The Young Indian Socialist on Wheels
By Frank Huzur in Lucknow-Kanpur –Indian heartland.
Charisma is a sparkle in people that money can’t buy. It’s an invisible energy with visible effects.”
— Marianne Williamson
He may not be Harrison Ford. But he is surely James Dean. The rebel with a cause for socialist celebre! And, his name is Akhilesh Yadav, the young Indian socialist titan who is charioting the revolutionary socialist wheels on dusty roads of India’s largest population province of Uttar Pradesh.
Chariots of Fire is a 1981 British sports drama film. It is a story of two athletes who compete in the 1924 Paris Olympics. Eric Liddel, a devout Scottish Christian runs for the glory of God and Harold Abrahams, a British Jew runs to bury the wheels of prejudice and discrimination. The film surprised critics by winning seven Academy Awards. Little wonder, Chariots of Fire, has become 19th most famous film in the British Film Institute’s list of top 100 British films in history of cinema. For those who have liking for poetic justice, the title of the film was inspired by the poem of William Blake, Bring me my chariot of Fire! It is the same Blake whose prophetic poetry and painting shaped the imagination of boys and girls of the Romantic Age in London of eighteenth century.
Blake’s verses were tickling my senses to cast a glance at the wheel of a chariot in heart of Lucknow, the Capital of Uttar Pradesh where I had chosen to be in search of witnessing a history of earthly colours. Lucknow is seat of erstwhile Persian glory and could easily qualify as Lahore of northern India in etiquette and courtly reputation.
Politics of Chariot in India has a prophetic tryst. People remember the rolling of one chariot of fire in winter of 1990 which ended up fanning the flames of hatred against about 200 million Muslims of India. That was L K Advani-led Chariot which had a Muslim driver but it ended engineering blood-thirsty hatred against Muslims across the country. It is a nightmare of post-Independent politics of India. About three years ago, India’s socialist titan, Mualayam Singh Yadav had undertaken a chariot journey of socialist orientation and it had stormed the villages and towns and triggered a string of idioms of resistance and protest politics. So much so that Advani had no hesitation in emulating it with his own discriminatory dose of chalk and cheese. Fear and anguish was hanging in the air of every Muslim homes of Indian nation. Hundreds perished in the communal frenzy. Politics is a blood sport.
It is sunny September morning on 12 September 2011. Painting the socialist country red is the blast of exuberant cries of ‘Hail Socialism’ on smiling and shouting faces of young and old alike. The reason for the congregation of a large number of young men and women is the inauguration of a motorised socialist chariot journey, Kraanti Rath Yatra, the charioteer of which is a young socialist icon, Akhilesh Yadav. Just as the average height as Rahul Gandhi is, ashen faced and robust in his expression of smile and satisfaction, Akhilesh alias Tipu breezes past the swarming crowd. When I cast a glance at the chariot of socialist revolution it is glimmering in blood-red hues of miniature designs of cycle after cycle on the rectangle floor of the motor bus. Here is the tech-savvy socialist. A quick glance reveals his fancy for state-of-art public address system staring into the crowd on hoot of the motor bus. So is the sight of the music box belting out socialist songs cut to the beat and rhythm of Bollywood music. The interior of the sophisticated chariot is pulsating with plasma screen, laptop tuned into internet dongles manned by his acolytes VJ Chauhan, Anurag Saxena, Rahul Bhasin, Naved Siddique, a Radio Jockey and Gazendar Singh and others, deluxe sofas for reclining in peace, toilet on wheels and the hydraulic lift to catapult the socialist icon on the metal roof of the rath as and when the campaign stops.
Chariots are central to Indian and also Persian mythology. Most of the gods in the pantheon can be seen riding them. The Sanskrit word for a chariot is Ratha, a collective ‘reth’ to a Proto-Indo-European word ‘roto’ for ‘wheel’ that also resulted in Latin rota and is also known from Germanic, Celtic and Baltic.
