Refugee Review Tribunal AUSTRALIA RRT RESEARCH RESPONSE Research Response Number: IND34598 Country: India Date: 9 April 2009 Keywords: India – Uttar Pradesh – Samajwadi Party – Maowadi – Maoist – Naxalite insurgency – State protection This response was prepared by the Research & Information Services Section of the Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT) after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the RRT within time constraints. This response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. This research response may not, under any circumstance, be cited in a decision or any other document. Anyone wishing to use this information may only cite the primary source material contained herein. Questions 1. Please provide information on the history, aims and structure of the Samajwadi Party. 2. Please provide any relevant information on the Labra Khuna terrorist group (Maowadi group) and the scope of its activities. Does the group operate in Punjab State, Haryana, or states with Sikh communities? 3. Please provide information on the level of police or military protection available to persons threatened by extremist groups in Uttar Pradesh. RESPONSE 1. Please provide information on the history, aims and structure of the Samajwadi Party. History, aims and structure of the Samajwadi Party The Rediff News website provides information relating to the Party’s history, aims and structure. The document was prepared for the 2004 Lok Sabha Elections special coverage: Full name Samajwadi Party President Mulayam Singh Yadav Election symbol Bicycle A bit of history The Samajwadi Party was born on October 4, 1992, in the historic Begum Hazrat Mahal Park in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. Party workers elected Mulayam Singh president the same day. Party philosophy The Samajwadi Party believes in democratic socialism and opposes the unrestricted entry of multinational companies into India. It stands for equality and prosperity for all. It is dead set against communal forces and favours a confederation of India- Pakistan-Bangladesh. Who is Mulayam Singh Yadav? A Socialist, Yadav had been with several parties, including the Janata Party, Lok Dal and Janata Dal, before forming the Samajwadi [Hindi for Socialist] Party. He has served as the country’s defence minister and recently took over as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh for the third time. The former wrestler is addressed as netaji (leader) by one and all. Party structure Apart from Yadav, there is vice-president Janeshwar Mishra and eight general secretaries, including the powerful Amar Singh. The office-bearers are elected for a three-year term. How is the party run? Yadav’s standing ensures that he is in overall command. There is no challenger in sight. His wish is the Samajwadi Party’s command. Is it a regional party? Yes, based in Uttar Pradesh. Yadav derives a lot of his importance from the fact that the state elects the most number of MPs to the Lok Sabha. Does it enjoy popular support outside UP? The party has put up candidates in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and some other places in the past, but has met with marginal success at best. But in this era of hung assemblies, every seat counts and the Samajwadi Party’s capacity to damage the prospects of other parties makes it a formidable presence in all these states. For example, the Congress candidate in the high-profile Mumbai South parliamentary constituency lost by a little over 10,000 votes in 1999 while the Samajwadi candidate polled 19,000 odd votes. SP’s strength It enjoys the support of the Yadav community. Its avowed objective of battling communal forces and Yadav’s determination to defeat them has won it a large Muslim following as well, especially in Uttar Pradesh. The Samajwadi Party is also wooing Thakurs in a big way through general secretary Amar Singh. SP’s weakness The party does not have a second rung of leadership. Also, its staunch opposition to Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party has stopped the Samajwadi Party from joining any anti-BJP alliance in Uttar Pradesh. On the other hand, its efforts to gain a stranglehold on the state’ s politics has resulted in it going soft of late on the BJP, whose perceived communal outlook it ostensibly despises. Naturally, Opposition parties have started questioning its secular credentials. Future challenges The Samajwadi Party can bank upon the Yadavs, but has now to compete with the BSP and Congress for the support of Muslims and Thakurs. Secondly, Yadav has got promises from leading industrialists to invest in Uttar Pradesh and create jobs; but none of them has borne fruit as yet. Poor law and order and the investor-unfriendly attitude of the bureaucracy are major deterrents. Yadav has to convince the electorate to give him enough time to convince his friends to keep their promises. Political prospects The growth of regional