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I offer my belated but heart felt congratulations to BSP, its leadership, grass roots activists and above all to its supreme leader Ms. Mayawati Ji, who worked tremendously hard, against heavy odds to achieve the impossible. Ms.Mayawati Ji have broke the mould by not only winning, but by establishing a Government with overall majority and breaking the chain of Coalition after Coalition for last fifteen years. She has not only struck a blow for the liberation of Women, but she also broke the age old taboo of acceptance of leadership of ‘untouchable’ lady by the masses. This appeared to be unthinkable only few years ago. This can only be attributed to Ms. Mayawati Ji’s single mindedness to achieve the highest position in the largest State of India. She had to cross many hurdles, such as Gender and Caste discriminations and relentless efforts by the high and mighty to criminalise her character. Despite of all these created complications, she stood fast her ground and showed the world that what can be achieved by having noble objectives.

It can not be denied that personal crusade of Ms.Mayawati Ji and her associates have paid off, but the time has come when the BSP leadership must consider their future as a national party with influence at the Centre. It means that they must analyse their status from the prospective of their strength and weaknesses. According to Dr.Ambedkar the requirements of any successful movement are “Numerical strength, Economical strength and Intellectual strength’.

It has been demonstrated that if they mobilise the Dalits and other marginalised communities, then they do have Numerical Strength. If they promote education amongst these backward communities and ensure their employment in private and government sector then they will have Economic Strength. Like other parties they must create many tiers of leadership hopefuls in the party, so succession proceeds smoothly. They must have academic base to write, create, compare and debate policies with other rival parties, forecast their likely outcome and that would be the Intellectual strength. Having all the ingredient of successful conclusion, then I do not see any reason why this party should not succeed.

A word of caution, having won the decisive mandate to govern Utter Pradesh, the BSP leadership must not ignore the contributions made by the grass root workers and Ambedkarite Missionaries who relentlessly continued to promote the Ambedkarite ideals amongst the masses. Despite the media bias they got the true opinions of the leadership to the people and they reacted and responded positively to their call. The experience of the past tells us that what happens in party like BSP, who has minority based stronghold, their leadership tends to lean heavily towards stronger well organised majority of the party, at the expense of the poor, unorganised and illiterate minority. I hope it does not happen in UP, because these are the very people who stood by the leadership of the BSP, through the thick and thin.

It is too much to hope that Brahmans, Muslims and the people belonging to the OBCs, who have supported the BSP this time around, had overnight transformation of heart by abandoning age old rivalry in favour of everlasting friendship. It is nothing more than safeguarding their own self-interests. I agree with Mr. Bahal’s analysis that Brahmanic ideologists have used our own people, from time immemorial to manipulate us, but did not allow them to get in any position of power, from where they can take decisions to remove the shackles of slavery. So the BSP must remain forever vigilant and never abandon their true callings and the Dalit expectations must be fulfilled, from where the BSP originally hailed. They must continue to work tirelessly to strengthen the Dalit base even stronger then before.

The other states of India must learn from the experience of the BSP in Utter Pradesh and make unified efforts to unite the Ambedkarite movement under the banner of BSP, to achieve the same. The State of Maharashtra the birth place of Dr.Ambedkar should have known better, instead of creating unified movement and become a shinning beacon for the rest of the Country, they have created fragmented groups too numerous to mention. The leaders of these factions have comfortable existence but the sufferers are the poor masses, once awake they will not forgive these leaders who have betrayed them and enjoyed the fruits of their betrayal for years.

Other States in India have their problems, but the Ambedkarite missionaries are working in all of them, so the politicians must take advantage and cater for people’s needs via the Ambedkarian prospective. The Punjab is another State which is ripe for the picking. It is financially well of and it has solid BSP base, so it require a determined leadership to bring about similar victory to Utter Pradesh. They must not fall into the same trap which RPI fill in. The RPI, despite having a solid base its leadership kept looking towards Maharashtra for leadership directives. Due to Ambedkarite missionary’s activities people of Punjab are aware of the Ambedkar’s contributions and are ready to take the next step. The BSP leadership must take a leaf from Ms.Mayawati Ji’s book and persistently present a credible programme worthy of support. I have for past few years travelled extensively in Punjab Villages and spoke to the people, who expressed their disappointments with the leadership who do not keep in touch with them. They only see them on Election times. I am sure if the leadership steadfastly keep in touch with the people, the revival of their political fortunes, are possible in Punjab.

We must not forget for a moment that the history wear witness to the fact that our forefathers have been the true nationalists of this country, they have sacrificed themselves for many nationalist and religious movements without expecting or receiving any rewards. The time has come when we must think of ourselves and our down trodden brethren who have tolerated untold atrocities for thousands of years. So let us be selfish for once and concentrate on our own welfare for a change. We must be inspired by the dedication shown by Ms.Mayawati Ji’s and shed the feeling of helplessness and strive for power. Remember the words of our Babasahib who said “Write on the walls of our houses, that we were the dassas of yesterday and want to be the rulers of tomorrow”.

The leadership of other ruling parties of Punjab are always playing the same card of communalism over and over again, as did Mulayam Singh Yadav in Utter Pradesh, but this time the people of U.P. rejected it, in favour of Bhujan Smaj. If the communalist policies are properly exposed by the BSP in Punjab and present a positive, credible alternative, then I am sure the people of Punjab will also reject the ruling party agenda and create a similar atmosphere as in Utter Pradesh. I do not think that people of Punjab are so gullible or naïve to be fooled all the time.

Once again Congratulation to BSP and the Dalit people of Utter Pradesh.

POSTED ON MAY 24TH, 2007