STATES ■ UTTAR PRADESH OUTDOING THE OUTLAW SHARAD SAXENA Dalit feminism versus deadly feudalism. Whatever the validity of the POTA cases garh. The father’s Raj Mahal (regal palace) in Bhadri and the son’s house in against Raja Bhaiya’s clan, to Mayawati’s voters they signal social revolution. Behti, near Kunda town, have been raided for the first time in living mem- ory. Weapons, including AK-56 assault ■ by Subhash MISHRA rifles, have been found. Says District TTAR PRADESH IS OFTEN Magistrate Mohammed Mustafa, “We mocked for being Ulta Pradesh have also sought the army’s help to (topsy-turvy province). Now it excavate the Raj Mahal.” has upturned traditional Among the other “treasures” hierarchies of caste oppres- unearthed from the Raj Mahal is a U SETTLING SCORES: Mayawati; the skeleton sion. In the benign reign of Chief Min- human skeleton. Fished out of a pond, ister Mayawati (BSP), a Dalit-led regime the police say it is of one Santosh fished out of a pond in Raj Mahal (right) is making life miserable for a Rajput Mishra, a local who disappeared in patriarch and his son. 2001. Also in police custody is the “eco- charisma, family loyalty and patronage. It began in October last year, when nomic empire” of the Bhadri estate. The He is at once abhorred and adulated. Raghuraj Pratap Singh or Raja Bhaiya, district administration has seized 33 The arrest of Udai Pratap has alarm- 33, independent MLA from Kunda, liquor shops. The legal owners of these ed the Rajput community. From Amar Pratapgarh district, was arrested for vends, it says, are proxies for Raja Singh, general secretary, Samajwadi allegedly threatening a pro-Mayawati Bhaiya and his father. Party, to Rajnath Singh, general secre- RAJESH KUMAR SINGH BJP MLA. His actual “crime” was Raja Bhaiya and Udai Pratap are tary, BJP, leading Thakurs have spoken dynamite. A devout Hindu, he has attempting to get Rajput MLAs in the BJP exemplars of Uttar Pradesh’s feudal- out against Mayawati. The manhan- strong links with the RSS and the VHP. He to revolt against the party’s alliance style democracy. The son has been dling of Raja Bhaiya’s wife Bhanvi—she is no paragon of virtue though. There with Mayawati and, thereby, overthrow elected three times from Kunda. In is in an advanced stage of pregnancy— was a time when a board placed 3 km her Government. 2002, the Election Commission asked for when the police raided her Lucknow from the Bhadri estate read, “From here It seemed a black joke then. Raja a repoll to ensure free voting, but he still residence has seen tempers flare up. ends the administration of the state gov- Bhaiya’s predicament earned him little won. His appeal lies in a mix of fear and Udai Pratap’s arrest too is political ernment”. His family didn’t just bend the independent sympathy, given his rough reputation as the self-appointed lord and master of Kunda. This past week, the whole business took a bizarre turn. On January 27, Udai Pratap Singh, 65, Raja Bhaiya’s father and the former ruler of Bhadri estate, was arrested too. He was accused of conspiring to assassinate Mayawati. The old man was charged under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, becom- ing the first Doon School alumnus to have India’s most lethal anti-terror law thrown at him. Together, the father and son now face 76 cases. Raja Bhaiya, also named in the POTA conspiracy, faces 32 cases. His father is saddled with 44. Says A. Satish Ganesh, the enthusiastic SP of Pratapgarh: “Both of them are noto- rious history sheeters. The first cases against Udai Pratap were registered in 1958 when I wasn’t even born.” Ganesh has obviously had a busy week. He told INDIA TODAY Udai Pratap had “admitted before the police” that he had planned to “eliminate” the chief min- ister on January 26. Mayawati went a step further. “They are working for the ISI to create unrest in the country by eliminating me.” Digging out old cases is not all that COOPED: Raja Bhaiya in Banda jail Mayawati has been doing in Pratap- MANEESH AGNIHOTRI 000 INDIA TODAY ♦ MARCH 00, 1996 ■ STATES ■ MAYAWATI SPLITS THE CONGRESS law; they thought they were the law. To his supporters, the arrest of the “Maharaj” is sacrilege. To the Dalits, who have borne the brunt of Rajput SMASH AND GRAB domination for years, it is revolution. MANEESH AGNIHOTRI The Singh parivar’s fiefdom is today in shock. The two palaces are deserted. Family retainers have fled. Prized horses and dogs are wandering about. Six hundred people are behind