Bharat Survives Despite Death Knell !

Bharat Survives Despite Death Knell !

Indian HOLOCAUST My Father`s Life and Time - One Hundred Fifty EIGHT

Palash Biswas


Expressing surprise over the spurt of violence at Singur, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee today said a handful of people were creating trouble against the interests of the majority.

"While the proposed car project will offer employment to 4,000 people and galvanise the economy of the area, a small number of people are bent on opposing it. Even today a group of 100 people brickbatted the police and fomented trouble," Bhattacharjee told a public meeting here.

Announcing that the people whose land had been taken away by the Tata Motors small car project site would be given job at the plant, the CM told the opposition "explain to me why are you against it. Won't an automobile hub change the economy of the area and change the lives of local people.

Nandigram brings Mamata, Left closer

Sunday May 20, 03:55 PM
http://in.news.yahoo.com/070520/211/6g0p5.html

Dear Leader, The Government of India (GoI) has taken several ...File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
You may be aware that the Ministry of Commerce, GoI has recently introduced a Special ... Draft Questionnaire for Impact of New SEZ Policy on STP Units ...

http://www.isaonline.org/documents/stpi.pdf

So the battlelines have been drawn and the Bharat Varsh, really Nation India sustains itself against all the challanges thrown by Brand sensex Shining India!

Terming India as an "unnatural nation born in infertile times", author Ramachandra Guha attributes the country's cohesiveness and progress to "the strength of the constitution and ability to defy western predictions".

"This world's largest democracy took birth amidst a myriad issues -- partition, language, ethnic diversities... but it has survived belying all predictions", he said releasing here his gargantuan compilation "India after Gandhi" to mark the country's 60th anniversary.

I know ramchandra Guha since seventies as a writer of Pahar, published by our teacher and friend Shekhar Pathak. he supported us in our Chipko movement and nationality movements while he was not that famous. We had known him as a close friend of shekhar. having shifted in Kolkata, I called the first person as an acquintance was none but Ram, as we knew him. I am a keen reader whatever he writes anywhere! He shares our concerns and commitment. And I am very glad to see his latest work.Guha concludes that Indian democracy will survive. For him, ultimately, this achievement outweighs the country’s failings. But the price has been high. Indeed, for a country founded on such lofty principles, its history is often brutal. Tens of thousands have died in wars of insurrection in Punjab, Assam, Nagaland and Kashmir. Many more have perished or suffered terrible injustices during communal violence. As recently as February 2002, 2,000 people, most of them Muslims, were slaughtered in Gujarat. Nobody has ever been charged for their murders, but, says Guha, the then chief minister, a hard-line Hindu ideologue, subsequently “justified the violence on Muslims”.

Nation India was a concept coined by Gurudev Rabindra Nath Tagore and shaped in the struggle for freedom! In 1857, during the Mutiny, this nation was absent. Thus, the Mutiny was a failure. While Bankim wrote VANDE MATARAM, it was Banga Mata, not Bharat Mata! tagore transformed Banga into Bharat!

This Bharat is agin attacked. This aggression is from Outside as well as Within! Post Modern Manusmriti is all out to disintegrate this country. Thus, it is quite a mystery Our Sustenance as a Nattion, as RAM has pointed out so well.

See the latest news update fro dateline India, you have to be awed to see the depth and dimensions of the disintegration process.
The story of how India proved its many detractors wrong is one rarely given much attention in Britain, where we revel in nostalgic tales from the Raj. But Ramachandra Guha’s weighty account of the struggle to forge a democratic nation out of discord and disparity is a riveting narrative.

Ram has got great command on language since erlier days. He has always been expert in History and I am an admirer of his analysis of contemporary history as he seems to me a great sociologist also! He has a descent flair of literature as he begins `INDIA AFTER GANDHI’ with quoting Galib`s journey to Banaras from Delhi in erly nineteenth century! As a spiderman he weaves well facts and myths!

