When the Ambedkarite movement was in total disarray throughout the country, it was Kanshi Ram who repeatedly used Babasaheb’s maxim “political power is a master key” as a slogan which paid high dividends. He could see that Babasaheb’’s theory of political democracy was totally forgotten by both Bahujan intellectuals and the masses which ‘constituted 85% of the Indian population.
When he exposed the bogey of “upper caste majority” and reduced them to just 15%, it was indeed a master stroke of a genius politician. Challenging the upper caste “mainstream” concept, he asked, “which is the mainstream of the country, 15% upper castes or 85% Bahujan Samaj?”
This argument left the upper castes dumb and baffled and it turned manuwadi politics topsy turvy.
WE WANT A WEAK GOVT.
Kanshi Ram with the help of Mayawati demonstrated it in UP though BSP had very short stints at political power. For him political power was a master key because it was an engine of transformation.
He always advocated the need for lame govts. walking on crutches. Because a majority govt. became despotic toward Bahujan Sama; By lame, he meant a coalition rule. When he launched BSP in 1984, India was entering into coalition politics as more and more castes were becoming politically aware due to the process of caste identity. Caste-based political outfits, caste leaders were emerging in different parts of the country. The upper castes were stupefied as they were habituated with dwelling in the fool’s paradise of majority politics.
The upper castes had fooled the Bahujans since “independence” by emphasising the significance of majority party rule and the stability plank. Dr. Ambedkar had called this type of majority as ‘communal majority” functioning for the millennium of 15% beneficiaries of the caste system. Babasaheb was more on the side of “representative” government which he knew the “communal majority” of upper castes did not reflect. Kanshi Ram also was against the “communal majority” rule.
MANDAL COM. ROLE
At this juncture a great role was played by the Mandal Commission Report in stirring the Backward Castes throughout the country. Inside parliament, no discussion was allowed by the then Congress Govt. on the report. Of the country’s 52% OBCs, only 12 MPs of their 3,743 castes were elected to parliament.
Those who wanted to speak on the Mandal report were actually manhandled by the communal upper caste MPs and their mouths were gagged.
It was Kanshi Ram who gave a unique programme of people’s parliament to his party cadre to discuss openly the Mandal report. In Dethi, he arranged a month-long agitation in the form of meetings and dharna before the parliament. He appealed to the OBCs to enter parliament to fight for their rights.
No upper caste political party was in full support of the Mandal report. The Manuwadi media was busy manufacturing all sorts of rumours to fan the fire of the anti-Mandal violence in Gujarat and elsewhere. Therefore. To get social justice for Backward Castes Kanshi Ram wanted a crippled government at the centre.
NO PRE-POLL ALLIANCE
Only once — when Narasimha Rao was PM — did Kanshi Ram form a pre-poll alliance with the Congress. But that alliance proved to be a doom for the Congress in UP. This alliance revealed the diplomacy and statesmanship of Kanshi Ram. He wanted to weaken the age-old manuvadi party by seat sharing with it. Of the 420 Assembly seats, he demanded 290 and only 130 seats were given to the Congress. He knew the number of seats BSP would win. But he was more interested in the loss of the Congress Party. And to the great surprise of election analysts the Congress could win 25-30 seats out of 130. He was delighted at the damage he caused to the country’s oldest political party.
MAYAWATI WARNING TO B.J.P
But the star question was: Why did the Congress accept such an insulting alliance? Perhaps the Brahmin Narasimha Rao was more interested in the rise of BJP.
Kanshi Ram has given a valuable principle to be followed by future Bahujan leadership: what harm is there in deceiving the champions of deception? M.K. Gandbhi after the “Poona Pact” had deceived Dr. Ambedkar. Dr. Ambedkar was also deceived by “Socialist Brahmins” (Read Dr. Ambedkar’’s What Congress & Gandhi Have Done to the Untouchables? \/ol.9, W&S, Govt. of Maharashtra).
It is not that Kanshi Ram weakened the Congress alone. He showed his diplomatic acumen in weakening the BJP also in UP. One could imagine the height of his political strategy when he installed Mayawati as UP Chief Minister thrice despite having a smaller number of MLAs as compared to BJP. And this he did not by pre-poll alliance but by post-poll alliance on the conditions of BSP by implementing the BSP agenda and by pushing completely to the backburner the BJP Ram-plank and building of Ram temple at Ayodhya.
Chief Minister Mayawati told BJP that if they practiced any mischief at Kashi and Mathura, they would be dealt severely. BJP was completely corned by BSP. BJP thought that Kanshi Ram would accept pre-poll alliance with it in future whenever there were elections. But Kanshi Ram rejected outright the offer of manuwadi parties to execute a pre-poll alliance because he knew their mentality of deception. He knew that the Bahujan votes were easily transferable but manuwadi votes were not so. That means the Bahujan voters easily voted for upper caste candidates, but the upper caste voters did not vote for backward class candidates even if there was pre-poll alliance.
He was an expert in making caste- alliances to enhance the voting strength of his party and in every election, this paid him dividends as he was able to increase the voting percentage of BSP. It was Kanshi Ram’s sheer diplomacy and political acumen which he displayed after winning seats in UP assembly.
Just With the help of 70 seats in the 400, Kanshi Ram called shots and made Mayawati CM not once but thrice.
NEVER BELIEVE MANUWADIS
A myth has been circulated by manuwadi leaders that Bahujans should align or have alliance only with like-minded political parties. Who is this like-minded? Which manuwadi party can be called like- minded?
All manuwadi parties on the national level want political power to subjugate the 85% Bahujans.
But BSP wants political power for social and economic Justice. Where is the like-mindedness? The myth of like-mindedness has been floated by manuwadis to grab the support of Bahujan voters to which many a Dalit leader have fallen prey. Manuwadis cannot become like-minded because they are enemies of social change.
For BSP political power is a means to achieve an end. But for manuwadis political power is an end in itself. Nevertheless, manuwadi political parties will be very much there in existence. But coalition politics has given the Bahujans an opportunity to defeat their aim. So, BSP and Bahujan leadership will have to deal with them from time to time no matter which manuwadi party BSP goes formation of in the with government.
Today, Congress, BJP, CPI, CPM are all manuvadis no matter what their outward appearance is. In future old parties may disappear but new manuwadi political outfits may appear and still we will have to deal with them. The star question for us is how we deal with them. Bahujan leadership will require better guts and better brains to deal with them, said Kanshi Ram. This should not be difficult for 85% Bahujans.
