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- INDIA
It is a matter of sheer joy to watch the Samajwadi party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav emerge as a political leader in his own right. The contribution of the 51-year-old Yadav to the politics of the day is significant, and timely.
He will be remembered by history for having returned the focus of the big fat political discourse in Uttar Pradesh back on the still unrealised dream of social justice and equality amongst all citizens.
“I love the twinkle in his eyes, the mischievous smile worn by Akhilesh Yadav these days and the bounce in his stride,” a SP supporter in Lucknow said.
She was depressed and most uninspired with the inability of her party to challenge the fast spreading politics of hate and majoritarian communalism. The religiously motivated ethnic divisions engineered in society that pitched citizen against citizen was causing fear and worry.
However Yadav’s decision to join the I.N.D.I.A bloc earlier this year was pragmatic. Together with his colleagues in the I.N.D.I.A bloc, Yadav has changed the political landscape of UP and brought hope back into the life of the meek and the mild.
Yadav has metamorphosed today as a popular leader of different sections of society, irrespective of the religious belief of the voter. At last he has surfaced out of closed room politics practised by him for over a decade to return to realpolitik at the grassroots.
At long last, the SP is seen to address the concerns of the poorest of the poor who are also the majority population of the state. Now the SP is not just a representative of the Yadav community.
After having won the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, Yadav is now busy winning even more hearts. His growing confidence as leader of the single largest political party in UP is becoming.
His newfound sense of humour that garnishes his every speech in public places, and in Parliament has introduced laughter into the miserable existence of the majority population of UP. His witty jibes are a pleasant surprise as is his foray into Urdu poetry.
On the SP win of the Ayodhya Lok Sabha seat by 50,000 votes, Yadav said that the victory came thanks to the political understanding of the mature voter. For the benefit of the pious perhaps, Yadav added that the SP sweep in Ayodhya was the will of Lord Ram.
“We have heard, what Lord Ram wills, happens. This is his decision,” Yadav continued that those who claimed they would win the Lok Sabha elections for a third term because they had brought Lord Rama to Ayodhya now depend on the support of coalition partners to form a government.
Taking a pot shot at Chief Minister (CM) Adityanath next, Yadav regretted in a verse that the CM did all the work but someone else came and took credit for the brand new temple built in Ayodhya.
Huzoor-e ala khamosh baithe isi gham mein, mehfil loot le gaya koi jo sajai thi humne.
The Making of a Politician
Till a few months ago, Yadav’s followers had no clue what the SP was up to. After having served one term as CM of UP between 2011 and 2017, Yadav had made some bumbling attempts at politics.
He seemed no patch on the grassroot leader that his father and founder of the SP Mulayam Singh Yadav was. That was the impression most people had of the former CM till the last Lok Sabha elections.
After having lost most elections since 2017, the SP was dismissed as a loser. UP has been a stronghold of majoritarian communal politics for several decades.
However, in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections the socialist SP surprised itself by winning 37 seats, 32 seats more than what it had won in 2019. The SP’s switch to concentrate on the concerns of the socially and economically depressed segment of society and its promise to provide justice to them is what worked in favour of the party.
Yadav addressed the unemployed. He insisted on the implementation of reservation in jobs and on caste census. Tirelessly he spoke on the burning issue of unfair exams.
Together with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Yadav promised to protect the Constitution which got him into the good books of the Dalit voter who has kept a distance in the past from the Yadav community. The tie up with the Congress got the SP even more Muslim voters, and further consolidated the support of Dalits.
Yadav’s promise to benefit the Pichda (backwards), Dalits and Alpsankhyak (minorities and women) (PDA) attracted voters to the SP. His masterstroke was to get veteran SP leader and a Pasi Awadhesh Prasad to contest from Ayodhya.
Post-election, Yadav has appointed Mata Prasad Pandey, an upper caste socialist as the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the UP Assembly.
Who is Mata Prasad Pandey?
Pandey, 82 is a SP legislature from Itwa in Siddharth Nagar district. He replaced Yadav as LoP after the latter resigned from the Karhal seat in Mainpuri district on being elected to the Lok Sabha from Kannauj.
Pandey is a former Speaker of the UP Assembly and the upper caste face of the SP, making the party’s PDA policy more broad based and inclusive. The SP prioritises the interests of the backward classes, Dalits, and minorities (PDA), but not at the cost of excluding the upper caste voter.
By including upper caste politicians like Pandey into the heart of its politics, the SP hopes to win over the maximum number of voters for the state elections to be held in 2027.
The Poet Politician
Congress member Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra, Imran Pratapgarhi is from UP. The 36-year-old is the talk of the town for having brought poetry back into parliament, and in public addresses.
During the debate on the Union Budget he said last Monday that the hopeful eyes of the middle class had searched for some relief from inflation and unemployment from the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman but found none in the many pages long budget.
He asked if bottles in a blood bank have the name of the donor written on them? Then why identify vegetable and fruit vendors by forcing them to write their name on their stall?
Here Pratapgarhi says that no godfather will show up on this journey to help, that the thorn on the feet will have to be dealt with oneself. The tradition has been to dig in the heels here and now before the spring of water will spout.
‘Na humsafar na hum nasheen kisi safar se nikelega,
Hamaarey paaon ka kaanta hum hiin se nikelega,
Watan ki reet mujhe aidheeyan ragadni hai,
Mujhe yaqeen hai paani yahin se niklega’.
Pratapgarhi’s critique of the day’s politics is consistent but the choice of his vocabulary is music to the ears in contrast to some other public voices that have been heard addressing political opponents crudely to say shoot the bloody traitors: “‘Desh ke gaddaron ko goli maaro saalon ko’”.
Or they talk about caste census saying: “‘Jinki jaati ka pata nahin woh jaatigat janganna ki baat kartey hain’”.
Need A Philosopher Politician
The longing of the public for a poet-politician and a philosopher head of state, is ancient. The hope is to hear politicians say what sounds like music to the collective ear of the public.
The belief is that the best form of government is one formed by philosophers. A philosopher king was considered the ideal head of state in a civilised society.
The Greeks had once believed that until philosophers are kings and until political greatness and wisdom meet in one, until political power and philosophy entirely coincide, cities will have no rest from evil. Till then there will be no happiness, either public or private.