A huge mass of crowds, with red cap sitting prettily on their skull and red and green socialist flags with picture of socialist Patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav fluttering out of the slim bamboo staff in their hands, are cheering the young socialist Akhilesh Yadav on the green lawns of Socialist Party headquarters: 19, Vikramaditya Marg, less than kilometre of the residence of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, 5-Kalidas Marg.
The young socialist smiles and waves his right hands in acknowledgement of the cheering crowd.
In the middle of September 1987, his father, Mulayam Singh Yadav who was just a member of state legislature at the time with penchant for street fighting for the cause of poor Indian peasantry, had sowed the seeds of revolutionary socialism through his debutant journey on wheels. Chaudhary Charan Singh, ex-Prime Minister of India addressed Mulayam Singh as ‘Little Napoleon’ of India. A couple of years later, he would be sworn in as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh when Rajeev Gandhi would lose power to Vishwanath Pratap Singh in New Delhi for the hot seat of Prime Minister. The young son who is less than forty years of age and younger to Congress crown prince Rahul Gandhi, is being egged on by socialist stalwarts, Mohan Singh, Braj Bhushan Tiwari, Azam Khan and his uncle Shivpal Singh and patriarch father Mulayam Singh, to repeat the historical act of overthrowing the ruling party and pave the way for return of Samajwadi Party (Socialist) to power in Lucknow.
Just as Mulayam Singh Yadav flagged off the Kraanti Rath for the first round of three-day roll around 150 km stretch circling textile town of Kanpur, Unnao and strings of rural townships, the bugle of transferring the rein to young socialist ahead of crucial 2012 springtime Assembly elections is also sounded. Akhilesh knows the heavy weight of expectations and responsibilities thrust on his shoulders. He has done it in the past when he left Sydney after securing a master’s degree in environment engineering to learn the ideals and principles of socialism walking the dusty village roads, fields of paddy and wheat and orchards of mangoes in the province. Today, he is a member of Indian Parliament in lower house, House of Commons, Lok Sabha from Kannauj and is also the president of State Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh. His baptism in national politics is over a decade old since 1999 debut. Hardly any village is left to tread for the young man where he has not left his footprint as he has cycled over thousand kilometres in search of joy and sorrow of the ordinary folks.
The cycle atop his sports utility vehicle Pajero follows the motorised chariot. The cycle is the symbol of Indian socialist party, the weapon of change for Akhilesh who cycles out of much passion and determination while exhorting hundreds of young workers to set the pace alongside him.
The chariot on wheels roll past the stone memorials of Dalit icons, including statues of serving chief minister Maywati who is fighting the swelling armies of disenchanted people in the province over charges of monstrous corruption. Her discredited regime further swells the size of crowd on roadside waiting to welcome the chariot of young socialist politician. A caravan of young biker is speeding ahead of the chariot, screaming in delightful renting of socialist slogans. It is quite a spectacle with young boys looking spirited in their moment of reckoning as their red cap shimmers in the shining September Sun.
One of the first stops of Akhilesh is just in front of the Ambedkar Park housing hundreds of elephants in stone. The Elephant Castle! He emerges on the top of the roof through hydraulic lift to the wild cheers of the crowd. Some pelts marigold and rose on him in greeting as others are dancing in the middle of the road to the beat of socialist songs. The red cap is adorning the crown of young socialist. He breaks into his cry for the revolutionary change.
Revolution is a noun in the part of speech. It is different from rebellion. It is neither debacle nor uprising. A rebellion is open resistance to a government or authority whereas revolution is a rebellion that succeeds in overthrowing the government and establishing a new one. The young socialist is wheeling on his chariot for revolution.
He roars, “I want you all, brothers and sisters, to overthrow the corrupt, ego-maniac and stone-hearted regime of Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). She takes pride in being a daughter of Dalit. Does she bother about the miserable plight of her Dalit sisters when she sends her private jet to bring sandals from Bombay? A dalit girl is victim of rape every hour in the province yet she lives in luxury and pomp. Nowhere in the world does any politician order erection of their own statue but she has the audacity to get herself sculpted in her lifetime. Forget her own sculpture she has wasted your hard-earned money in sculpting over 2000 elephants, each elephant statue costing 10 million rupees!”