“India after the second world war was much like the Soviet Union after the first,” writes Guha, who emphasises how comparatively benign Indian governance has proven. “A nation was being built of its fragments. In this case . .. unaided by the extermination of class enemies or the creation of gulags.”

The man who emerges as the champion of independent India, and one all too often cast in the shadow of Mahatma Gandhi, is its long-serving prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Had he betrayed basic principles of equality, the country would have undoubtedly disintegrated. Guha also brings India’s other founding fathers and principled consensus-builders vividly to life, including Dalit leader Dr BR Ambedkar, who helped forge the Indian constitution – “probably the longest in the world” and almost certainly the most intricate.

Take the case of singur! Only on 18th FEB, the convention organized by scores of mass organisations, human right bodies, professionals, artists and writers warned us of the escapeway of the Gestapo in the killing fields of Left Ruled Bengal. The convention pledged not to forget and forgive the Killers. We also remembered Singur as the base of Nandigram Resistance!

Only yesterday Mamata Bannerjee and Ashok Ghosh decided the date for peace talks on Nandigram. And today singur flares once again. Once again the face of state sponsored Violence exposed so merciless with Lathis, Teargas Shella and rubber Bullets.

Violence continues and Peace alludes!

Violence erupted at the Tata Motors plant site in Singur on Sunday when police fired rubber bullets and teargas at Krishi Jami Rakhsha Committee activists when they hurled bombs and brickbats in a bid to enter the area. The Committee has been resisting the acquisition of farm land for the Tata Motors' small car project. The incident came against the backdrop of plans to hold an all-party meeting on May 24 to restore peace in Nandigram, which too has been rocked by violence since January over the acquisition of land for a proposed SEZ.

IGP (Law and Order) Raj Kanojia said here that activists of the Committee, who gathered at Bajemelia for a "law violation" programme under the leadership of local Trinamool Congress MLA Rabindranath Bhattacharya and Committee convener Becharam Manna, tried to break a police cordon in a bid to proceed to the Tata Motors' site.

After jostling with police, the activists hurled bombs and brickbats in a bid to break the cordon. Serampore's sub-divisional police officer Kalyan Banerjee and a constable were injured in the brickbatting. Police then fired two teargas shells and one rubber bullet and carried out a "mild" baton-charge to disperse the crowd, he said. Kanojia said several arrests were made but did not immediately provide figures.


Despite opposition the Left Front government was determined to pursue the policy of industrialisation while giving due stress on agriculture, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said today.

"We have to take our state to the top through development of agriculture, industry and agri-science weathering opposition and conflict," Bhattacharjee said at a meeting here.

While agri-related development is the prerequisite for primary development of an area, industrial development is needed for its all round growth, the CM said, adding industrial development means developing infrastructure like road and bridge in an area.


Expressing surprise over the spurt of violence at Singur, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today said a handful of people were creating trouble against the interests of the majority.

"While the proposed car project will offer employment to 4,000 people and galvanise the economy of the area, a small number of people are bent on opposing it. Even today a group of 100 people brickbatted the police and fomented trouble," Bhattacharjee told a public meeting here.

Announcing that the people whose land had been taken away by the Tata Motors small car project site would be given job at the plant, the CM told the opposition "explain to me why are you against it. Won't an automobile hub change the economy of the area and change the lives of local people."

On the issue of chemical hub, he said if such a facility could not be set up in the state, that will only harm Bengal's interest.

"Let me reiterate there will be no chemical hub in Nandigram since the people don't want it to be there. But we need to have a chemical hub in the state, nevertheless. We cannot let the opportunity go away," the CM said.

There will be discussion on the issue and "we will put across our views," the CM said apparently hinting at the proposed all party meeting later this week.


Then remeber Operation Blue star and Indira Regime once again as the Sikhs are so hurt once again! Murder of Nirankari Baba and rise and fall of Bhinderawala should not be forgotten!

