The women’s reservation bill has perhaps provided Lalu Prasad with the last stab at reviving his stumbling political career. By raising the pitch over reservations for OBCs and Muslim women, Lalu is making a desperate attempt to recapture his original constituency. The aim isn’t to bring down the UPA government, but to create a new focal point for the Mandal forces who have been badly splintered in recent times. In the process, he has joined hands with one-time foes – Mulayam Singh Yadav and Sharad Yadav – in the hope that a political realignment in the Hindi heartland can be achieved. The Yadav troika may see their calculations wrong though they believe that their Muslim-OBC support base is intact, and merely needs to be galvanised into action through emotive slogans. The last two decades have seen a dramatic shift in aspiration levels across the country, and to believe that UP and Bihar would be untouched by the winds of change is to remain frozen in time. How many Muslim women, for example, will truly believe that the Yadavs stand for political empowerment of the minorities when the fact is that none of the Mandal parties has made a serious effort to raise issues of jobs and education for Muslims? When the Yadavs, after having enriched their families, claim to stand against elitism, how many people will trust them?
Mohd Ziyaullah Khan
Nagpur, Maharashtra