The crowd cheers in rising crescendo. Old men and women stares into him to steal a glimpse of the young man. The caravan moves ahead to reiterate the pledge at the next stop which is not more than a kilometre away. Hundreds of people go on walking up and down in the front and the back of the chariot, making it crawl-like-cockroach at a snail’s pace. The socialist songs blaring out of the record keeps the marching socialist supporters in high spirit. A vast crowd of young boys and girls trailing before the young socialist are not walking without any reasons. The previous socialist governments under Mulayam Singh was disbursing unemployment allowance to young boys and girls and also offering special incentives to young girls. It is called ‘Kanya Vidhya Dhan (Special fund for Girls’ education) and unemployment allowance to jobless youths. There is special yearning for the same amongst majority of youth because the Mayawati government scrapped the social welfare programme out of discriminatory prejudice.
I can relate the marching columns of socialist caravan with the Long March of Pakistani lawyers under the leadership of chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. Imran Khan, playboy-turned-politician had turned the light brigade in Pakistan at the time. The once deposed chief justice had taken the country by storm through his more than one Long Marches from Lahore to Islamabad and Khyber to Karachi while galvanising around tens of thousands of lawyers to rally around him against military regime of General Pervez Musharraf. Musharraf was a dictator loved and hated in equal proportion in his country. The ruling head of Uttar Pradesh is widely perceived in democratic polity as a dictator with much contempt for democratic transparency in her functioning.
Indeed, Akhilesh feels divinely inspired when he hops over his cycle or he is running to shakes hand with surging crowd of supporters. He is a fitness fanatic and his lithe, urbane disposition makes him agile like an athlete as other workers struggle to catch up with his pace. There is a spring in his steps.
He would tell me, “I believe that I am born with a divine purpose. I am fast, and when I run, I feel divinity presence in propelling my pleasure walk.”
The years of dedication and training are paying the dividends. Socialist ideals and principles hang around his neck like a millstone. He grew up watching his patriarch socialist father whenever he could catch up with him during summer and winter vacations in Saifai green meadows, mingling with peasants, labourers and poor city folks like his near and dears. His father is elder statesman of Indian socialist politics. A man for all seasons! He follows his conscience. He renew his strength by taking a quick nap on the campaign trails and then springs back to his steps to mount up a fresh charge as if he were mounting up with wings as eagles. He runs and never feels weary. He walk and never faint.
When a young adolescent or pre-adolescent child appears near his shoulder, he raises his right and left hand to pat the back and shoulder of the young boys like an elder brother. Quite a good number of them are awestruck about the glistening walls of the chariot whereas others are charged up to touch him just as hundreds of thousands appear to touch the apron strings of Sonia Gandhi and her crown prince Rahul Gandhi in the dust swirls of heartland villages.
Akhilesh Yadav is a clear favourite in province of Uttar Pradesh to lead and he beats Rahul Gandhi phenomenon by a long mile in popularity. The young socialist exudes confidence when he says, “I think about smiles and tears of my people every single day. I spend three hundred days in villages and towns of Uttar Pradesh whereas Rahul ji only visits for 60-65 days. Still later, I wish Rahul Gandhi succeed in doing something remarkable for the people. I want him to perform better. I’ve respect for him.”
Rahul phenomenon has been much of a widely televised spectacle as and when scion of the Gandhi dynasty ventured to read the pulse of people. Whether the spectacle included spending the night on string cot of a Dalit woman or claiming in fury of Bhatta Parsaul on the fringe of Delhi that women were raped and molested with dozens of poor buried in bone fry of ash stones! The corporate Indian media has not been equally benevolent with the socialist icon. Like his Prime Minister father Rajeev Gandhi, Rahul also comes across as a reluctant politician and has struggled to floor the audience with hypnotising public address. Even the Wikileaks cable reveals Rahul doesn’t enjoy public meetings. However, sincerity does ooze in his talk but that is not enough to sway the masses which demands theatrics and rhetoric laced with witty remarks and pungent humour.