Rejecting Dera Sacha Sauda's expression of "regret", the five Sikh high priests today called for a Punjab bandh on May 22 to protest against the Dera head's alleged act of blasphemy imitating the attire of tenth Sikh Guru Gobind Singh. The priests gave the call for the bandh in a fresh Hukamnama(edict) at the end of their two-hour meeting at the Akal Takht in the Golden Temple hours after the police in Bathinda filed a case against Baba Ram Rahim Singh for allegedly hurting religious sentiments. Peaceful processions should be taken out on May 22, Akal Takht Jathedar Joginder Singh Vedanti announced before a large congregation of Sikhs here after presiding over the meeting.

As Ram quotes,British historian, John Strachey had said "there was no Indian nation or country in the past: nor would there be one in the future" and Guha says - "his remarks were intended as historical judgement".

Winston Churchill had decried India's ability for self-governance and Robert Dahl among the doomsayers had said "that India can sustain democratic institutions seems on the face of it highly improbable".

"Like their foreign counterparts, some Indian observers too had come to believe that this place (India) was far too diverse to persist as a nation, and much too poor to endure democracy".

"And Yet", says Guha, "60 years on and we are here in a 'phifty-phifty' democracy, competing on a global platform with the developed nations".

"Moral vision, political skill, and legal acumen: these were brought together in the framing of the constitution," he says, adding "this is finally what has kept the nation together... secularity and equality seem to have worked".

And see in Pune, Railway exam disrupted.

In Pune, supporters of Raj Thackeray and his Maharashtra Navnirman Sena have disrupted the railway recruitment exam.The reason for the disruption was that more non-Maharashtrians were taking the exam.TV reports say that candidates from Bihar had been stopped to sit in the exams and were beaten. It happens in Maharashtra where Jai Maharashtra is a popular slogan and the advocates of Marathi Nationality claims: AMAACHI MUMBAI!

It is seen all over the NorthEast includin Assam, where Indians are treated as Foreigners!

We have now more than a hundred Billionairs! Has the Trillion Dollar Economy has changed the lives of the under previleged, minorities and Dalits?
A co passenger was pleading for Tata in reference of latest flare up in Singur. He claimed , `It Is Politics! No one is committed to people! Industrialisation and Urbanisation would change the life of Bengalies!’
He also admitted that it is better that instead of political parties, Tatas, Ambanis, Birlas, Zindal, Mittal and the host of MNCs should run the country!
And see this news!

Three pavement dwellers killed
[May 20,Mumbai]
Three pavement dwellers were killed and two injured after a private bus ran over them in a suburb in the wee hours.

The driver of the private bus fled from the scene, while the injured have been admitted to the nearby hospital.

Soviet Russia has been disintegrated and we have seen Pakistan partitioned. But we have avoid the disaster till this date!

Indeed, the country inherited by the Congress party in 1947 was a bewildering patchwork of territories, including 500 princely states, many of them dead set against joining the union. India’s population was predominantly illiterate. There were 800 languages, but no common tongue. And in the wake of partition, Hindus and Muslims were cutting each other’s throats, prompting the “greatest mass migration in history” with 8m refugees fleeing from Pakistan alone.

Guha’s account of the Nehru years is greatly enriched by his juxtaposition of national crises with the struggle of ordinary people. He offers a rare insight into the Herculean task of redistributing land to Punjab’s refugees; his account of India’s first election in 1952 is similarly poignant. The first to cast their ballots were a group of Buddhists in a remote valley. They were followed by up to 176m registered voters, including the tribal people of Orissa, who emerged from their forests with bows and arrows to exercise their democratic right. But the author does not shirk from writing about Nehru’s failures as well – chiefly his naivety in trusting the Chinese, who invaded India in 1962. Nor is Guha shy about identifying how and where the rot in the political system set in.

“Nehru’s halting yet honest attempts to promote a democratic ethos .. . were undone by his own daughter, and in decisive and dramatic ways,” he writes.

