Road not taken

Despite similar backgrounds, Mayawati (R) and Mamata seem to be going different ways.

The extent of success that Mayawati’s ‘social engineering project’ is going to have in the daily business of running the largest state in India is currently one of the hottest debates in Indian politics. What is also dominating discussion is how she is going to influence government behaviour at the centre in the coming years. But what is already visible is that since making a spectacular comeback in UP, Mayawati has conducted herself with a sobriety and dignity that signifies a definitive break, a calculated shift from the politics of confrontation that she once embodied. She has pulled off an improbable political merger with the upper castes, won by a thumping majority in the assembly elections and is being wooed by all and sundry for the next round of political waltzing.

Now look east for another woman, another regional leader whose similarity with Mayawati is more than just in holding national aspirations: Mamata Banerjee. Except their politico-ideological origins — social outcaste in case of Mayawati and political underclass in case of Mamata — their coming of age almost mirrors each other. They come from extremely humble backgrounds and have no ‘pedigree’. They both rose to national prominence during the ‘90s, largely due to their charisma and appeal. They have consistently stood their individual grounds and resisted co-option into larger political formations, though neither has been able to resist a bit of flirtation.

In a way, though, Mamata’s task was the more difficult one. Mayawati had as her mentor Kanshiram, who pioneered the dalit revolution and built up significant political and social capital. But Mamata’s tutor was an emasculated Congress in Bengal which had lost all credibility in putting up a respectable resistance to the might of the CPI(M). This forced her to set up her own party with almost no political capital but herself. In the following years Mamata successfully shaped herself as the CPM’s only rival, the only voice of real (if sometimes listless) political opposition and the only challenge to the CPM’s babu politics.
Mayawati and Mamata also made the same mistake of aligning with the BJP, only to retract later. But not before they had made gains from the alliance — one becoming UP chief minister and the other a minister in the NDA cabinet.

But there the similarities end. In the last few years, Mayawati, major corruption charges against her notwithstanding, has taken major political strides. While keeping her traditional base of Dalits and other backward classes intact, she allied with upper castes, chose a Brahmin mascot, kept equidistant from the Congress and the BJP, played her cards right and reached a political landmark.

While experience taught Mayawati to be resilient, practical and reasonable, Mamata appears to have learnt nothing, though she has maintained an image of incorruptibility. Politically however, she has been a loser. She has not been able to tone down her histrionics. She has suppressed any reasonable voice in her party while pursuing a confrontationist agenda, often borrowing from the CPM lexicon. The result: her party lost all its parliamentary seats except her own, her national stature diminished and her party was trounced by the more disciplined and wily CPM in the last assembly elections in Bengal.
Singur and Nandigram gave Mamata an unprecendented opportunity to get back to political prominence. Initially she made productive moves. She converted Singur and Nandigram into emotive ideas gaining unexpected support from the middle classes, who had hitherto rallied behind Buddhadeb. She also made Singur a national level issue, forced the CPM to do a rethink and made a cause out of Nandigram, thereby making an economic issue into a successful, political one. But then she lost ground, since closure is not in her dictionary. She dragged issues beyond their expiry date, refusing to discuss matters. Just last week she walked out of an all-party meeting, summoned to restore order in Nandigram, over a flimsy complaint.

Perhaps she now needs to learn a trick or two from Mayawati, especially on how to make political choices. She could also try to make her politics inclusive rather than bellicose, profit from hot-button issues and yet maintain a dignified and disarming calm. Otherwise, while Mayawati will go places, Mamata will end up just being a politician who never lived up to her promise.