Uttar Pradesh diary: Campus goons and Mulayam’s summer sweat

Lucknow: When the prestigious Lucknow University becomes victim to recurring campus violence, it indicates two things - one, the Samajwadi Party is in power in the state and two, elections are round the corner. During the previous term of the party, the varsity had turned into factory churning out rough and ready young politicians for the party. Hostel rooms served as store houses for arms and ammunitions—it was part of the poll preparedness of the party—and police personnel normally outnumbered students on the campus. Students from far off districts had to look for accommodation outside as chhatra netas (student leaders) and their henchmen occupied rooms allotted to them. It is needless to mention that the student leaders were goons patronised by Mulayam Singh’s party. [caption id=“attachment_697104” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. PTI[/caption] They served as the strong arm of the party and were useful in campaigning. Student union elections allowed them scope to control campuses. After a point, the university administration played tough and moved the court. The court ordered eviction of the unwanted elements. In the cleansing that followed over 200 students were suspended. Then came Mayawati. She banned student union elections and Lucknow University was a normal place again. However, things are back to square one after the Samajwadi Party bounced back with a brute majority. The party has already lifted the ban on student union elections and the obnoxious chhatra netas are finding their way back to hostel rooms. Violence is back and so are the police. People in the know say this is clear hint that the party has started preparing for the elections. The campus goons come in handy when political rivals are to be taken care of. Idle Congressmen and the Priyanka rumour Trust an idle Congressman to go berserk with his imagination. Not much activity in the Congress camp at the moment. So it’s time for idle gossip and rumour-mongering. The latest from the grapevine is that Priyanka Gandhi is taking over grandmother Indira Gandhi’s constituency and contesting election from Rae Bareli. What lends some credence to the rumour is her frequent trips to the constituency. During every visit, she holds small informal meetings with the members of Self-Help Groups of Rajiv Gandhi Mahila Vikas Pariyojna (Rajiv Gandhi Women Development Scheme). Although Priyanka always campaigns for her mother Sonia Gandhi in her constituency, she appears unusually active and she has formed her own teams from the village to the district level. To be fair to her, she has done nothing to start such talk. She still refers herself as a social worker and not a politician when she meets people. However, if the talk eventually comes true, many in the party would be more than happy. Her brother Rahul does not really inspire a lot of confidence. There’s another rumour doing the rounds. It involves Raj Babbar. If rumours are to be believed he would shift to Lucknow constituency this time. The founding premise of this rumour is in the previous Lok Sabha election the Congress fielded the then UPCC president Rita Bahuguna Joshi at the eleventh hour against stalwarts like BJP’s Lalji Tandon and BSP’s Akhilesh Das. Joshi stayed second with 1.63 lakh votes, Akhilesh Das got 1.34 lakh votes and Lalji Tandon won with a small margin of about 37,000 votes. Someone more glamourous could certainly bag more votes than Joshi, the argument goes. Ah! Congressmen. When would they stop day-dreaming? Why summer scares Mulayam Mulayam Singh Yadav would like an early election, but never in the summer. And this has to do a lot with the heat around - we are not talking only about the election heat here. The state faces acute power shortage and even in non-summer seasons when the demand for power is low the state finds it difficult to meet the demand. Come summer, the situation is likely to get worse. With popular frustration at boiling point and people ready to teach the government a lesson for the discomfort caused to them, it could reflect in negative votes for the party. What would fuel the anger of the electorate further is the generous power cut exemptions for districts such as Mainpuri (Mulayam Singh’s constituency), Etawah (brother Shivpal Yadav’s seat), Kannauj (daughter-in-law’s Dimple Yadav’s constituency), and Rampur (SP veteran Azam Khan’s constituency). The Congress would be particularly eager to take on the government over the power issue since it has refused to make Rae Bareli and Amethi ‘no power cut’ places. Now both the VIP constituencies will face 3-4 hours of power cut every day. Howsoever eager he might be to be prime minister, Mulayam can only wait for the winter to set in. Who says purdah is bad? One would expect educated Muslim women would strongly condemn the practice of purdah (veil). A throwback to a rigidly patriarchal social system, doesn’t the veil reflect a regressive mindset. There was strong advocacy for it at a recent meeting of Muslim women. But hold on before you jump to cliched conclusions. The argument for it was compelling, though one must admit it required a good counter argument. Social entrepreneur Sabiha Ahmad says, “I am a strong believer that purdah is good as it has benefited but has never done any harm to anyone. Women feel secure in purdah and a lot of social evil can be contained with it.” Sabiha also feels that progressiveness is simply a state of mind. “You can be an orthodox without the purdah and you can be a progressive person under it as well.” The genesis of the debate was the recent circular in Mumbai which directed checking of all girls who are going to schools in burqa. The argument was from Sanskrit scholar Nuzhat Anjum, Principal of Moti Lal Nehru Inter College, went like this: “Purdah is part of the Muslim culture and it should be respected. We do not laugh at pundits at the Hindu temples, who are dressed in one piece showing parts of their bodies. We do not laugh at them and we do not call them naked. Then why should we object to women who want to keep themselves in purdah?” Shaista Amber, a social worker known for her pioneering work in uplifting Muslim women and fighting for their rights, said: “Some people consider Burqa a symbol of slavery but in Saudi Arabia women wear burqa and they are also working in every field. According to Mumbai police, the girls who are going to school in burqa are undergoing training for Jihad. Something similar has happened in Kashmir and Hyderabad too. That is why there is a need to talk about the issue by involving people from different communities,” she explains. One cannot agree with her more, at least on the last point.