parties coupled with the caste factor, especially in Uttar Pradesh, has made the Samajwadi Party a force to reckon with. In this era of coalition politics, a repeat or improvement of its performance in the 1999 election (it had 26 MPs in the 13th Lok Sabha) will ensure a major role in the constitution of the next government at the Centre (Shankar Sahay, Tara ‘Know the Samajwadi Party’ 2004, Rediff News, May 7 http://in.rediff.com/election/2004/may/07espec2.htm – Accessed 9 March 2006 – Attachment 1). The official Samajwadi Party website contains some more detailed information about the Party’s political activities since 2000: Samajwadi Party (Socialist Party) is a political party in India. It describes itself as a democratic socialist party. It was founded on October 4, 1992. It is one of several parties that emerged when the Janata Dal (People’ s Party), India’s primary opposition party prior to the BJP, was fragmented into several regional parties. Samajwadi Party is led by Mulayam Singh Yadav, the former Chief Minister of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Samajwadi Party is primarily based in Uttar Pradesh, where it bases its support largely on OBCs (Other Backward Castes) and Muslims, particularly Mulayam Singh Yadav’ s own Yadav caste. It has made strong attempts to gain national status, by contesting Lok Sabha and state Assembly elections around the country, but it has been unsuccessful thus far. In last assembly election in Madhya Pradesh in 2003, Samajwadi Party did significant and gained 7 seats which took it as a third largest party in the state. By winning the bye-election of Lanji (Balaghat) in 2007, its total tally reached to 8. In the 14th Lok Sabha, it currently has 38 members, and is the fourth largest party in that house, its best ever tally. Besides 36 members from Uttar Pradesh, it won one seat from Uttranchal (formerly part of U.P.). In 2005, former Karnataka Chief Minister Bangarappa resigned from the BJP to join the Samajwadi Party. He successfully held on to his Lok Sabha seat from Shimoga under a new party ticket. At present, the Samajwadi Party’s main ally is the Rashtriya Lok Dal, a small party which is supporting its government in Uttar Pradesh. The Congress is also providing vital support to that government, and likewise, the Samajwadi Party is providing outside support to the minority Manmohan Singh government at the Centre. Despite this, there is deep-seated public enmity between the two parties. This was evident during the March 2006 political fall-out which followed the expulsion of Samajwadi Party parliamentarian Jaya Bachchan on grounds of holding an "office of profit." SP leaders blamed the move on the Congress high-command, and tensions have increased since then, although neither has revoked its support. The S.P. try to maintain equal distance to Congress and Bhartiya Janta Party. But its main rival in Uttar Pradesh is BSP (Bahujan Samaj Party) who has emerged as a major political force in the state. The installation of Mulayam Singh Yadav’s government in 2003 was widely-perceived to be the result of such a friendly agreement. Given their drastically different vote-bank’s, they never publicly align. In the recently conducted 2007 Uttar Pradesh legislative elections, the S.P won only 96 seats as opposed to 146 in the previous elections. As a result, Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav had to resign, with his bete noir Mayawati, leader of the Bahujan Samaj party (which won a majority of 207 seats) being sworn in as the Chief Minister. Samajwadi Party is spreading its roots to the south too. S.Bangarappa (Former Chief Minister of Karnataka) has taken up the leadership in the south with the support of Jagdeesh Yadav in Andhra Pradesh and P.M.Harris a known left – socialist leader of Kerala (‘About the Party’ (undated), Samajwadi Party website, http://www.samajwadipartyindia.com/english/party.html – Accessed 27 March 2009 – Attachment 2). The Party website provides short biographies of the main leaders: Mulayam Singh Yadav (President), Janeshwar Misrah (Position not stated), Amar Singh (General Secretary), Ram Gopal Yadav (General Secretary), Akhilesh Yadav (Patron Yuvjan Sabha (youth wing)) (‘Leaders’ (undated), Samajwadi Party website, http://www.samajwadipartyindia.com/english/leaders.html – Accessed 27 March 2009 – Attachment 3). The site also lists the members of the Party in the 2 houses of the current national parliament (‘Party in Parliament – Rajya Sabha’ (undated), Samajwadi Party website, http://www.samajwadipartyindia.com/english/rajyasabha.html – Accessed 27 March 2009 – Attachment 4), (‘Party in Parliament – Lok Sabha’ (undated), Samajwadi Party website, http://www.samajwadipartyindia.com/english/loksabha.html – Accessed 27 March 2009 – Attachment 5). A research paper entitled A political introduction to India, published on 2 May 2007 by the UK House of Commons Library contains some similar information.