LESSON 23
Mayawati kicks off poll campaign
Special Correspondent
Promises reservation benefits to the financially poor among the forward castes |
— Photo: C. Ratheesh Kumar
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and BSP president Mayawati at an
election rally in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday. She is flanked by A.
Neelalohitadasan Nadar (right), BSP candidate for Thiruvananthapuram
Lok Sabha seat, and party general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: While ensuring the reservation for the Scheduled
Castes, Tribes and other Backward Communities, the Bahujan Samaj Party
(BSP) will extend reservation benefits to the financially poor among
the forward castes too, party national president and Uttar Pradesh
Chief Minister Mayawati has said.
Inaugurating the BSP’s national campaign for the 15th Lok Sabha
elections here on Saturday evening, Ms. Mayawati said that if voted to
power at the Centre, the BSP would emulate the reservation and economic
policies being pursued in Uttar Pradesh.
Ending social inequalities was the solution to problems like
naxalism, terrorism and other divisive tendencies. The reservation
policy would be implemented in elected bodies. Due importance would be
given to Dalit Christians and other religious minorities too.
Unlike the Congress, BJP and other parties which seek the financial
support of the rich and the capitalists, the BSP was going to the polls
with the funds garnered by the party workers and hence was not
committed to anyone. The rich will not have any say in the government.
It will have independent foreign, economic and agriculture policies.
The BSP which came to power in Uttar Pradesh four times, had taken
up these issues with the Centre, but to no avail. The successive
Central governments had been indifferent to the demands of the BSP.
“Canards are being spread against it. The campaign that the party is
against the forward castes is baseless. It has an inclusive approach
and stands for effacing all inequalities.”
She also detailed the steps being taken by the UP government for the
weaker sections and religious minorities. While B.R. Ambedkar strived
hard and secured reservation for the backward communities, the benefits
were snatched away through various legislations by parties like the
Congress and the BJP.
The developments in Kerala too were a matter of concern. Successive
governments had not taken any interest in addressing the problems of
the poor, the farmers, marginal traders and other weaker sections. The
BSP had no alliance with any party and had decided to go it alone in
the elections. If elected, the thrust would be on protecting the
interests of all sections, she said.
National general secretary Suresh Mane welcomed the gathering. Mr.
Mane said there was only a government and no governance in the State.
Satish Chandra Mishra, MP, and BSP candidate in Thiruvananthapuram Lok
Sabha constituency A. Neelalohitadasan Nadar were among those who spoke.
Elections - Round up before the big one BANGALORE RURAL PARLIAMENTARY CONSTITUENCY
The Bahujan Samaj Party has started showing good performances outsideits traditional base in U.P, especially in Rajasthan, Delhi and M.P.
Even though it does not have many seats to show for its efforts, a
party run for SC/STs by a Scheduled Caste can only go upward from its present
position, even more so considering that Aboriginal Inhabitants of Jambudvipa, that is, the Great Prabuddha Bharath mobilization is
hitting new highs.
It is a study in contrasts constituency watch
B.S. Satish Kumar
| Not one segment from Bangalore Rural district included here |
BANGALORE: The name of the newly formed Bangalore Rural Lok Sabha
Constituency is a misnomer as none of the Assembly segments from the
Bangalore Rural district have been included in this constituency.
However, this constituency has an identity of its own as silk
production, wooden toys and lacquer ware have made this area a well
known place not only in the country, but in several parts of the world.
The rocky structures in the constituency, which partly adjoins the
Bangalore-Mysore State highway, have caught the imaginations of several
film makers as the famous Hindi classic Sholay was
shot in the villages around Ramadevara Betta in this constituency. This
area, which lacks any major irrigation facility, makes significant
contribution to the production of mango and betel leaves in addition to
the rain-fed ragi varieties witha clearance for 700 ft.Buddha’s Statue to be carved on a monolithic rock.
This is a complex Lok Sabha seat as it spreads over three districts
in addition to the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike. From the posh
houses in Rajarajeshwarinagar to poor huts in villages around Sathanur,
this constituency is a study in contrasts.
While some of its areas in Rajarajeshwarinagar Assembly segment fall
under BBMP, four Assembly segments come under the newly-formed
Ramanagaram district and the remaining three are spread over Bangalore
Urban and Tumkur districts. Formerly part of the Kanakapura Lok Sabha
Constituency, which was abolished, it comprises Ramanagaram,
Channapatna, Magadi, Kanakapura (Ramanagaram district), Bangalore
South, Rajarajeshwarinagar, Anekal (Bangalore Urban district) and
Kunigal (Tumkur district) Assembly segments.
The level of development of these Assembly segments is not uniform as they fall under different districts spread over 200 km.
However, the four Assembly segments coming under the Ramanagaram
district got some facelift after the formation of the new district. The
problems here are far from over as silk industry, which provides direct
and indirect employment to thousands, is in distress and several
filatures and reeling units are closed.
Even the traditional toy industry is in a mess because of recession
and shortage of timber. This area is devoid of any major industries,
but for Jigani in Anekal and Bidadi industrial area.
A large number of industrial units cleared by the Government have
not yet come up. Although some garment factories have come up, they are
reeling under recession.
This constituency, which is close to Bangalore city, makes for an
interesting sociological and economic study on the impact of
urbanisation on the traditional occupations. Large tracts of
agricultural land are being converted into housing sites. Farmers are
lured by real-estate businessmen from cities to sell their lands.
In the delimitation process, this constituency got most of the Assembly segments from the erstwhile Kanakapura Lok Sabha seat.
