Patna, (Bihar Times): As is his wont the Union fertilizer minister, Ram Vilas Paswan, is once again hell bent upon spoiling the ‘party’––read Alliance here. But he is no different from the other Dalit leaders of the country.

In 1999 his one vote led to the fall of the then Vajpayee government on the floor of Parliament. Then weeks later he joined the same NDA. But in the NDA he used the same formula of bargaining his position as he is doing today. It was largely because of him that the NDA could not contest the 2000 assembly election unitedly and had to pay the price. The RJD managed to win by a wafer thin majority.

In 2004 he agreed to contest eight seats within the UPA as he was down in the dump following his resignation from the Vajpayee cabinet after the BJP entered into alliance with Mayawati in May 2002. However, during 2004 campaign he said that he resigned in protest against the Gujarat riots, but the truth was that he quit a couple of months after it was all over in Narendra Modi’s state. In fact he was furious over the BJP’s proximity to Mayawati as the BJP-BSP alliance in UP considerably reduced his bargaining position as Dalit leader of national stature within the NDA.

In 2005 assembly election he took another U-turn and refused to join the UPA. He made Muslim chief minister an issue but ended up sending only one Muslim in the state assembly. Last month he unilaterally announced the name of 20 candidates for the coming Lok Sabha election. Out of this only one is Muslim. Though he did not flay Lalu Yadav in 2004 in 2005 assembly election he made him the main target. Even today he is leaving no opportunity to target him. He knows the weakness of Lalu Yadav and the Congress Party. Even a small fraction of Dalit votes is very essential for the UPA.

But the RJD is not in mood to oblige him as it won 22 out of 26 seats it contested last time. However, it also knows that once the UPA gets disintegrated in Bihar the direct beneficiary will be none else but the NDA.

The problem with the Dalit politics in India is that their political leaders are not seriously interested in the issues like communalism or secularism. Rather they are more keen on the empowerment of Dalits. Be it Mayawati or Paswan or anyone else they can join hands with any party which suit their interest. They are of the view that remaining in power is the best bet for the Dalits.

Even the architect of the Indian Constitution, B R Ambedkar, adopted a slightly different approach. More than opposing the British he wanted the emancipation of the Dalits. Given the choice between the British and Brahmins he would go with the former. Even the anti-Brahmin Justice Party of Tamil Nadu followed a different line. The party decided to contest the council election in early 1920s when the Congress was vehemently opposed to it and was busy in Non-Cooperation Movement following the enactment of Rowlatt Act of 1919 and Jallianwala Bagh firing of the same year.

But the tragedy with the present day Dalit politics is that Paswan and Mayawati are not united though their approach is somewhat the same––that is to remain in power or extract as much bargain as possible. Mayawati in UP and Paswan in Bihar, both are in the no-man’s land of politics in the age of Alliances.

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