When the socialist chariot wheels into textile city of Kanpur cantonment, the young socialist is swarmed by hundreds of thousands of Muslim men and women. A bunch of bouquet and wheel-size rose and tulip and marigold garland are furled in the air. Some land on the target, ashen-neck of the young socialist whereas some fall flat on the glittering roof of the motor chariot.
The state of Uttar Pradesh boasts of 22 per cent of Muslim population. There are as many as 150 constituencies out of 403-strong UP Assembly which is under the direct influence of Muslim voters who only decide whom to send to the floor of the Assembly. For over past two decades and especially after the demolition of Babri Mosque by army of fanatic and militant Hindutva workers under direct insinuation of the then BJP-led government, Muslims of not only Uttar Pradesh (Northern Province) but also the rest of India have felt safe and sound under the wings of socialist patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav. Kalyan Singh was the chieftain of the communal BJP government, who acted on sly in demolition of the Babri Masjid whereas the New Delhi central government was headed by PV Narsimha Rao, only the first non-Gandhi family Prime Minister to complete the full tenure.
It is worth mentioning that the Socialist Party of India-Samawadi Party was founded a month ahead of the demolition of the Babri Mosque on 6 December 1992. It was November without rain when the socialists of India gathered together at Hazrat Mahal park in Lucknow to pledge their ambition and aspirations under the charismatic leadership of Mulayam Singh Yadav and others. The Socialism received a new lease of life.
The young socialist in Akhilesh knows it quite well how the politics of his land changed for ever. It was his father who had ordered police firing on the marauding Hindu-caste Kar Sevaks in dying days of October 1990 and thus saved the disputed structure. Mulayam Singh was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh at the time. His famous refrain, ‘Koi Parinda bhi par nahi mar payenga’ (I will not allow even a bird to flutter near the dome of Babri Mosque) became the stuff of legend in homes and hearths of Muslim across India. The same constituency of late has been reportedly drifting away from the socialists in mystifying circumstances. The divide and rule doctrine and indeed certain decisions have plagued the solidarity. Even so, emergences of quite a few parties like Peace Party and Ulema Council with Muslim faces who have been walking the Muslim quarters with the lofty ambitions of winning their lost glories are also contributing to pool of confusion in largely neglected and deprived quarters of Muslims. However, the characters heading these groups are alleged to be prop up of Hindu-caste communal and vested groups and they don’t have wherewithal or charisma to guide or lead or for that matter win any seats on their own. At the most, they are prancing in the battlefield only to eat into crucial Muslim votes. So far as any analysis of the delicate pole-position comes to the surface it only indicates a sinister agenda at work to spoil the party of Socialist candidates who are more ideally placed to defend the Muslim homes and hearths.
Are Muslims really drifting away from their once cherished party-Socialist Party of India or Samajwaadi Party? I spoke to Rizwan Solanki and Hasan Roomi in the sprawling and historic Phool Bag, formerly Queen Victoria Garden, ground of Kanpur (Cawnpore) in the simmering afternoon of 13 September. Phool Bag is an historic ground with whoever of little political consequence must conduct their political rituals there as has been established tradition since the British days. Akhilesh Yadav was addressing the huge crowd of cyclists in their red cap and flag fluttering from their handles from atop the roof of the Kraanti Rath. The young socialist was expected to alight from the motorised chariot and join other workers, including local candidates Haji Irfran Solanki and Hasan Roomi on the dais but the dais was uprooted and ransacked in middle of the night by local administration for apparent reasons. Socialists have become habituated of such uncivil interference in Mayawati’s prejudiced regime. Rizwan is a stocky, a little pot-bellied young man in his early twenties. He smiles the smile of an adolescent pregnant with image of a shy boy and tells me, ‘Muslims in Kanpur are socialists. Capitalism or communism doesn’t enchant them. They don’t want to think about any other political formations, let alone Peace Party or whatever. Akhilesh Yadav is our leader and we want him to take on the mantle of Chief Minister after February 2012 Assembly elections.”
