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The Molesters

Mayawati misstep gives Congress a handle

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The Molesters
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Round one certainly went to Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati. Rita Bahuguna Joshi, the PCC president, had cooked her own goose with comments to the effect that had Mayawati been raped, the party would have compensated with a crore of rupees. The statement was a shocker, and was made in reaction to news that the CM had spent lakhs flying down a DGP by helicopter to pay measly compensations of Rs 25,000 to Dalit rape victims.

Naturally, there was much outrage and Rita Bahuguna was arrested. But Mayawati, who had hoped to corner an embarrassed Congress on the anti-Dalit plank, frittered away the opportunity when BSP men, allegedly led by party MLA Jitendra Singh Babloo, vandalised the UPCC chief’s residence on Havelock Road, Lucknow, setting ablaze the house and four vehicles parked in the driveway. The house, incidentally, is barely 50 metres from the CM’s office and about 100 metres from the heavily guarded residence of Mayawati’s Brahmin mascot, Satish Mishra, the BSP national general secretary.

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For sure, the attack helped the state Congress close ranks. UPCC spokesman Subodh Srivastava even compared the incident to “Godhra”. “It was revenge. Mayawati masterminded the plot to attack the UPCC chief’s house.” Meanwhile, senior leaders in Delhi, including Sonia Gandhi, played it safe and were initially critical of Rita’s brash statement. But the violence let loose by the BSP activists gave them a handle and soon, the party, led by Rahul Gandhi, was training its guns on Mayawati.

Where Mayawati went wrong was her assessment of the situation after AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh conveyed Sonia Gandhi’s displeasure (the UPCC chief had already apologised) at Rita’s remarks. Thinking the Congress leadership was trying to wriggle out of the controversy, Mayawati turned belligerent, without realising it could prove counter-productive. She even went to the extent of rewarding one of the alleged arson culprits, Intezar Abdi, with the chairmanship of the sugar cooperatives, a minister rank job with perks. Talking to reporters later, the CM claimed “Abdi’s appointment was done well before the Rita Bahuguna episode”.

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By then, Congressmen had dug up an “incident involving Mayawati” during Mulayam Singh Yadav’s rule. Apparently, she had herself used similar language against Mulayam in January 2007 when as CM he had paid a compensation of Rs 2 lakh each to three Muslim rape victims at a madrassa in Allahabad. Mayawati was quoted as saying: “Mulayam may not have daughters, but surely his brothers or sisters do; I wish to tell Mulayam that if they were to get raped, I will ask these poor victims to collect four lakh rupees and slap it on his face.” The Congress argument is that if Mayawati could say it, why does she consider Rita’s language “absolutely unpardonable”.

The damage control efforts seem to have paid off. Local Congressmen who had gone into a huddle have even begun to defend the UPCC chief. As Srivastava puts it, “All Ritaji did was express her anguish over Mayawati doling out just Rs 25,000 for a Dalit rape victim.” Support came from other quarters too—the SP and BJP pointedly blaming the BSP for the attack on Rita Bahuguna’s house.

By last Wednesday, the issue seemed to have petered out. Mayawati had declared July 22 as “the day of shame”, asking partymen to stage demonstrations across the state. But the response was poor, showing the issue actually had little resonance within the BSP.

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