Indira Gandhi and son, Sanjay, are portrayed as the founders of a cult of nepotism and dynastic rule. By the time Mrs Gandhi’s elder son, Rajiv, came into power it was said: “Indian politics no longer smells of sweat, nor is it particularly clean and odour-less – it reeks of aftershave.” Things since have gone from bad to worse. Today, no single party has nationwide support (the current government is a coalition of 19 parties) and there has been a dangerous escalation of caste politics. Worse, “the lawmakers of India are, more often than not, its most regular lawbreakers”. Many elected representatives stand charged of murder, armed robbery and blackmail. Little wonder perhaps that a staggering “70%-90% of rural development funds” are siphoned off and 25,000 farmers have committed suicide in the last 10 years.

And see this also!

Woman beaten to death in Bihar caste clash

By Reuters
KOLKATA (Reuters) - A woman belonging to a lower-caste community was beaten to death in Bihar by an upper-caste mob in clashes over a missing calf, an official said on Sunday. Karo Devi, 50, died on Saturday after being mobbed in her village in Gaya district a day earlier, Amjad Ali said.
The officer said clashes between rival caste people broke out when Devi was looking for her missing calf and was confronted by members of the upper-caste group.

"A group of upper-caste people beat up the woman after a stone accidentally hit an upper-caste former village headman," Ali told Reuters by telephone.

After Devi died in a hospital, hundreds of lower caste people put up roadblocks to protest. Police have registered a complaint against those allegedly involved in the incident.

India's secular constitution bans caste discrimination, but lower-caste people, called the Dalits, are still commonly beaten or killed for using a well or worshipping at a temple reserved for upper castes, especially in the rural areas.

Dalits, once known as "untouchables," make up around 160 million of India's billion-plus population.

In February, the New York-based Human Rights Watch group said India is failing to protect its lower-caste citizens, who were condemned to a lifetime of abuse because of their social status.

Would Mr Biman Bose be there? “I will request the top leaders of all parties to be present. Else, the talks will be useless,” Mr Ghosh replied.

INDIA AFTER GANDHI: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy by Ramachandra Guha

Macmillan £25 pp928

Available at the Sunday Times Books First price of £23 (inc p&p) on 0870 165 8585 and timesonline.co.uk/booksfirst


Shrugging off the Nandigram siege effect, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has now put his opponents in the hot seat by asking them to propose Plan B for the chemical hub that was to come up partly at Nandigram before violent opposition forced the government to roll back. The reformist Chief Minister has written to all political parties asking them to come up with the new location for the chemical hub, a mega project that has been approved by the Union Government but needs an address. The chemical hub, centred around the port town of Haldia, was to include a 10,000-acre special economic zone (SEZ) for chemicals at adjacent Nandigram. With the government dropping land acquisition plans at Nandigram following opposition and the backlash from the deaths of 14 people in police firing on March 14, the government not only needs an alternative but does not want trouble at Haldia either.

Bhattacharjee has stressed that the chemical hub is very important for the revival of industry in the state.

He said the Nandigram-I had been selected as the site for the chemical hub following discussions with an expert committee appointed by the Union government. "But, in view of the situation at Nandigram, the state has withdrawn the proposal for setting up the industry there," the letter says.

Bhattacharjee has pointed out that a joint venture had already been formed between the West Bengal Industrial Development Corp and New Kolkata International Development Pvt Ltd, the local outfit created by the main investor, Indonesia's Salim group.


The controversial Tata small car project in Singur has seen several violent protests after the West Bengal government, despite opposition, allocated farmers’ land for the project.Even as the row over the Singur land acquisition for TATAs refuses to die down. TATAs maintain that the Singur challenge still remains and that there is no question of looking back on the project now.

Tata Motors MD, Ravi Kant said, "Singur challenge still remains and we are going ahead with the project as promised by Ratan Tata to West Bengal government. We have increased the level of activity manifold to make up for the lost time. We hope ultimately everyone realises the benefit of TATA project at Singur.