Akhilesh disembarked from the deluxe interiors of motorised chariot and leads a team of over thousands of cyclists as he goes on cycling for next twenty three kilometres into heart of Unnao, an industrial district carved out of Kanpur. I see hundreds of cyclists panting and fumbling in the scorching sun, including Irfan Solanki, a UP Legislative Assembly member and a candidate in the elections, but not the young socialist who is unfazed by the heat and dust of the not so handsome roads. He goes on peddling like a pied piper of his socialist army, sweating bucketful of toxic yet smiling like a champion Tour-de France cyclist Lance Armstrong. While the rhythm of race reaches its pace, there are scores of youngsters and old men alike who want to whistle near him and prod the running battery of photographers to shoot a picture for their walls.
When the chariot wheels was dusting down the narrow metalled stretch of Muslim bastion of Miangan, Hasanganj and Hafizabaad in Bangarmau between Unnao and Lucknow borders, the crowd was turning in and out in its instinctive strength to register its presence on both sides of the divide. It was Takia square and I could see the bold letters sculpted into masthead of a stone and cement gate, Ashfaqullah Khan memorial gate. The chariot grinds to halt. Hundreds of thousands clap in chorus and rents the sky with socialist slogan to receive the young socialist Akhilesh Yadav. I get hold of a Muslim gentleman in his forties and ask his name. His skull cap is missing but his flowing beards are neatly hanging down his robust chin. There are wrinkles creasing his forehead. When he smiles, his teeth are a little mashed up to portray the picture of a seasoned community campaigner. He blurts out without further delay-Raes Ahmed. I poke him again and ask him why is he here to welcome the socialist chariot. He told me, “Mulayam Singh Yadav has been saviour to Muslims of India. Now, his son is amongst us. He is more promising in his outlook. Akhilesh is not only a Chief Ministerial material, but he is a Prime Ministerial material. What Mulayam couldn’t achieve in his lifetime his socialist son would achieve. This young man is messianic. He is a deliverer, preserver and redeemer. All of us Muslims believe him and tasted him. He replies to even an ordinary workers’ phone call like his father. There have been numerous occasions when we troubled him in middle of the night and he was not sleeping.”
The chariot of fire and socialist resolve rolls on the village road breezing past small hamlets surrounded by popcorn, wheat and maize fields. I see the young socialist chatting animatedly with his team of young tech-savvy planners and campaigners, most of them are upper-caste Hindu socialists. For long, his father and the party has been criticised in certain urban pockets of Delhi and Bombay for being the party beholden to his own strong agriculturist clan of Yadavas and Muslims, yadavas who share common descent with famous king Porus who won the battle of wits with Alexander the Great in the epic battle on the banks of Sutlez and Indus. This charge might sits pretty with Lalu Prasad in Bihar banks but not with the Socialist comrades in Uttar Pradesh. The social engineering of young socialist is complete and his team has as many members from Brahmin, the priestly and top-of-the-Hindu pyramid as he has from kshatriya, kayasths, traders Vaishyas, Muslims and any other segments, including Dalits and other other segments of society. He knows the art of integration more than Rahul Gandhi. There are more than six thousands divisions in the Hindu-caste fold and each caste has more than hundred divisions in their folds, including the Brahamans.
This is young Indian socialist Akhilesh who knows the soil of his farm lands and can tell with the authority of an agricultural scientist which season will yield what particular variety of crops. His degree in environmental science is of handsome utility to him in his socialist politics and he is making great use of the craft he learnt in Australian University. Farmers are nation builder in his heart and he values their judgement and native wisdom more than anybody else. Like father like son.
(Frank Huzur is an author, poet and playwright. He is biographer of Imran Khan. Imran Versus Imran-The Untold Story is his latest non-fiction. Also view www.frankhuzur.com. He can be contacted at frankhuzur@live.co.uk)