The only changes were that Uttarahally segment has been divided and
only parts from it have been added to Bangalore Rural while Kunigal
Assembly segment has replaced Malavalli. Delimitation has reduced the
size of the electorate as Kanakapura had 26.95 lakh voters. Now
Bangalore Rural has 18.65 lakh voters.
Social Engineering - Where are educated/elite Scheduled Caste/Adivasi/Backward caste people ?
can be achieved. Let all things go in parallel - social, cultural,
religious, political, economic revolution. What is wrong? Let us work
like a company. When a project is initiated, it needs all - management
and financial team, technical team. And all work coherently. When there
are dependencies on team, the teams dont wait. Different teams finish
their works and then combine the stuff. We should work in the same
fashion.
parallelly. But the most important thing is the clarity of the goal. We
know the goal. We have the paths. We have the people who are willing to
tread the path. Let us work in different directions without coming each
other’s ways. I am pretty sure time will honour our efforts sooner or
later. But when we can do sooner, why wait for later?
to travel back in the past to see the future. We become historians. We
become scientists. And journalists we are.
Ajit
wondering where all those educated Scheduled Caste elite have suddenly gone , off
from various e-forums. We all know that the general elections to the
Indian parliament is world’s largest democratic process where one man,
one vote, one value is the underlying principle based on equality. As
people belonging to the downtrodden sections of Indian society, our
stakes in this democratic process of elections are much much higher
than that of people belonging to the ruling bramhin/baniya elite class
of society. The government policies on employment, primary/higher
education, agriculture, rural development, poverty alleviation
programmes, distribution of surplus government land to landless poor,
credit to farmers, credit for small self employment businesses,
implementation of reservations in education/employmen t, preventing
atrocities, etc. are matters which literally determine a life or death
of our millions of Scheduled Caste/Adivasi/ Backward castes people. Whether or
not the government policies in all the above matters are made in our
favour and implemented in right earnest, entirely depends on whom we
elect to form the government. Whether our farmers commit suicide,
whether our people die of hunger, whether our women are raped/killed
and forced into prostitution, whether our unemployed youth live a
frustrated life and attend prematured old age, whether our children are
malnourished , etc all this is determined by whom we elect to rule over
us.
our entire society in the general elections, where are our educated,
elite SCs/Adivasi/ Backward caste people , what are they doing to
ensure that a government which can take care of the interests of our
millions of downtrodeen and underprevileged people , is elected ?
various e-forums of elite SCs before the run up to the US
preseidential elections. Which I belive was timely as that election was
a historical one which elected a black man to the office of US
presidency. But apart from a sentimental value, we did not have much at
stake directly in these US elections as we do in the general elections
to the Indian parliament. Therefore my question is where has this
activism on SC/Buddhist e-forums disappeared ? The people who
otherwise spend days together in carrying out intellectual debates on
some esoteric topics like vippasana, rebirth, etc., where have they
gone ? Are they providing guidance to our illiterate electorate on who
they should vote for ? Where are those people who are interested in
wellfare activities like jobs for our youth, helping our youth in
education, providing scholarships, etc. Would not all these welfare
activities be taken care of in one go if we elect a right government
which is sympathetic to our problems ?
class are all on their toes. They are threatned by a possibility of a SC woman occupying the highest seat of power in India. They are
leaving no stone unturned to awaken their people against this
unintended happening. They are using every means of communication - the
print and electronic media, blogs, e-forums, etc. besides all their
social and religious group to ensure a defeat of a upcoming Ambedkarite
force. They are creating all sort of confusion, spreading a feeling of
disgust towards politicians, political/ electoral process. Incidentally
the english speaking well educated SCs/Adivasis/ Backward caste
people are the biggest victims of this bramhnical propoganda of looking
down upon the political/parliamen tary/democratic institutions and
processes. In other words, the educated Dalits/Adivasis/ Backward caste
people are the carriers of these venomous bramhnical thoughts.
think that politics is for the crooked and bad people and they should
stay clear from the political/democrati c process of elections, you are
not only deceiving yourselves, you are acting against the societal
interests. If you think your responsibilty ends at donating money for
some welfare activities, you have not really understood the nature of
problems of the Dalits/Adivasis/ Backward castes. The problems of SCs/Adivasis/ Backward castes can be found solutions to at mass
level through appropriate state policies undertaken by a government
genuinely sympathetic to our problems.
play in enabling our people take right decision to vote right candidate
of right party, do reflect on what highly educated people from the BSO
are doing. Today the newly annointed chief of RSS has given directives
to RSS cadre operating through 40,000 RSS Shakhas across country to
carry out a door to door campaign to awaken people asking them to vote
a party/candidate who will protect the hindu(read bramhnical)
interests. Most of these RSS cadres would be highly educated, well
disciplined, well trained people who understand and appreciate the
close association between political power and their socio-cultural-
religious dominance.
emotionally charged up when there are atrocities/injustic es committed
on our people. We also forget those incidents with the same speed
as the speed with which we get charged up.
perpetrators of Khairlanji like atrocities is NOW ! Let us all take a
pledge to ensure that not a single valuable vote of ours will go to the
bramhnical parties / people of congress/ncp/ bjp who were
directly/indirectly behind the Khairlanji atrocities. Let us resolve to
defeat the bramhnical parties/people of congress/ncp/ bjp who are
beneficiaries of a rift between SCs and OBCs.
sincerely urge to all our Brothers/Sisters for whom it is possible to
go to their native places/constituenci es to awaken our people, please
do so. Let us come out of our shells and contribute our bit to efforts
to succeed Ambedkarism in country by voting for Bahujan Samaj Party.