Miss Mamata Banerjee was not stretching her imagination this afternoon when she described the outcome of her meeting with Mr Ashok Ghosh as “the turning point in West Bengal politics.”
For, in those 30-odd minutes she had convinced the Forward Bloc state secretary that four of her main demands will be taken up at the all-party talks on Nandigram. One, introspection of the “mass killings” of 14 March. Two, to identify the culprits and affix punishment for them. Three, to pull up the state CID for not filing chargesheet against the CP-M members who were arrested by a CBI team from a brick kiln in Nandigram after the killings. And four, that the CBI should continue its investigation.
The all-party meeting, the tea leaders decided today, will be held at Mahajati Sadan on 24 May. Before that Mr Ghosh will request the Left Front chairman Mr Biman Bose to convene a meeting of the Left allies to endorse the date and agenda - a holds barred discussion on all aspects of Nandigram.
Mr Bose was in Purulia when, for the first time in Bengal’s history, the top leader of a right wing party walked into the head quarters of a Left party to discuss an incident in which the most powerful ruling party stands on the dock. It was also the first time that arch rivals in Bengal’s politics jointly held a press conference where Mr Ghosh described her as “our leader” and Miss Banerjee admitted that “no one is untouchable in politics”. It could not be ascertained till this evening whether the CPI-M leadership will agree to discuss the sensitive issues raised by Miss Banerjee, given that leaders like Mr Benoy Konar have already turned them down. However, Mr Ghosh was confident that he could convince the CPI-M. “Leave all that to me”, he said.
“I will convene the all-party meeting and we hope all parties will come and freely discuss all aspects of the Nandigram issue. We will try to reach a consensus. The chief minister has already promised me that our decisions will be carried out by the government”, Mr Ghosh said. He too described today’s development as historic. “Its not just Bengal, the whole country is watching us. We have to restore peace in the troubled area as soon as possible.”


Breakthrough in Nandigram row
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/videos.aspx?id=13778
http://images.google.co.in/images?hl=en&q=Singur+Flare+Up&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2
http://images.google.co.in/images?hl=en&q=Singur+&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2
http://images.google.co.in/images?svnum=10&hl=en&gbv=2&q=Singur+Women&btnG=Search+Images
Reliance Retail mulling new strategies for Bengal foray
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2007/05/20/stories/2007052004090100.htm
25 Chinese firms to develop KSEZs in India
New Delhi: The India-China Business Alliance floated by Assocham in Shanghai and Shenzhen has resulted in 25 Chinese companies committing themselves to partner in the setting up of new projects in Knowledge Special Economic Zones, Biotechnology Incubators, established Hardware Technology parks and Telecom Equipment Manufacturing Facilities in India.
An MoU has been signed to this effect with the Shenzhen Computer Industry Association, Shenzhen Trade and Investment Association and Shenzhen Hitech Industrial Park.
About 10 Indian companies have already taken initiative for investing in Shenzhen particularly in R&D, biotech and software. Union Bank of India too coincided the opening of its branch with the delegations’s visit to Shanghai.
Bilateral trade between the two countries has crossed the $25 billion mark for the first time to reach $5.05 billion in 2006, representing an increase of 33.87% over same period last year. During this period, Indian exports to China increased to $10.46 billion while imports from China increased to $14.48 billion. As compared to rate of growth of Indian exports to China 7.05%, export from China to India increased by 63.23% over 2005.
http://www.livemint.com/2007/05/20105620/25-Chinese-firms-to-develop-KS.html

While the CPI(M) is putting up a stony face on the question of Singur, its student wing Students Federation of India (SFI), is busy answering questions raised by political opponents and apprehensions voiced internally on the issue.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=739df431-b232-4a75-a366-8bbc5c7cccac&ParentID=a1335933-e39f-4391-a941-513625e063d1&MatchID1=4464&TeamID1=10&TeamID2=6&MatchType1=1&SeriesID1=1109&MatchID2=4466&TeamID3=2&TeamID4=4&MatchType2=1&SeriesID2=1110&PrimaryID=4464&Headline=CPI+(M)'+SFI+takes+up+Singur+issue

