Uncommon Courage
Km Mayawati is having many qualities that makes her the Incomparable Lady. To my mind the greatest appears to be her Uncommon Courage. In one of the public meeting in the Ram Lila Ground of Delhi, she declared that she had decided to dedicate her entire life to the cause of the wretched people amongst whom she was born.
The audience clapped, but it was not liked by her father. He wanted his daughter to lead a comfortable life. She opted for the movement initiated by Mahatma Jyotiba Phule, later taken further by Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj and made an all India affair by Baba Saheb Ambedkar. At that point of time, Kanshi Ram was trying to run the Movement. Km Mayawati decided to join the Movement inspite of the opposition from her father.
At that time, her courage was put to test. Her father opposed her decision tooth and nail, so much so that she was forced to leave the house. I was on tour. When I came back, I found her living in the office, along with other office bearers. Being a Govt. School Teacher, she was self supporting. We arranged a room for her, near to our Karol Bagh Office. Early morning she was going to teach in the School, work in the office whole day and go to study Law in the Law College in the evening. In such circumstances she completed her Law Degree. Again her courage was put to test. In the Movement, she was vehemently opposed by her seniors. She had to struggle against them to survive in the Movement.
General elections to the Parliament were held in Dec. 1984. She decided to contest. There was no chance for anybody in the Bahujan Samaj Party to win that election. Everybody advised her not to contest that election because as govt. servant she was required to loose the job. Again her courage was put to test. She picked up courage and left the job to fight that election. After that election, she was jobless, but her seniors were safe in their job. Keeping her condition in mind. I gave her support and more and more opportunities in the organisation. In 1985, she was told to prepare the parliamentary seat of Bijnor for the bye-election. She went from village to village and prepared the seat well to increase the vote bank from 5700 votes to 65,000 within a period of one year. Another bye-election in the nearby seat of Haridwar came next. She prepared it so well that she came second to the ruling Congress Party. By securing 1,36,000 votes she improved the vote bank of BSP 14 times, from 9,000 in the general election to 1,36,000 in the bye-election. I was happy with her performance in these bye-elections. But her seniors became furious. They put pressure on me for giving opportunity to Km Mayawati. So much so that most of them left the movement. I do not know where they are today, where as Mayawati kept improving along with the movement.
By 1993, BSP improved to share power in U.P. Mr. Mulayam Singh was made the Chief Minister and Km Mayawati coordinator to run the alliance Govt. of U.P. I moved all over India, to make the BSP a National Party by 1996. By carrying such a heavy load, I became sick and was admitted in hospital in the month of May 1995. SP and BSP alliance was not having majority in the U.P. House. I requested Mr. Narasimha Rao and Mr. V.P. Singh to lend support to our alliance to make Mr. Mulayam Singh the C.M. of U.P. They had bad experience with him. Therefore, they were reluctant to support him. On my assurance and request they agreed to support him. Within a few months Mr. Mulayam Singh had broken their parties. Therefore, they were putting pressure on me to change Mr. Mulayam Singh.
On one side I was under pressure to make changes in U.P. and on the other side I was sick facing health problems. At that time, Mr. Jayant Malhotra was with us. Km. Mayawati and Mr. Malhotra took me to Hospital. In the Hospital, Doctors tested me thoroughly. On the basis of these tests Mr. Malhotra told Km. Mayawati that Kanshi Ram was facing a serious problem. And because of such a problem his father died in a London hospitals. Km. Mayawati became nervous. Many thoughts might have came to her mind. “What will happen to her if Kanshi Ram dies? Who will guide her? Who will help her in the movement?” The nurse attending to me told me that Km. Mayawati was weeping outside my room. I called Km. Mayawati inside the room and asked her, “Mayawati would you like to be the CM of U.P..” She could not decline my words. She thought my health problem had become serious. And that was why Kanshi Ram was uttering something irrelevant. I convinced Km. Mayawati that I was in a position to make her the CM of U.P.
I showed her all the relevant papers and told her to go to Lucknow and hand over those papers to the Governor of U.P. He will give the oath and majority will be tested within 15 days on the floor of the house. The arrangement for winning the vote of confidence was already made. She did that on 1st June, 1995. But at he night of 2nd June, Mulayam Singh created problem for her and her courage was put to test for the last time in her life. She survived and given oath on 3rd June, 1995.
During her life so for her courage was put to test many times, with a common courage, it was not possible for her to survive. She survived in the moment to become the CM of U.P. twice, Member, Lok Sabha twice and Rajya Sabha once, only because of uncommon courage. As CM of U.P. and as MP she had exhibited many other qualities, but the quality of uncommon courage remains supreme.
(Kanshi Ram)
National President
Bahujan Samaj Party
courtesy:dalit india
