Dalit Emancipation and Kanshi Ram’s Captivity

In the modern context, Kanshi Ram’s name has become synonymous with Dalit empowerment. The complexion of Indian democracy significantly changed with his rise on the political horizon of India. Major Indian political parties were taken by surprise. The era of one-party rule ended paving a way for the coalition politics at the Centre. He entered in politics like an ascetic by renouncing the comfort of hearth and home for writing a new chapter on making of the Indian Nation. Utter Pradesh Chief Minister Kumari Mayawati, his keen follower, created history by winning absolute majority in predominantly Hindu majority state of Utter Pradesh. A spate of pro-Dalit developments undergoing in Utter Pradesh would not have been otherwise possible for several decades. The day is not far when she may even occupy the seat of power in Delhi. A majority of Dalits are proud of Kanshi Ram and his protégé Kumari Mayawati for empowering them, but few experience alienation for not being allowed to participate in the celebratory moments of their patriarch’s vision.
According to a report published in Times of India on 10/19/2008, Sadhanshu Kumar, a youth from Bhagalpur and an ardent follower of BSP icon Kanshi Ram has been singularly campaigning at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi for a CBI probe into his unnatural death. Nobody can miss the banner displaying, “Kanshi Ram ne di Sardari, Mayawati ne ki gaddari” (Kanshi Ram put a crown on her, but she betrayed him.) Sadhanshu Kumar may be among very few who would try to belittle Mayawati’s remarkable history being the first woman of Dalit origin to command so much authority. Everyone knows that UP CM could jolt influential persons like Mrs. Sonia and Rahul Gandhi out of their smugness, sometimes just to demonstrate the sweep of her unquestionable power. Dedicated supporters of Kanshi Ram like Sadhanshu Kumar from Bihar are relatively very poor and non-entities in comparison to the immensurable strength of Utter Pradesh Chief Minister.
On Kanshi Ram’s second death anniversary, Kumari Mayawati announced 3000 crores development projects. One of the projects, “Dr. Shakuntala Mishra Handicapped University” has been named after BSP General Secretary, Satish Chandra Mishra’s mother. Mishra, a Brahmin is currently the undisputed king of Utter Pradesh CM’s strategies and policies. The naming of the Handicapped University after Mishra’s mother to memorialize Kanshi Ram’s death anniversary, appears to be a cruel reminder of Kanshi Ram’s 95 year old mother who died during a prolonged struggle to liberate her ailing son from Mayawati’s clutches. Critics say Mayawati used purposely Mishra’s mother to demoralize Kanshi Ram’s relatives who still allege that Mr. Ram was killed while in her captivity. The act of naming Handicapped University after her General Secretary’s mother, according to a Kanshi Ram’s supporter, is like rubbing salt in the festering wounds of his survivors.
A school teacher who had dreamed of becoming a civil servant at the most, Mayawati fantasized her life on the roller coaster when she met Kanshi Ram in 1980. Kanshi Ram’s matter-of- fact style captivated her. She could not get over what he had prophesied about her ‘being the ruler instead of being ruled.’ She started monopolizing him from the very first day of her meeting with him; and thought she would not only win him over to her side completely, but also not tolerate anyone sharing the special pride he had.
Mayawati recognized that Kanshi Ram had set a mission on a higher plane where wealth, marriage and family ties could not distract him. His vows about not marrying and amassing wealth during his BAMCEF days reflected the singularity of his purpose and extreme dedication to the cause of Dalit upliftment.
Mayawati figured out that Kanshi Ram’s detachment from worldly allures had created a void that he wanted to fill by empowering Dalits in the national politics. She set her eye on the empty space of his life and started filling it with her domineering presence. She presented herself as the agent of change that Kanshi Ram had most advertized. The aggressiveness she showed by venting her vitriol against Brahmins, Bania and Thakurs had convinced Kanshi Ram of her potential and eagerness to work for the party cause.
The experience of being three time chief minister of India’s most populous state during Kanshi Ram’s life time, Mayawati had carved her own independent line that ran contrary to her mentor’s beliefs. Some supporters feel Kanshi Ram’s resolve to remain unaffected by political corruption and relatives’ promotion was woefully reversed.. She showed her tendency to amass unlimited wealth and got embroiled in Taj Corridor corruption case. After 1998, Kanshi Ram decided not to contest any election for the public office. He planned to improve the party functioning and make it more attached to the grassroots level. But by 2000, he realized that he had lost the command of the party to Mayawati’s new alliances and tremendous financial clout. As he had no wealth, no home, no friends, he experienced helplessness typically like millions of Dalits who end up in traps of Chankayan making. Since Mayawati increased her surveillance to monitor his movements and people he met with, Kanshi Ram apprehended a grave threat to his life. He allegedly gave hints of a conspiracy to his supporters. Before Kanshi Ram could wriggle out of the trap, he suffered the paralytic stroke making him completely at the mercy of Mayawati, an Amazonian figure in Dalit politics. Earlier, Kanshi Ram tried to spend more time in Punjab. Mayawati had vehemently disapproved of his new love for his family. According to a report, she even used a filthy language for his 93 year old mother. Mayawati now had resolved to demonize Kanshi Ram’s family, and she spared no effort to succeed in her mission. Consequently, all the aggressiveness that was reserved previously for Brahmins, Banias and Thakurs had shifted singularly against Ram’s family whom she considered as a threat to her fiefdom. She skillfully substituted slandering Brahmins in UP with vilifying his family in Punjab.