The West Bengal government neither admitted to committing blunders in Singur and Nandigram nor have incidents in these two places dented its image as a pro-poor government, CPIM leader Sitaram Yechury claimed on 23rd February last.Yechury also refuted claims by the Left Front government's political opponents that land was forcibly acquired from farmers in Singur. "Not at all. No. We have brought this entire question of compensation to the national agenda. The compensation we are giving in Singur is the best and the most exemplary. And now everybody will have to follow suit," he said in an interview to the CNN-IBN programme, Devil's Advocate.

Retail stores in India, a sign of rapid change

AGENCIES[ SUNDAY, MAY 20, 2007 04:00:34 PM]

NEW DELHI: Brightly-lit and splashed in day-glo colours, new supermarkets sprout each month in India's capital in a sign of rapid economic change that appears to be leading shoppers to shun small, traditional and family-run shops. By the time New Delhi hosts the 2010 Commonwealth Games, a retail consultancy estimates, there will be one supermarket every kilometre (half-mile) in the sprawling city of 14 million compared to about five in 2004.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News_By_Industry/Services/Retailing/Retail_stores_in_India_a_sign_of_rapid_change/articleshow/2062624.cms

Foreign retail brokerage majors eye stakes in India
Hindu, India - 7 hours ago
Mumbai, May 20 (PTI): Attracted by the tremendous potential and phenomenal growth achieved by Indian retail brokerage firms in recent times, ...

Have-nots rebel as India blossoms

IN THE DHAULI FOREST, India: After the paved roads have ended and the dirt roads have crumbled into winding footpaths, after the last power line has vanished into the forest behind you, a tall, red monument suddenly appears at the edge of a clearing.

It’s 25 feet high and topped by a hammer and sickle, honouring a fallen warrior. White letters scroll across the base: “From the blood of a martyr, new generations will bloom like flowers.”

The monument is a memorial but also a signpost, a warning that you are entering a “Liberated Zone” a place where Mao is alive and Marx is revered, where an army of leftist guerrillas known as the Naxalites control a shadow state amid the dense forests, isolated villages and shattering poverty of central India. Here, the Indian government is just a distant, hated idea.

“The capitalists and other exploiters of the masses feel increasingly vulnerable. And they should,” said a 33-year-old man known only as Ramu, a regional commander of the Naxalites’ People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army. He cradled an assault rifle as he sat on the dirt floor of a small farmhouse, temporary base for two dozen fighters set amid the forests of Chhattisgarh state. “For them, the danger is rising.”

Initially formed in 1967, the Maoist army has taken root over the past decade in places left behind during India’s spectacular financial rise since its economy was opened up in the early 1990s. Outsiders rarely see their strongholds, but a team from The Associated Press was invited last month into a region they control.

As India has grown wealthier, the Naxalites officially called the Communist Party of India (Maoist) have grown larger, feeding off the anger of the country’s poor. There are now 10,000-15,000 fighters in an archipelago of rebel territory scattered across nearly half of the country’s 28 states, security officials say.

For years, the government here paid little attention. That began changing two years ago. Today, Chhattisgarh state backs an anti-Naxal militia called the Salwa Judum. And in 2006, India’s prime minister called the Naxalites the single largest threat to the country.

Over the past two years, nearly 2,000 people police, militants and civilians caught in the middle have been killed in Naxalite violence. In March, 55 policemen and government-backed militiamen were killed when up to 500 Naxalites descended on an isolated Chhattisgarh police station.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=56782

Govt to dilute IDR norms to woo foreign cos to India
Economic Times, India - 5 hours ago
As such, the companies interested in Indian markets should have trading history in India or elsewhere for at least three years and should also have a track ...