bars. In Kunda, Phasadi alias Jameed was arrested for shouting, “Raja Bhaiya zindabad”. Santosh Singh was pro- claimed a criminal and arrested. His error, people say, was that a year ago he had invited Raja Bhaiya to inaugurate a small school he ran in Lalganj. Indeed, Mayawati has declared all of Uttar Pradesh a notified area. In polite terms, she is running a police state. That does translate, however, into political reversal. Mayawati is seeking MANEESH AGNIHOTRI RUNAWAY MEN: Akhilesh Singh (third from left) led the Congress split for Mayawati N A HUNG ASSEMBLY LIKE THAT OF UTTAR PRADESH, PONDERING political permutations and combinations is more than merely mathe- matical indulgence. It is often the route to government. The Samajwadi IParty had been hoping that the support of the 23 Congress MLAs would sooner or later come to it, precipitate a split in the BJP and thus bring down Mayawati’s BSP-led Government. Instead, it is the chief minister who has reduced the Opposition to a laughing stock. By splitting the Congress, Mayawati has safeguarded her Government and enhanced her reputation as a practitioner of realpolitik. Mayawati dealt with the defectors via Akhilesh Singh and Amarmani Tripathi, two former Congressmen who are now in her camp. Akhilesh, an MLA from Rae Bareli who was instrumental in the Congress winning the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seat in 1999, was expelled from the party about PAST FURY: Mayawati has dug out three months ago. A man with a mafiosi image, Akhilesh faced cases un- 45-year-old cases against Udai Pratap der the National Security Act. Mayawati wooed him assiduously, withdrew the cases and got him to split the Congress. Now all the breakaway Con- to cement the old Brahmin-Dalit gressmen are being pampered by the state machinery. Projects in their alliance in state politics. Once the constituencies are likely to be cleared speedily. Congress’ bedrock, and led at that Pramod Tewari, leader of the Congress Legislature Party, is the man in time by the Brahmins, it is today being the dock. Congress MLAs see him as having paralysed the party in terms rebuilt under a Dalit umbrella. Simul- of political positioning by not backing the Samajwadi Party and “doing taneously, she is targeting Rajputs and private deals” with Mayawati. Now that Mayawati has bypassed all inter- making the OBCs queasy as well. Right mediaries and grabbed a third of the Congress, Tewari is livid. Like all splits, from the DIG to the inspector inves- this one too has been legally controversial. Shortly after his party cracked, tigating the Bhadri cases, all the police Tewari walked into the chamber of Assembly Speaker Kesrinath Tripathi officials are Brahmin. The DM is a (BJP), the constitutional functionary authorised to recognise a split. Only Muslim. A clear attempt to isolate the seven of 23 MLAs had split—one short of the mandatory one-third Rajputs is on. strength—Tewari protested, pouring abuse on the Speaker, who responded Caught in the crossfire is the BJP, by pointing that though Akhilesh may have been thrown out of the party, which prides itself as a Rajput bastion. in the Assembly records he is still registered as a Congress legislator. Mayawati’s caste experiments will only Tewari may scream and his factional rivals may shout but the upshot weaken the BJP and leave it even more is Mayawati has executed a coup. Not only has she ensured her majority dependent on its partner party. Realis- in the Assembly—under a cloud since some BJP MLAs rebelled in ing this, state BJP unit President Vinay October—she has also reduced the Congress to a cipher in the state it Katiyar, an OBC (Kurmi), has joined the once called a pocket borough. Further, she has attracted the support of protests against the “misuse” of POTA the three Apna Dal MLAs. Sonelal Patel, Apna Dal president, has praised on the Singh parivar. New Union Law Mayawati’s action against Raja Bhaiya and his family as an attack on Minister Arun Jaitley is said to be study- feudal forces. Even by the crazy standards of Uttar Pradesh politics, the ing the merits of the cases. A certain past week has been tumultuous. As the state’s political pundits sit down family in Pratapgarh looks to him for to assess the new verities, there is one they cannot ignore—Mayawati deliverance, the BJP even more so. has never been stronger. As for Mayawati, she’s the cat that’s got the cream. ■ 000 INDIA TODAY ♦ MARCH 00, 1996 MARCH 00, 1996 ♦ INDIA TODAY 000.