The United Front (UF) under Prime Minister I.K. Gujral is once again witnessing a political fragmentation within. One the face of it, the problem is all about a scam-tainted and chargesheeted Bihar Chief Minister.However, the process of reconfiguration of Indian politics-accelerated by the recent developments-cannot be explained in terms of a clash of egos. Nor can it be described as an altruistic campaign against corruption as some ideologues of the UF, the Left in particular, would like us to believe.Today's political scenario stands out in sharp contrast to the one in 1990 when the first Janata Dal (JD) Prime Minister V.P. Singh played the Mandal card. Mandal-or the empowerment of the backward castes and Dalits-was hardly an issue in the election campaigns of 1996. The agenda of social justice too was much diluted in the JD election manifesto.When the question of the leadership of the United Front first came up, the known Mandal messiahs like Laloo Prasad Yadav, Sharad Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav were quietly sidelined. It was H.D. Deve Gowda, known for his penchant for liberalisation and his anti-land-reforms policies who assumed the mantle of prime ministership. Ironically, his name was proposed by CPI(M) stalwart Jyoti Basu. Gowda's replacement, Gujral, also does not have a history of backing the cause of social justice.The disarray in the forces of social justice is reflected in the ground situation in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, the two bastions of pro-Mandal mobilisation.In Bihar, Laloo Yadav is pitted not just against an upper-caste Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Opposing him are his erstwhile comrades in the struggle for social justice like Nitish Kumar (now in the Samata Party), Sharad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan (JD), Mulayam Singh Yadav (SP) and the Left parties.The fragmentation of the forces of social justice in Uttar Pradesh started much earlier when Mulayam floated the Samajwadi Party in 1993. However, power in the State has eluded Mulayam since the break-up of the SP-BSP tie-up in 1995. Mulayam is now trying to increase his backwards-Muslims votebank by wooing the upper castes.Elsewhere, the JD has never seriously taken up its social justice agenda. As a result, the fragmentation of the JD in Orissa has driven a good chunk of its rank and file to the BJP. In Karnataka, Ramakrishna Hegde's expulsion had sown the seeds of dissent immediately after a Kannadiga became India's Prime Minister. The latest split over the Laloo Prasad Yadav issue has only deepened the divide. Ironically, social justice is not the prime concern of either of the factions.The scenario might provoke obituaries on Mandal politics. But even though the return of the JD at the Centre has not meant the return of the vigorous social justice agenda, the decline does not necessarily signal an end of the assertion of the backward castes.As an issue, the reservations for the other backward castes (OBCs) had a strong democratic content in view of the sharp distortions in education and employment created by the caste system. Mandal politics played a historic role in putting and end to the upper-caste domination in these spheres. In fact, the militant assertion of their political identity by other oppressed sections ushered in a Mandal era in politics.The compulsions of electoral politics led other mainstream parties to adopt a politically correct posture on the question of the socially backward. It has made a dark horse like Kesri the right choice for the top slot in the Congress. Even the BJP, traditionally a party of the upper castes, has not escaped the Mandal invasion.Even outside the political arena, the ideology for the empowerment of the oppressed classes has taken roots across the country. The resurgence of the backward castes may have been more visible in the crucial Hindi belt but its tremors can be felt even in distant states like Kerala and Maharashtra. The core of the Mandal leadership, however, seems to have lost much of its steam. Its leaders, battered and bruised, are looking for new allies.The leaders have themselves to blame for the sad state of affairs. They did not realise the great democratising potential of the Mandal movement. They did not extend the social justice agenda beyond the reservations issue.This was because the pro-Mandal forces compromised with the political interests of the ruling elite they intended to replace. Dominated by the neo-rich, landed and business classes, they continued to play the game with the same set of rules which had been used by their erstwhile oppressors.The result is a bizarre situation. A manuwadi BJP is wooing the Dalits in UP by pampering the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Kurmis and Koeries in Bihar with the help of the Samata Party. On the other end of the social spectrum, the SP and BSP are trying to woo sections of the upper castes in UP. And not knowing where to go, the traditional Left shuttles from one social justice outfit to another.
