Requiem for a dream

 

 

Kanshi Ram was an unreasonable man. He left the safety of a low-level government job, just the kind you never get chucked out of, to band together a trade union of thin-skinned people. He laughed at people who asked him not to rock the boat, and strung together a series of provocative slogans aimed at arousing his people, the Dalits. He formed a political party of Dalits, and targeted Uttar Pradesh, where no small party could dream of making it to the top. Then, when critically ill the first time, he mumbled the name of a woman as his successor who was barely liked at that time in the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Most unexpected, he ignored advice to keep journalists happy and thrashed them one afternoon when they landed up at his New Delhi residence uninvited. Finally, he abhorred a stable government saying he wanted a wobbly set-up at his beck and call. This is the man who died in the wee hours of 9 October after a long stint in bed, hemmed in by Mayawati, his heir, and away from blood relatives who barely played a role in his life anyway.

He believed that the one big failure of the Dalit movement was the leadership vacuum after Bhim Rao Ambedkar died. This, he thought, led the Dalits to the Congress party, a political journey unlike any other in recent Indian history. He liked the Buddha, much like Ambedkar, but didn't have the time or inclination to turn him into a mascot. Around the time he turned 40, he got restive and formed the Backwards and Minorities Employees Federation (BAMCEF), with its base in Punjab. It almost never took off. Kanshi Ram had to launch BAMCEF three times until it finally registered a presence in the streets. But a trade union is never an end in itself for a man with political ambition. So BAMCEF became the Dalit Shoshit Samaj Sangharsh Samiti (DS4), an outfit half-way to becoming a full-fledged party. The BSP was at last born in 1984, a year when Indira Gandhi was assassinated and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) also born. The BSP worked, partially. Every government formed in UP after 1993 included the BSP but it was never good enough to trigger a blue revolution. The big news is that the BSP is one of India's six national parties. But there's a long way to go. Almost every top leader over the last 20 years has been singed by Kanshi Ram. His biggest acts: break with Mulayam Singh Yadav (the combo would never have lost power otherwise) and anoint Mayawati as his successor. George Bernard Shaw it was who said all progress depends on the unreasonable man. Kanshi Ram was one. He sure left his mark.