UP Diary: SP leaders in image makeover mode with an eye on polls

Brahmins in big demand. What’s cooking? What is it with Brahmins in Uttar Pradesh? The community is being courted aggressively by all political parties and it certainly is gloating in the new-found prominence. Are elections round the corner? Though Brahmins constitute only 10 percent of the electorate, they are are known to pull a punch well above their weight in elections. The Samajwadi Party has conducted two mega Brahmin conventions in the state capital in the last two months and party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav has promised that all Brahmins arrested for Dalit atrocities under Mayawati’s regime would be freed. Before the assembly elections, he had made a similar promise to the Muslim community, announcing youth of the community arrested on terror charges under Mayawati’s regime would be set free. [caption id=“attachment_789205” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Akhilesh Yadav. AFP.[/caption] So what’s cooking? The rather sudden Brahmin affection is certainly no act of whim from the wily politician. Its rationale is hidden core of caste politics of the hinterland. In the 2007 assembly elections in UP, Mayawati had delivered a political masterstroke by combining Brahmins with her core vote bank, the Dalits. Mulayam is aiming for the same magic formula, replacing Dalits with backward classes. Political observers say Mulayam is wary of the upper caste Thakurs who are not happy with him. The party no more has Amar Singh to broker peace with the community and the Thakurs are not very happy with the UP government for the way it handled the recent case of double murder in which Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya’s name had emerged. Mulayam wants to fill this void with Brahmins. Even Mayawati, who had shied away from Brahmins in the state assembly last year in order to show solidarity with Dalits, has now reverted to this is upper caste community. Her Brahmin mascot, Satish Mishra – who is also heading the bhaichara (brotherhood) committee for the community – is holding meetings of Brahmins in every district. The community had shifted loyalty to SP last year and voted for the Congress and the BJP too. The efforts at social engineering have gathered real speed. And it is not only about Brahmins. The SP government, which had initially withdrawn all cases against the Bharatiya Janata Party youth icon Varun Gandhi for his anti-Muslim hate speech, is now contemplating going for an appeal in the higher court against his acquittal. Incidentally, the same officers who had filed a case against the hate speech of Varun refused to be witnesses in the case and in the absence of sufficient evidence Varun was freed of all charges. Meanwhile, the Brahmins are getting a feeling of déjà vu. The Muslim men who had been promised freedom by the SP are still waiting to come out of jails. The moment the SP government started the process it came across a huge tumbling block. The court has already admonished the state government for its efforts . Akhilesh, the desperation is showing Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav is eager to come out of the shadow of Mulayam Singh Yadav and make a mark of his own as an administrator. He is apparently tired of hearing that the state is being run by five chief ministers. The desperation is showing in his recent moves. The first one is aimed at overhauling the law and order situation which had been a sore point for the Akhilesh government since it came into being. The young chief minister who is fond of laptops and tablets and is active on Blackberry messenger thought that the social sites could be the best way to start off. And bingo! The Uttar Pradesh police became active on Twitter @uppolicepr. Every activity – be it a good work by the police or some vacancies or any message to the public – it gets tweeted. The UP police, that recently received flak for their involvement in a robbery a year ago, has also managed to get more than 600 followers in a month’s time. Heavily depending on technology for image building, Akhilesh had also tried to electronically upgrade his Janata Darshan (public appearance) programmes. There were complaints that no action was being taken on applications that were received during the CM’s Janata Darshan. Akhilesh has now decided to conduct video conferences with officials of each district and tehsil level to know what action they have taken on applications that came at his Janata Darshan. This video conference will be followed by the stick and carrot for the official depending on the work he has done. Akhilesh has already got another order issued for a dress code for the officers. No more flip flops or tee shirts, or jeans in UP government offices. The initiative is said to have been made in order to present a professional state before the industrialists. Meet Shivpal, the intellectual If Akhilesh is trying to polish his image, how can uncle Shivpal be far behind? Shivpal Yadav, an unassuming man, who always got identified only as the younger brother of Mulayam Singh Yadav, was never taken seriously. It seems he is out to mend all that. He wants to be seen an towering intellectual, no less. Now there are a few daily nationals in Hindi which publish opinion pieces written by the ‘thinker’ and politician Shivpal Yadav. The subjects range from Ram Manohar Lohia’s philosophy to India’s relations with China. Shivpal ‘bhaiya’ is giving his inputs on the editorial pages on practically everything. In last six months he has brought out two books written by him – one on Lohia and other on Mulayam – the latter one being an eBook. The most recent addition in his booty was an invite from the John Hopkins University, which was keen to listen to the politician’s views and experiences of his work and policies on floods. Now it is a different matter altogether that ‘Bhaiya’ has refused to oblige the university which is based in a country that has recently ‘insulted’ UP minister Azam Khan. Some believe the work credited to Shivpal is being ghost written by a young person named Deepak Mishra. Deepak and Shivpal have evolved a new wing in the Samajwadi Party, called Samajwadi Bauddhik Sabha (Samajwadi Intellectual wing). Deepak became its national president. Azam Khan in makeover mode too The lord of Rampur district and the minister in the Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh, Azam Khan has planned to follow the footsteps of ‘netaji’, aka Mulayam Singh Yadav. Mulayam had been observing Saifai festival at his native town Saifai in Etawah district. The event used to have the presence of all the film stars from Bollywood till the time Amar Singh was in the party. Later it moved towards folk culture and local artists. Nonetheless, the event continues to be the major attraction in Saifai. The ‘khan saheb’ of Rampur has decided to have a similar event in his hometown Rampur. However, this festival will not be named after Khan Saheb’s home town which is also his constituency. The festival would be Jashn-e-Johar (celebration of Johar). A budget of about Rs 60 lakh has also been allocated for the event, which is more than the budget for Saifai Mahotsav. The festival will be based on literary events, as advised by Azam Khan. It will include Urdu poetry, discussion on literature and also games and cultural events. The venue will be Johar University. Johar University had been a dream of Azan Khan’s, one he conceived during the last regime of Samajwadi Party about a decade back. The dream could find its way into the files, but could not become a reality as it was not favoured by the central government. The Samajwadi Party also had a face-off with the governor on the issue. Eventually Azam Khan collected money from people and contributed from his own funds and succeeded in creating the University. When the Akhilesh government took over, a separate budget was released for the University. The Jashn-e-Johar is being seen as a festival which will enhance the profile of the university and that of Azam Khan. Everybody in SP seems to be in a makeover mode.