections. Kamala Dixit, who describes her family as
``kattar BJP'', is one of those leading the planned boycott. Roads in the
locality look more like drains. Bal Chandra Mishra, BJP MLA, got the
approach to his house cleaned but didn't bother about the rest, residents
allege. ``The last time the mayor came, the men gheraoed her. Next time, we
women will beat her up,'' said a housewife.
Whatever the BJP's stated achievements at the national level, the average
voter here is primarily concerned about the state of his city. Crudely put,
Kanpur has become the armpit of Uttar Pradesh, a foul and noxious place
where there is virtually no road that is not potholed or marked by
gut-wrenching furrows, where garbage lies piled up at every street corner,
where whole localities have not received a drop of municipal water for
years.
Kanpur has had a BJP mayor since 1996, 11 out of 12 of its MLAs are BJP, as
are all three MPs from the region. Mr Dron, who has been winning since 1991,
is hoping to get elected for the fourth time. What has angered voters,
however, is his stand that MPs should not be blamed for local problems. In
poor and lower middle class areas, the anger against the BJP hits you in the
face. Everyone gleefully narrates stories - some true, many apocryphal -
about how Mr Dron has been chased away from various localities by
broom-wielding women and gobar-throwing urchins.
Of course, there is little enthusiasm for the other parties, although the
Congress, which came third last time, is going to be the prime beneficiary
of the anti-BJP wave. In Muslim and Dalit areas, residents are unambiguous
about their preference for the Congress over the Samajwadi Party and the
BSP. Elsewhere too, the Congress does seem to have built up support, but
again only by default.
Despite this, CPM leader Subhasini Ali warns that the Congress will find the
going tough. ``The upper castes are more than 30 per cent of the population.
And the Congress organisation is weak so they not be able to get out the
vote.''
09 September 1999
Terror in Timor and the interventionist urge
9 September 1999
The Times of India
AS EAST TIMOR SLIPS further into a chaos scripted by the Indonesian army, the international community must once again confront the troubling question of whether armed intervention is a valid response to the violation of human rights. After Iraq, Somalia, Rwanda, Haiti, Bosnia and Yugoslavia, Indonesia is the seventh sovereign country in recent years to be told to allow foreign "peace enforcement" troops onto its soil -- of overflights over its airspace. If Jakarta does not yield, there is talk of the forcible insertion of troops from Australia and a few other states, acting with or without the explicit authorisation of the UN Security Council.
Of course, what is happening in East timor is not a text-book case of an "internal affair" protected by the UN Charter. Indonesia may consider East Timor an "integral" part of its territory but this has never been accepted by the UN. The statelet was annexed to the
archipelagic republic less than a year after it was invaded by the Indonesian armed forces on December 7, 1975. The UN General Assembly and Security Council deplored Indonesia's actions and called upon Jakarta to withdraw. Last week's referendum -- in which 78.5 per cent of East Timor voted for independence -- came at the end of negotiations involving the UN, Indonesia and Portugal, the former colonial power in East Timor. By willingly participating in the process and declaring that it would abide by the referendum result, the Indonesian government has, in effect, agreed that it has no sovereign claims on the territory.
Indonesia invaded East Timor at the end of a civil war which saw the relatively radical East Timorese political party, FRETILIN, emerge victorious. One day before moving in, President Suharto had had extensive discussions with US President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. What they talked about is still a secret but it is unthinkable that Suharto would have dared to act without a green signal from the US.
Indonesia occupied a central role in Washington's strategy for dominance in Southeast Asia and the Pacific region during the Cold War. In 1965, the US engineered a coup against the Sukarno government and applauded as more than 800,000 Indonesians -- communists, suspected communists and ethnic Chinese -- were hunted and murdered by the army and special militia. Not only did the US, Australia and others support the Indonesian invasion of East Timor but they also continued to sell arms to the Suharto regime knowing full well that their weapons would be used to massacre the population there. Indonesia still was a bulwark in a region buffeted by radicalism and political instability. The US did not want East Timor to become another Cuba or Vietnam. Apart from the fear of the "domino effect", the deep channels north of the island were vital for the safe and surrepticious transit of US nuclear submarines from Guam in the Pacific to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. If East Timor were to fall into "hostile" hands, the trip would become longer by up to a week. Civilisation would be endangered. In order to save the world for Freedom and Democracy, the East Timorese had to be made unfree.
The end of the Cold War has led Washington to reassess its approach to the region. The problem for the US, Australia and others in how to set up East Timor as an independent country militarily dependent on the West without endangering their economic and strategic assets in the rest of Indonesia. Any decision to intervene militarily will be taken on the basis of these considerations alone, not humanitarisation.
Indonesia has a responsibility to maintain law and order until it formally hands over power to the UN or a transitional East Timor administration. If the US, which has propped up the Indonesian army all these years really wants to force Jakarta to curb the militias, it should suspend its links with Indonesian army and announce an end to all arms exports to that country. This, however, it is unprepared to do as it will lose a lucrative market and push Indonesia and China closer together.