Kanshi Ram’s increasing interest in Punjab was ascribed to his remote fixation with his family. Mayawati needed a strategy to project his family, and the Sikh background as fundamentally opposed to the national interests. Such a scheme had a greater traction in it as it would help Kanshi Ram become harbinger of hopes for Dalits and Brahmins in UP. As the paralytic stroke affected the right side of his brain, it was strong reason to retire him compulsorily to the bed. Mayawati idolized him to an extent that he existed as an Icon of Dalit revolution, but had nothing to do with everyday politics. Kanshi Ram tragic withdrawal from active politics left a void. Circumspect Dalit leaders apprehend that Brahmins were looking for long to fill the void created by Ram’s absence.
In real politics, Kanshi Ram was immediately replaced by Satish Chander Mishra as the most dominant influence in Mayawati’s life. She said that Mishra helped her in difficult times when Kanshi Ram had a stroke and his family was instigated against her. The son of the former Chief Justice of Guwahati High Court, Satish Mishra as her legal counsel, bailed her out of Taj Corridor corruption case. Mayawati got Mishra elected to Rajya Sabha seat. She also appointed him general secretary of BSP. As soon as Mishra took the center stage, it is believed, a major shift in Ambedkar’s ideology took place.
According to a report, Satish Mishra travelled 22,000 Kilometer across about 70 districts of Utter Pradesh between July1, 2006 to Sept 2006. Earlier, he had convinced Mayawati that the iconic value of Kanshi Ram’s life could not be allowed to waste away by his family in Punjab. A few days before his death, Mishra had completed his tour of magnetizing Brahmins to the BSP fold. He now needed to manipulate media so that the family feud turns to BSP advantage. After Kanshi Ram’s death on October 9, 2006, a host of well coordinated strategies were seen in operation.
Since Delhi High Court unexpectedly rejected the plea of Kanshi Ram’s family for the post-mortem of the body, his brother and sister became mute spectators to what followed at the funeral rites. The manner of hurriedly disposing of Kanshi Ram’s body aroused some people’s suspicion. The body was supposed to be for the public view for about two hours, but it reached one hour late leaving hardly any time for his supporters to have the last look. The funeral was advanced from 3PM to 2 PM. The cremation was carried out hurriedly according to Buddhists rites. Kanshi Ram’s family had neither any leader nor any court on their side. The funeral pyre was lit by Mayawati herself in the presence of the BSP founder’s brother and sisters. The last severe blow came with the announcement that his ashes would be the exclusive property of the party.
Satish Mishra next planned strategies to cash on the sympathy wave in ensuing 2007 elections. On October 17, 2006, Mayawati took Kanshi Ram’s ashes in an urn to Lucknow. It took six hours from Lucknow Airport to Ambedkar Bhawan where she made one hour speech to several hundred thousand people emphasizing that she was the sole inheritor of his political legacy. She appealed to voters to honor Sahib Kanshi Ram by electing her with absolute majority. Voters indeed surprised pollsters by giving Mayawati absolute majority in the Vidhan Sabha. On the eve of his two death anniversaries, many development projects were announced, but the question still remains, “Is Mayawati, the sole inheritor of what Kanshi Ram’s symbolized in his life?” If she is, she will definitely give a program for social emancipation of Dalits in accordance with the ideology of Kanshi Ram and Ambedkar.
Kanshi Ram said that once Dalits ‘capture power, social emancipation would follow keeping in line with most progressive political philosophy and ideology.’ In the next Parliamentary elections, Mayawati maybe a strong candidate for Prime Ministerial berth; if she gets the coveted post, she will fulfill the prophecy of her mentor. The question of ‘social emancipation’ as it is more complex and subtle, will require entirely a different strategy. Dalits have to be extricated from the swamp of ‘inferiority complex’ on the one hand and their self-esteem has to be attached with power structures of the social domain on the other. Social emancipation is more akin to personal growth of character and conviction. It has a fundamental difference with the Varna system which seeks to empower through exclusion. Social emancipation takes guidance from spiritual stock that promotes inclusiveness and bipartisanship even with rivals. Kanshi Ram’s siblings in such circumstances maybe partners with Mayawati for a new era of pride and glory
BSP founder Mr Kanshi Ram was an alumnus of Government College Ropar where the writer once worked as a teacher.

v.p.singh
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