Lucknow: The revival of a three-decade-old Samajwadi Party (SP)-Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) slogan from a bygone era of rival unity has brought SP leader and former minister in the Uttar Pradesh BJP government, Swami Prasad Maurya, his fourth FIR this year.
During a rally organised by the SP to mark the unveiling of a bust of BSP founder Kanshiram at a college in Raebareli Monday, Maurya raised the slogan “Mile Mulayam, Kanshiram, hawaa me udh gaye Jai Shri Ram (when SP founder Mulayam Singh and Kanshiram got together, chants of Jai Shri Ram — often associated with the BJP — got swept away)”, coined during the 1993 assembly election in UP.
Party veterans Mulayam Singh and Kanshiram had announced an electoral alliance of rival SP-BSP ahead of the 1993 assembly elections. While the BJP had emerged as the single largest party, it had failed to touch the majority mark and the SP-BSP alliance had gone on to form government with the support of other parties.
Maurya, who switched to the Samajwadi Party (SP) in January last year after years in the BJP, reportedly said, “This slogan had resonated and what had happened after that alliance? BJP was swept away. Today, those conditions have cropped up again”.
However, a day after the speech, the member of the legislative council of Uttar Pradesh, was booked by Raebareli police under section 295A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which relates to “deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs”.
While Maurya claimed he had merely invoked a slogan that dated to 1993 and the FIR registered against him reflected the arbitrariness of the government towards the opposition leaders, Khadim Abbas, an old Kanshiram aide, told ThePrint that the slogan was coined at a joint BSP-SP rally, organised to counter the impact of the BJP’s Rath Yatra.
Abbas was referring to L.K. Advani’s 1990 Rath Yatra undertaken to educate people about the Ayodhya movement ahead of 1992’s Babri Masjid demolition.
“It was during a joint rally of the SP and the BSP at Christian College, Mainpuri, in 1993 that the slogan was raised. Kanshiram ji and Mulayam Singh had struck an alliance and there was an understanding that those candidates would be fielded by the alliance who would have secured the maximum number of votes in previous elections. According to the pact, Kanshiram ji left the Etawah seat and gave it to Mulayam Singh’s candidate,” recalled Abbas, who is often credited by BSP members for having coined the slogan.
While this purportedly led to some heartburn among BSP workers in Etawah, the workers later reconciled with the party’s decision, he added.
“We (local leaders of Etawah) had told Kanshiram ji that we won’t attend the rally but still went for him. When Kanshiram ji saw us, he asked the coordinator Uday Pratap Singh to invite me to the stage for a speech. Even before we could climb up the stage, I shouted a slogan, “Mile Mulayam-Kanshiram, hawa mein udh gye Jai Shri Ram. And it led to a commotion,” said Abbas.
According to the former BSP member, however, this was only one of the many slogans coined by party members at the time to rally support for their leader Kanshiram.
‘Maurya will continue to raise his voice for oppressed’
Meanwhile, Tuesday’s FIR against Maurya comes just over two months after another similar one against him, for allegedly hurting religious sentiments by his comments about the Ramcharitmanas.
The SP leader was booked in January for reportedly saying that portions of the Ramcharitamanas written by Tulsidas promoted social discrimination and spread hatred.
“When I raised my voice for the respect of Adivasis, Dalit, backwards (backward classes) and women (a reference to his Ramcharitmanas controversy), there were people who announced rewards of Rs 21 lakh for my head, while someone waved a sword for beheading me. Another person had announced a reward to chop off my tongue. However, there was no FIR lodged then (against them). The government is crushing the voice of democracy. But, Swami Prasad Maurya will continue to raise his voice for the oppressed,” Maurya said while talking to ThePrint Wednesday.
Tuesday’s FIR was filed based on a complaint by Marut Tripathi, general secretary, Raebareli district, of the Hindu Yuva Vahini (HYV).
According to the FIR, a copy of which has been accessed by ThePrint, Tripathi has alleged that Maurya had used a statement which “would hurt the entire sanatani samaj (Hindu society) and “religious sentiments” and one that “would spoil the social harmony”.
Speaking to the media, Vandana Singh, circle officer (Sadar), Raebareli, said Tripathi had complained that during a public meeting at Raebareli, Swami Prasad Maurya gave a statement to “incite religious sentiments”.
She added: “On the basis of the complaint, an FIR has been lodged in police station Kotwali.”
While the SP had distanced itself from the Ramcharitmanas controversy, BSP supremo Mayawati Wednesday mentioned the latest FIR against Maurya in a tweet.
“The news about an FIR against the leader behind the Ramcharitmanas issue is viral. In reality, it has been the SP’s nature to indulge in politics of casteist hatred and unwanted issues. In 1993, Kanshiram ji had formed an alliance with SP with missionary zeal but despite becoming the CM, it remained the intention of Mulayam Singh to continue with harassment of Dalits and defamation of the BSP,” she said.
BJP leaders, too, have hit out at Maurya for his controversial comments.
Reacting to Tuesday’s FIR, UP tourism minister and BJP leader Jaiveer Singh told the media Thursday that he had suggested Maurya’s well-wishers and family to get him treated in a (mental) hospital in Bareilly or Agra, because he has been making unrestrained comments on the Ramcharitmanas and its chaupayis (couplets).
‘We in the BSP were experts of slogans’
The revival of the 1993 SP-BSP slogan by Maurya has brought to Abbas’s mind other similar slogans raised by Kanshiram’s followers to celebrate their leader.
“We in the BSP were experts of slogans. Several slogans were raised to counter the BJP’s polarising politics in the aftermath of the rath yatra (Advani’s rath yatra). One of them was ‘baki Ram jhoothe Ram, sacche Ram Kanshiram (the others are fake Rams, Kanshiram is the only true Ram),” Abbas told ThePrint.
According to him, this slogan was coined to challenge the credentials of rival leaders like Ram Vilas Paswan, Ram Raj (now Udit Raj, currently a Congress leader) and Ram Singh Shakya.
Abbas added: “The Election Commission under (former commissioner) T.N. Seshan had countermanded the election in Etawah in 1991 after political outfits alleged that the election was rigged by the Mulayam Singh government. Following that, Kanshiram was asked to fight from Etawah against BJP’s Lal Singh Verma. Janata Party had fielded three-time parliamentarian Ram Singh Shakya against him. However, Kanshiram ji defeated Verma by over 20,000 votes while Shakya came third.”
Questioning the mixing of politics with religion, Abbas said, “BJP workers would raise slogans of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and disrespect Lord Ram. What is the mix of politics and religion? Ram belongs to everyone. He was maryada-purshottam (the supreme man of honour)…”
He added: “The mixing of politics and religion is dangerous for India. And these slogans (the ones raised by BSP in the past) were given from public space and became a winning mantra for the SP-BSP alliance.”
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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