And yet, the alternative -- intervention -- will be even more disastrous for the West. After NATO's agreesive in Yugoslavia, the Chinese are bound sharply to react to anything which smacks of the unilateral use of force by the West in their own "backyard". If anything, the world should have acted decisively when Indonesia invaded East Timor 24 years ago. Using force now will not make up for past wrongs. It will only compound the original sin.
The Times of India
Terror in Timor and the
Interventionist Urge
By Siddharth Varadarajan
Interventionist Urge
By Siddharth Varadarajan
AS EAST TIMOR SLIPS further into a chaos scripted by the Indonesian army, the international community must once again confront the troubling question of whether armed intervention is a valid response to the violation of human rights. After Iraq, Somalia, Rwanda, Haiti, Bosnia and Yugoslavia, Indonesia is the seventh sovereign country in recent years to be told to allow foreign "peace enforcement" troops onto its soil -- of overflights over its airspace. If Jakarta does not yield, there is talk of the forcible insertion of troops from Australia and a few other states, acting with or without the explicit authorisation of the UN Security Council.
Of course, what is happening in East timor is not a text-book case of an "internal affair" protected by the UN Charter. Indonesia may consider East Timor an "integral" part of its territory but this has never been accepted by the UN. The statelet was annexed to the
archipelagic republic less than a year after it was invaded by the Indonesian armed forces on December 7, 1975. The UN General Assembly and Security Council deplored Indonesia's actions and called upon Jakarta to withdraw. Last week's referendum -- in which 78.5 per cent of East Timor voted for independence -- came at the end of negotiations involving the UN, Indonesia and Portugal, the former colonial power in East Timor. By willingly participating in the process and declaring that it would abide by the referendum result, the Indonesian government has, in effect, agreed that it has no sovereign claims on the territory.
Washington's Strategy
Indonesia invaded East Timor at the end of a civil war which saw the relatively radical East Timorese political party, FRETILIN, emerge victorious. One day before moving in, President Suharto had had extensive discussions with US President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. What they talked about is still a secret but it is unthinkable that Suharto would have dared to act without a green signal from the US.
Indonesia occupied a central role in Washington's strategy for dominance in Southeast Asia and the Pacific region during the Cold War. In 1965, the US engineered a coup against the Sukarno government and applauded as more than 800,000 Indonesians -- communists, suspected communists and ethnic Chinese -- were hunted and murdered by the army and special militia. Not only did the US, Australia and others support the Indonesian invasion of East Timor but they also continued to sell arms to the Suharto regime knowing full well that their weapons would be used to massacre the population there. Indonesia still was a bulwark in a region buffeted by radicalism and political instability. The US did not want East Timor to become another Cuba or Vietnam. Apart from the fear of the "domino effect", the deep channels north of the island were vital for the safe and surrepticious transit of US nuclear submarines from Guam in the Pacific to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. If East Timor were to fall into "hostile" hands, the trip would become longer by up to a week. Civilisation would be endangered. In order to save the world for Freedom and Democracy, the East Timorese had to be made unfree.
Original Sin
The end of the Cold War has led Washington to reassess its approach to the region. The problem for the US, Australia and others in how to set up East Timor as an independent country militarily dependent on the West without endangering their economic and strategic assets in the rest of Indonesia. Any decision to intervene militarily will be taken on the basis of these considerations alone, not humanitarisation.
Indonesia has a responsibility to maintain law and order until it formally hands over power to the UN or a transitional East Timor administration. If the US, which has propped up the Indonesian army all these years really wants to force Jakarta to curb the militias, it should suspend its links with Indonesian army and announce an end to all arms exports to that country. This, however, it is unprepared to do as it will lose a lucrative market and push Indonesia and China closer together.
And yet, the alternative -- intervention -- will be even more disastrous for the West. After NATO's agreesive in Yugoslavia, the Chinese are bound sharply to react to anything which smacks of the unilateral use of force by the West in their own "backyard". If anything, the world should have acted decisively when Indonesia invaded East Timor 24 years ago. Using force now will not make up for past wrongs. It will only compound the original sin.
04 September 1999
Bipolar Polity : Citizen the Loser in Two-party System
4 September 1999
The Times of India
The Times of India
Bipolar Polity
Citizen the Loser in Two-party System
SIDDHARTH VARADARAJAN
ONE of the most significant developments in Indian politics in the 1990s
is the clear emergence of bipolarity built around the BJP and the
Congress. This is a system in which policy differences are virtually
nonexistent and theory and ideology play an extremely limited role.
Union home minister L K Advani has publicly welcomed the trend towards a
`two party system' as a sign of the Indian polity coming of age. While
his assessment may be self-serving, the feeling that such a system will
bring stability and make democracy more robust is widespread.