Second tier cities may help India's growth woes
Houston Chronicle, TX - 9 hours ago
NAGPUR, INDIA — A year ago, this relatively small, forgettable city in the heart of India did not have an air-conditioned cinema. ...

India's Political Quake- Mayawati

By Ravikiran Shinde

20 May, 2007
Countercurrents.org

The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don't define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them. -Denis Watley

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati is the winner. After handsomely winning the assembly elections in the biggest state in India, she has declared that she is on her way to capture "Delhi" and that plans to give UP the best government and Sarvasamaj (all sections of the society) the power to share with her.

The record breaking victory has caught the imagination of not only the entire Indian media but also the Western Media. The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, BBC, Reuters all wrote about the miracle that a low caste lady did in Uttar Pradesh by winning a majority on its own.

This was not just all anti-incumbency votes since the incumbent Samajwadi Party's vote share has not gone down. The BSP actually fetched votes from the traditional BJP and Congress voters as a result of a dexterous social weaving- an amalgamation of Dalits and upper castes, the two social structures poles apart of the social hierarchy and blending it with Muslims and the backward castes for a winning formula. This strategy would have made Mayawati's shrewd mentor Kanshiram proud of his right choice of heir.

And Now, Mayawati is giving enough indications that the strategy does not just end with victory in UP. In her first appearance after the results were out, she accompanied with her S.C Mishra, a Brahmin and Nassimuddin Siddique, a Muslim. The message is clear. The predominant Dalit-Upper castes-Muslim combination that she crafted in the last 3 years was not just meant for the assembly elections to capture power.

Dedicating the victory to the great social reformers like Mahatma Phule, Rajarshee Shahu Maharaj, Narayana Guru, Dr Ambedkar and the party's founder Kanshi Ram, she also acknowledged the contributions made by the BSP office bearers and workers of all the sections of the society under her leadership as she read out from her prepared speech. The great orator that Kanshi Ram handpicked for her fierce, shrill oratory is no more a spontaneous speaker- especially in front of the media men. Many people did not realize when this covert transformation happened along with her new hair cut. The party continued to grow under her leadership even as an ill Kanshiram faded away from active politics. In 2002, the BSP won 98 seats and lost many seats by a margin of mere 2000 votes. The party's vote base was increasing but was looking stagnant at its saturation limit 25% that comprised of low castes and Muslims.
http://www.countercurrents.org/shinde200507.htm
Defining Moment Of Dalit Empowerment In Uttar-Pradesh

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

12 May, 2007
Countercurrents.org

It was May 2002 when I was on a Padyatra in Bundelkhand. After nearly 10 days of the yatra, we were in a tribal village of Kols who were threatened by the forest department and police officials every time they tilled their land. The day we reached this tiny village on the track of the mighty Indian Railways, the political wind in Lucknow was changing and news of Mayawati's assuming charge of Uttar-Pradesh became clear. There was jubilation in the village. The whole night, the Kols, their men and women both, danced and sang in the loudest possible voice. When I asked them whether they do not fear the police now. 'No', said an elderly man, 'now with Mayawati at the helm of affair in Uttar-Pradesh, no body can touch us'.

That was the power of Mayawati that the Dalits and MBCs felt safe and secure in the otherwise adverse administrative environment of Uttar-Pradesh. And soon after Mayawati's resigned and Mulayam Singh Yadav cobbled a majority with the help of BJP, I got a phone call from a Chamar family in Faizabad district. The landless family had been granted a house under the Indira Awas Yojana. The Kurmis, the powerful landowning backward community and traditionally with high anti dalit feeling, used the change in political power in Lucknow to terrorize the Chamar family and hence the entire community was living in constant fear. Even the women Sarpanch who happened to be a Dalit was assaulted. We went to meet a Minister in Lucknow who was once upon a time very close comrade of Late Kanshi Ram. The minister's first question to the community was ' whether they voted him?' Though he wrote a letter to the local officer yet the Minister knew it well where the community loyalty were and hence we was not very keen on helping them.