#dnaEdit: The last stand

The six Janata parties stretching from the Hindi heartland to the southern state of Karnataka have decided to merge into a single political entity. The re-united party — expected to be led by Mulayam Singh Yadav, the seniormost leader among them all — will soon announce its name, symbol as well as the party’s programme.

The just-reinvented political formation represents a significant gathering of the Hindi heartland’s political bigwigs like former Bihar Chief Ministers Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad as well as Uttar Pradesh’s Samajwadi Party veteran, Mulayam Singh Yadav. Their unity — even if nothing but an electoral strategy — could indeed pose a tough challenge to their adversary, the Bharatiya Janata Party. After all, it is this gallery of leaders who have helmed north India’s politics for the last 25 years. Many of them like Nitish Kumar, Lalu Prasad and Sharad Yadav had their political baptism in the JP students’ movement of 1973-74, which culminated in Indira Gandhi imposing the Emergency in 1975. In the political limelight for the last two decades, these leaders were pushed to the brink of political oblivion in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections by the Narendra Modi-led BJP. It is this sense of political mortality that has goaded these friends-turned-foe leaders to come together. The socialist leaders are now united in their single mission to push the BJP back in the assembly elections due in Bihar later this year.

Uttar Pradesh, considered the most crucial state in deciding the political fortunes of political parties, goes to the polls in 2017.

The socialists are united in their opposition to the majoritarian politics of Modi’s BJP. Their counter-strategy is to marshal their caste constituencies along the axes of Yadavs, Kurmis, Jats as well as Muslims, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. As far as electoral strategy goes, the united Janata parivar may succeed in acting as a buffer against the march of the BJP. But here’s the dampener: the new front — if it can be described as such — stands devoid of political ideas reflecting the changing socio-economic and cultural dimensions of contemporary India. The implementation of the Mandal Commission report was a turning point in the course of Indian political and electoral history. The challenges of a 21st century India are indeed different. True, discrimination along the axis of caste continues. But for the slogan of social justice to acquire real significance, the Mandal leaders will have to move beyond the politics of mobilising voters along caste and religious lines. 

Despite their intellectual bankruptcy, there is hope that they could remain relevant on the political stage in north India. The BJP has emerged as a dominant party replacing the Congress. It is for this reason alone that a reconfigured Janata group could occupy its rightful position in the space marked out for opposition. But that could be cold comfort for the people of the two populous states seeking genuine and working political alternatives.

Even if the people were to favour the BJP in the forthcoming assembly elections in Bihar and UP, voters would want a meaningful opposition to serve as a watchdog. It appears that the socialist old guard is not in a position to rise to that occasion. While these leaders take the last stand of their careers, the country is looking for a younger generation of leaders to challenge the political monopoly of the BJP.