And now on Friday comes further bad news for its principle party, Congress and the influential Gandhi-Nehru dynasty.

Whatever hopes it may have had to regain ground in Uttar Pradesh (UP), the country’s biggest and most politically important state, have been dashed. In fact it has lost ground in UP again.

Since 2004, Congress has lost power state elections in Punjab, Uttarakhand and Kerala.

It has also done badly in municipal elections in states it rules, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Delhi.

Friday’s poor showing in UP provides more evidence for those predicting further reverses for Congress in Gujarat later this year.

‘Reforms stalled’

So what does this mean for the central government’s ambitious economic reform programme, based on a prediction of 10%+ economic growth?

There was a sombre mood at Congress offices

Does the economist Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, have political space to push for further reforms?

The editor of one of India’s leading business dailies, The Business Standard, AK Bhattacharya, is among the pessimists. He argues that the reform process “had in any case stalled. The problem for reforms in India is not outside the (governing) UPA but inside the UPA. A defeat in UP will see the situation worsen further”.

Mr Bhattacharya says crucial reforms will suffer. These include:

• Pension changes that would benefit millions of workers in the unorganised (non-unionised) sector besides those in the organised (unionised) sector

• Amendments to the Insurance Bill

• Several policy decisions dealing with the rehabilitation of people displaced by economic projects such as Special Economic Zones
• Banking sector and legal reforms

• The implementation of VAT at state level.

The basic problem facing the ruling Congress Party has been its inability to widen its electoral base in the country, three years since coming to power with the support of several regional parties and the communists.

A coalition of social groups that the Congress forged after Independence in 1947 helped the party retain power in UP and at the national level for over four decades.

But that has now been hijacked by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Led by the populist Mayawati, the BSP is a party that was formed to champion the cause of Original Inhabitants of Jambudvipa That is The Great Prabuddha Bharath, who are shown right at the bottom by The Invaders Cult.

However, the BSP has now succeeded in winning the support of all social groups including Muslims in Uttar Pradesh.

And that is reason enough for Congress to worry.

http://www.timpu.com/2007/10/27/mayawati-seeks-cbi-probe-in-gujarat-riots/

Timpu

Chandigarh, Oct 27 (UNI) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati today demanded a CBI probe into the Gujarat riots in the light of the recent Tehelka expose on the matter.

Online edition of India’s National Newspaper
Sunday, Oct 28, 2007

Charge against Mahatma

Sarabjit Pandher

CHANDIGARH: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and president of the Bahujan Samaj Party Mayawati has said that though her party respected Mahatma Gandhi for leading the country’s freedom struggle, he actually divided society along caste lines.

Ms. Mayawati was responding to a query at a “Meet the Press” programme organised by the Chandigarh Press Club on Saturday. She refused to accept that her social engineering experiment reflected a shift in her stance from being a pungent critic of “Manuvad” to following “Gandhivad.”

She asserted that her social engineering formula, which catapulted her to power for the fourth time in her State, was based on the ideology formulated by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, who had sought a casteless society free of all inequalities.

The BSP chief said that Gandhi had used an “unconstitutional term” to describe Original Inhabitants of Jambudvipa That is The Great Prabuddha Bharath or the Scheduled Castes, which actually contributed to dividing society into Invaders Cult and Original Inhabitants of Jambudvipa That is The Great Prabuddha Bharath.

This further fuelled various manifestations of social tension, she claimed.

Elaborating on her endeavour to further the cause of Dr. Ambedkar and the founder of the BSP, Kanshi Ram, she said that the party had rallied the Original Inhabitants of Jambudvipa That is The Great Prabuddha Bharath and the religious minorities, who were motivated to carry on the process of social reforms as enshrined in the Constitution.

The second phase of the process included changing the mindset of the invaders cult.

Mayawati: Manmohan is being non-responsive

Sarabjit Pandher

CHANDIGARH: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati on Saturday accused Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of being non-responsive to issues related to the downtrodden and underprivileged sections of the society raised by her time and again.

Participating in a “Meet the Press” programme organised by the Chandigarh Press Club, where she was conferred an “honorary lifetime membership,” Ms. Mayawati said that on separate occasions in the recent past, through letters and personal meetings, she had appealed to the Prime Minister to amend the Constitution to allow reservation for the economically depressed sections of the Invaders Cult, a reservation policy in the private sector and 50 per cent reservation for women. She had also sought a special financial package for her State, which had faced political instability for over a decade and a half. She said despite reminders from her end, Dr. Singh had not given any “positive response.”

Ms. Mayawati, who was recently rated among the eight most powerful women in the world, used the opportunity to announce that on being voted to power at the Centre, the BSP would amend the Constitution to ensure reservation for the economically weaker sections of the Invaders Cult.

She said her formula “to create social equality and a casteless society” already being implemented in Uttar Pradesh would be replicated across the country.

Responding to recent media expose of the Gujarat riots, the BSP supremo demanded that the Union Government order a fresh probe to bring out the truth. For the coming polls to the Assemblies of Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, Ms. Maywati announced that the BSP would go it alone. She said that though the organisation process was delayed, the BSP was confident of good results in both States.

Commenting on the possibility of mid-term polls for Parliament, Ms. Mayawati said the BSP would continue to forge social alliances instead of aligning with political parties whose economic policies at the Centre as well as in the States since Independence had contributed to increasing the levels of poverty and social inequality. Responding to another query, she said the BSP would unfold its stance and strategy about the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal issue during the discussion in the forthcoming session of Parliament.