Nothing unusual about Mayawati's absence from Hathras

On October 6, members of the Jatav Mahapanchayat and other Dalit community leaders torched effigies of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati in Agra’s Jagdishpur.

The protestors were unhappy over the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister’s ‘silence’ on the alleged gangrape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit woman in a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras district, 200 kms from New Delhi.

“BSP’s mission to speak for Dalits ended with the death of (its founder) Kanshi Ram. Leaders from all political parties visited Hathras and stood in support of the victim’s family, but Behenji did not meet the family even once,” Ramvir Singh Kardam, the president of Jatav Mahapanchayat, told reporters.

Kanshi Ram, who founded the BSP in 1984 and then ceded the leadership to his protégé Mayawati, died in 2006, and is known for his bicycle journeys. Mayawati is often referred to by her admirers and supporters as 'Behenji' (sister/ elder sister).

“Her silence shows she has no emotions for the community (Dalits),” he said. Mayawati has been Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh four times, her last stint ending in 2012.

Agra is often known as the Dalit capital of Uttar Pradesh, and Mayawati makes sure she kicks off her poll campaign from the city of the Taj Mahal. The BSP represents and speaks up for the rights of the country's Scheduled Castes and Tribes and the so-called Other Backward Castes (OBCs) and minorities.

The Hathras case that sparked protests across the country saw political leaders including Congress’ Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi visiting the victim’s family amid a faceoff with the UP Police.

But, Mayawati, who positions herself as “Dalit ki beti”— daughter of a Dalit, and her party members, were conspicuous by their absence in Hathras. Instead, the 64-year-old leader confined herself to tweets demanding action targeting both UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's government and the Congress party.

Confined to her 'ivory tower'

For those who have been following Mayawati over the years, her political inaction is not surprising. Others say that it might lead to a perception loss for the party in Uttar Pradesh going to the polls in 2022.

“It is not easy to determine what's on her (Mayawati) mind. But the political inaction can be harmful and it can lead to a perception loss for the BSP,” Badri Narayan, political scientist and professor, Govind Ballabh Pant Social Science Institute, Allahabad, told MoneyControl.

“However, it will be too early to predict if the incident will benefit or harm her electorally,” he said.

The BSP chief has faced criticism earlier for not stepping out of her ‘ivory tower’ as chief minister, as opposition leader or as president of the party. Mayawati did not step out even in the protests after the rape and murder of two Dalit girls in Badaun in 2014 when the BSP was in opposition in Uttar Pradesh, which was then ruled by Akilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party government.

The last occasion when she was seen on ground was during the Dalit-Rajput riots in Saharanpur district of western Uttar Pradesh in 2017. Generally otherwise, experts say, the BSP chief is not seen on the ground.

“If you look at her politics, she generally doesn’t step out of her home. More importantly, in Hathras case, the area has been a BJP stronghold, except on one occasion when it was won by Ajit Singh’s RLD,” said Prof Sudhir Panwar, a Lucknow-based political analyst.

Sources said Mayawati knew that the Congress might have already made inroads in the vote bank among Dalits who are angry with the ruling BJP government in Uttar Pradesh.

Badri Narayan, however, says that the BSP’s absence might provide an opportunity for other political players to fill in. Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad, for example, has been one of the most visible faces during the outrage over the Hathras incident.

"The problem is that Mayawati never had a second-rung leader who could have visited the site. The only leader around her is Satish Chandra Mishra who is a Brahmin. She has no one to trust who can advise her on such matters,” said a young BSP leader who did not want to be named.

Cosying up to BJP

There have been allegations of Mayawati cosying up to the BJP recently. Congress general secretary, Priyanka Gandhi, without naming the BSP chief, called her“an undeclared BJP spokesperson”.

Of late, Mayawati has backed the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre on the border standoff with China in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh, among other issues. She has been also praising the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh on certain issues, including its arrangements to send migrant workers home. On Sunday, Mayawati said that like in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, a ‘jungle-raj’ also prevailed in Congress-ruled Rajasthan.

In July this year during the political crisis in Rajasthan, Mayawati’s BSP issued a whip asking six MLAs, who had won on its ticket in 2016, to vote against the Ashok Gehlot’s Congress government in the assembly.

Allergic to dust

Many say the former CM prefers to remain indoors because she is allergic to dust, a reason that did the rounds in political circles when she was chief minister of Uttar Pradesh until 2012. A skin specialist had advised her to stay away from the sun, the rumour had it.

“We remember that roads were cleaned whenever she used to pass by in her AC car. But the same Mayawati was seen in cycle yatras,” said former IPS officer and Dalit activist SR Darapuri.

“But these are all excuses,” he said.