Uttar Pradesh elections represent a seismic shift in Indian politivs
The thumping victory by Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party in legislative elections in India's most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, represents a seismic shift in the nation's politics. Home of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty that has dominated the Indian political landscape since the country's independence from the British 60 years ago, Uttar Pradesh has the largest bloc of seats in the national parliament, where a coalition led by the Nehru-Gandhi Congress Party has run the federal government since 2004. Ms. Mayawati's triumph shows the political ascendancy of lower-caste constituencies; her successful campaign to woo Uttar Pradesh's upper-class voters bodes ill for the Congress Party, which has always prided itself on being an all-embracing umbrella group. Ms. Mayawati has beaten the Congress at its own game.
Besides social inclusiveness, she also emphasized the importance of good governance, and of bringing the benefits of globalization to Uttar Pradesh's huge cohort of the poor. Notwithstanding all the talk of India's emergence as a global economic giant, and all the boasts of the Congress Party's high priests about this being "India's Century" -- the title of a forthcoming book by India's minister of commerce and industry, Kamal Nath -- the terrible reality is that more than 700 million of the country's 1.1 billion people live in abject poverty. Uttar Pradesh, with a population of 170 million, would qualify to be the world's sixth largest country -- ahead of India's neighbor and rival, Pakistan; an overwhelmingly number of its people aren't beneficiaries of the Congress's economic triumphalism. Ms. Mayawati's allegations of a Congress riddled with corruption and nepotism, and redolent with rhetoric rather than genuine commitment to alleviating rural poverty, resonated well with Uttar Pradesh's voters. Once again, they demonstrated that India's rural denizens -- however conventionally illiterate -- are capable of making smart choices in the polling booth, and that they aren't fooled easily by the slick propaganda of professional politicians.
With such a convincing victory, Ms. Mayawati is certain to go national with the issues that served her well in Uttar Pradesh. And that almost surely suggests that the Congress will have bleak prospects in the national elections scheduled for 2009 (the poll may be held earlier if national sentiment against the Congress continues to be skeptical of its performance and politics).
A final lesson for the Congress from the Uttar Pradesh debacle: Pay greater attention to domestic voters and their needs. Glitzy shopping malls are fine, but rural schools and primary health-care facilities are more urgently needed. Visits abroad by cabinet ministers to woo foreign capital may fetch encomiums at lavish fetes in chancelleries of the West and in Wall Street board rooms, and sparkling headlines. But beyond subsidizing the travel and entertainment industries, such hedonism-laced efforts do very little for the cause that truly matters -- improving the plight of India's vast majority.