Demise of Third Front
As an explanation for why Indian politics is becoming bipolar, political
scientists usually invoke Duverger's Law. This `law' says that a
two-party system (or more generally a bipolar polity) is the inevitable
outcome of a first-past-the-post electoral system. Even though the `law'
appears empirically robust, it is not very useful to argue that
bipolarism in India is merely a mechanical product of electoral
institutions. These institutions have been around for more than 50 years
whereas bipolarity is a recent phenomenon. Clearly, there must be other
factors at work as well.
In political terms, there is no doubt that the demise of the `third
front' has cleared the last barrier in the way of the two-party
`system'. Virtually every erstwhile constituent has now abandoned the
fiction of third frontism and allied itself with either the BJP or the
Congress. Even the Communist parties -- which once prided themselves on
their `equidistance' from the communalism of the one and the corruption
of the other -- have today settled comfortably into the suffocating
embrace of the Congress.
The fundamental weakness of the third front was that for all its
espousal of `social justice', it did not have a positive agenda. One
section of the front was motivated by anti-Congressism and the other by
the defence of `secularism' conceived of purely in declaratory,
tautological terms. Ultimately, even these planks proved insufficient to
maintain a middle ground.
Moreover, the intermediate strata which make up the support base of many
of the third front's potential adherents -- middle to rich farmers,
regional business groups, upwardly mobile `backward' castes -- have been
unable to consolidate themselves as a political force at the national
level. The liberalisation process, the development of capitalism in the
countryside, the unevenness of growth in spatial terms, and the
financial clout of the Centre have all created a situation in which
rural and regional elites are increasingly anxious to share political
power in New Delhi. In addition, fiscal pressures -- arising from the
refusal of state governments to tax agricultural income or charge rich
farmers realistic user fees for water and electricity -- are impelling
regional elites to seek an understanding with the pan-Indian parties
which have the best shot at controlling the Centre.
Looking to the future, will a bipolar polity produce stability? In the
short-term, perhaps, but not in the long-run. The political economy of
reforms will prove to be the most crucial factor in the trajectory
Indian politics takes in the next decade. In particular, there are four
areas of tension -- between rural elites and big capital, between the
organised workforce and industry, between regional and pan-Indian elite
and between Indian and foreign capital -- and how these play out will
determine the stability of the system. Regional contradictions arising
from uneven economic development across India add a fifth imponderable.
Regional Interests
Both the Congress and BJP have positioned themselves as the party of the
pan-Indian industrial and financial elite. Their outlook and mentality
is inherently centralising. Their backers define a stable government as
one which can move quickly on the ``unfinished business'' of reforms.
Exit policy, privatisation, an end to small-scale industry protection,
abolition of `subsidies' to agriculture in the form of cheap or free
electricity and water and cheap fertilisers, and the calibrated opening
up of various sectors like insurance. However, neither party will be in
a position to deliver on these.
The BJP, whose prospects look better than the Congress', can only come
to power on the basis of a coalition that strings together a variety of
intermediate and regional interests. But instability is inherent to this
system because rural and regional elites have interests that do not
always converge with the interests of big capital. Moreover, the formal
democratic system, despite all its inadequacies, continues to ensure
that popular concerns -- about employment, the lack of social services,
etc -- cannot entirely be ignored either. Notwithstanding the BJP's
claim that it wants coalitions now and forever, its long-term project
clearly is one in which it would like to emerge as a decisive force in
all states and eliminate the regional entities as a factor in the Centre
so that it no longer has to make compromises on its core policies. The
BJP can always buy stability through a reconfiguration of its coalition
but ultimately its centralising impulses will come into clash with
regional aspirations.
Finally, it is worth asking how bipolarity will affect the quality of
our democracy. Most likely, it will make it worse. This is not so much a
question of narrowing options -- multiple parties do not necessarily
translate into multiple policy outcomes -- but of stabilising a system
of governance that is inherently unrepresentative and which is easily
dominated by economic elites. Moreover, by circumscribing the political
arena and making it more rigid, a two-party system makes it even harder
for ordinary citizens to influence policies. The threshold for groups of
citizens to make their voices heard rises to a level beyond the reach of
most.
Authoritarian Impulse
The BJP's conception of stability is of a formal, and ultimately
authoritarian kind. Its first choice in terms of institutions remains
the presidential system or the Westminster model based on a rigid
two-party system with total dominance of the executive. Its other
proposal -- fixed-term Parliaments -- is equally stifling. Far from
enhancing the role of ordinary citizens in governance, these outcomes
will marginalise them even further.
Fifty years after independence, the central problematic of Indian
politics remains the empowerment of the electorate so that its role is
not limited to casting a ballot every five years. Citizens must control
their representatives and have a dominant influence over policy
outcomes. Stability will only come with such a system. All attempts to
impose stability within the present polity will either fail or diminish
further an already constricted democratic space.
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