Insulted Maya plays Dalit card, puts Sonia on defensive

She lit the fire by crudely criticising Mayawati's policy of compensating rape victims. The Uttar Pradesh chief minister clapped state Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi behind bars and goons set her house on fire. In the end, Congress president Sonia Gandhi had to half-apologise for Bahuguna's words.

But this is not the end. It is the beginning of the battle for Uttar Pradesh's Dalit vote, which holds the key to the next assembly election due in 2011.

Speaking at a rally in Moradabad on Wednesday, Bahuguna had slammed Mayawati's policy of awarding compensation to rape victims. Her remarks implied: "How would Mayawati feel if she were to be given money after being raped?" But made in an insensitive manner, the statement angered the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

Bahuguna's house was set on fire later in the night in Lucknow, and both the Congress and the BSP have since been trading charges.

The Mayawati government slapped the stringent Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against Bahuguna, who was arrested on Wednesday night. A Moradabad court remanded her in judicial custody on Thursday. Her bail application will come up for hearing today.

The Congress blamed the BSP for vandalism at Bahuguna's house, but Mayawati said it was stage-managed and ordered an inquiry. Not letting the focus slip away from Bahuguna's remarks, she demanded an apology from Gandhi.

The BSP chief also deftly sought to portray the whole episode as yet another assault on Dalits, forcing the Congress to distance itself from Bahuguna's remarks. Mayawati's point man in Delhi, Satish Mishra, did his bit. "Please recall what she [Bahuguna] said, and the manner in which she said it," he said. "I cannot even repeat what she said. Do you think that such words should be used?"

Mishra said the fact that the Congress has not suspended Bahuguna proved that the party high command "endorses the remarks". Gandhi sought to limit the damage by expressing her anguish at the remarks. "The party regrets the personal element in reference to UP chief minister Mayawati," said a party statement issued on her behalf.

Reason: The Congress, particularly Rahul Gandhi, has been trying to make inroads into the Dalit vote bank of Mayawati. The party fears that Bahuguna's remarks may have given Mayawati an opportunity to portray herself as a hapless Dalit woman who is being hounded by the upper castes.

Conscious of the implications, Sonia Gandhi asked for details of Bahuguna's speech in Moradabad as well as the vandalism at her house. She was closeted with her political managers in her Parliament House office since morning as the matter caused an uproar in both Houses, forcing adjournments.

Gandhi also interacted with most of the Congress MPs from Uttar Pradesh who were present in Parliament on Thursday.

Opinion, however, was divided. A section of MPs felt that Bahuguna's remarks would help Mayawati rally the Dalits around her. Others, however, said that though the remarks were in bad taste, the chief minister's act of jailing Bahuguna and the vandalism at her house would divide Dalits and Brahmins in the state.

The party leadership has opted for a cautious approach. Mohammed Azharuddin, the Congress MP from Moradabad, was asked to visit the constituency and meet Bahuguna while the party weighed its response.

Initially, the Congress adopted an aggressive tone accusing Mayawati of instigating the arson at Bahuguna's house. But as details emerged later, the party changed tack, distancing itself from Bahuguna's remarks even as it held Mayawati responsible for the attack.

Even Rahul Gandhi chose to keep his powder dry by just dwelling on the grim law-and-order situation in Uttar Pradesh.

But other parties didn't miss the opportunity to score some political brownie points. Samajwadi Party state chief and member of Parliament Akhilesh Yadav, son of party boss Mulayam Singh Yadav, said the destruction at Bahuguna's house reflected the lawlessness in the state.

The BJP took the moral high ground, blasting Bahuguna for remarks lowering a woman's dignity. Though the BJP termed the burning down of Bahuguna's house wrong, it noted that Mayawati had clarified that it was done by Congress, not BSP, workers. "The inquiry [instituted by Mayawati] shall bring out the facts," said Sushma Swaraj, the BJP's deputy leader in the Lok Sabha.