28 years later, the State Guest House incident is back to the fore
The 1990s saw the incident change UP politics, but has since lost traction — until last week. What happened in 1995? And does it still hold relevance today?
On April 5, President Droupadi Murmu posthumously honoured the founder-president of the Samajwadi Party (SP), Mulayam Singh Yadav, with the Padma Vibhushan award at a grand ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan. While Mulayam's son and current SP national president, Akhilesh Yadav, received the award on his behalf, back in Uttar Pradesh (UP), there were attempts to discredit Mulayam by bringing up the 28-year-old State Guest House incident.
This incident of 1995 led to the violent collapse of the first-ever coalition government between the SP and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in the state. It also led to Mayawati accusing Mulayam of betraying the alliance that BSP founder Kanshi Ram had worked hard to create with great enthusiasm in 1993.
However, despite the history between the SP and the BSP, the combine buried the hatchet and joined forces in January 2019 to take on the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections. Now, it is back in UP's political discourse.
What led to the "incident"?
In 1993, following the demolition of the disputed structure in Ayodhya, UP was swept by a saffron wave. The SP and BSP decided to join forces and contested the assembly elections, winning 176 seats out of 424 in the undivided state. With support from the Congress and others, the SP-BSP coalition formed the government with Mulayam Singh Yadav as chief minister.
Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), with 177 seats, was left out in the cold, with no party willing to join it, post-Ayodhya demolition. However, in 1995, the BSP withdrew its support from the government due to deteriorating relations with Mulayam. And shortly after, the BJP offered outside support to Mayawati, who then became the chief minister.
What was the State Guest House incident?
After Mayawati's resignation, BSP legislators gathered at the State Guest House in Lucknow to discuss their future course of action. However, a group of SP leaders stormed the guest house and a violent scuffle between the SP and BSP occurred. Mayawati locked herself in a room, which she only opened after getting a message from Raj Bhavan. She was administered the oath of office late at night on June 3, 1995.
The incident became a rallying point for Mayawati's supporters, particularly women who connected it to Dalit dignity, as Mayawati referred to the SP leaders as goons. In the end, the State Guest House incident led to a change in the political order in UP.
How did the incident change UP's politics?
The State Guest House incident became a turning point in the state’s politics. Mayawati became the first Dalit chief minister of the state which PV Narasimha Rao described as the “miracle of democracy”.
Dalits, who form 21% of the state’s population, were, until then, marginalised in politics and society. They found a voice and became both assertive as Mayawati, who would go on to become chief minister four times — three brief tenures and one full five-year term — and amend laws to empower them.
Her political clout also increased along with her vote bank as she started dabbling in national politics. Her strength was her ability to transfer her votes, which no other party or leader could do. To some extent, Kanshi Ram also succeeded in his mission.
What happened then?
For years, this enmity ensued. The two parties remained each other's sworn enemies for 24 years with Mayawati even having demanded a public apology from Mulayam.
On page 546 of her book, Mere Sangharshmay Jeevan Evam Bahujan Movement Ka Safarnama, second part, the BSP chief writes, “I wish to inform that if Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav publicly apologises to the nation for the June 2, 1995 state guest house incident, I will forgive him.” The book was published in 2006.
Mulayam made it clear that he would not apologise for an incident he did not commit or was not involved in. He pointed out that both the lower court and the High Court had exonerated him of the charges. It is worth noting that Mayawati had also withdrawn the case against Mulayam, as confirmed by the party's national general secretary SC Mishra to Hindustan Times in June 2019.
Despite the history between the SP and the BSP, the combine buried the hatchet and joined forces in January 2019 to take on the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections. The State Guest House incident, which occurred 24 years earlier, was brought into focus to strengthen their alliance in January 2019 when Mayawati stated that she was leaving it behind for the greater good, to which Akhilesh responded with, “Her insult will be my insult.”
Further, on April 19, 2019, Mayawati and Mulayam displayed magnanimity by sharing the dais at a Mainpuri rally from where SP founder, Mulayam, was contesting his last Lok Sabha election. Mulayam said, “We should be grateful to her for supporting my candidature and should respect her,” Mayawati called him a real and genuine backward leader whom the public should support.
A few days later, at a Kannauj rally, SP candidate and Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple Yadav touched Mayawati’s feet. Mayawati responded emotionally. She said, “She is my bahu. Akhilesh always gives me respect like an elder in the family.”
Moreover, most of the major players in the State Guest House incident have passed away. Mulayam is no more while his son Akhilesh, who now heads the party, was barely 22 years old when the State Guest House incident rocked the state. He had not entered politics. BJP leader Brahm Dutt Dwivedi, who had parked himself outside the State Guest House to protect Mayawati, is dead.
Senior Congress and BJP leaders, who played a crucial role in elevating her to power, are also gone — the then Governor Moti Lal Vora and former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao are dead. Her other sympathisers in the BJP — Lalji Tandon and Atal Bihari Vajpayee — are also no more. And the man, who directed the entire saga from a hospital bed — Kanshi Ram — has passed away.
Why raising it again may be futile
Raking up the old issue may not be a winning strategy for any of the parties involved, as the politics of UP has seen several key shifts in the 28 years since. Here are five reasons why this issue is best left in the past:
- Last week, the BJP tasked its Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe wing to connect with Dalits and tell them how the BJP saved Mayawati from being targeted by a mob comprising SP cadre in 1995. However, despite the BJP's desire for the SP-BSP to remain adversaries, the party has little to fear today, as it did in 1993, when it struggled to expand its support base with its upper-caste face.
2. Further, 2019 has broken the myth that the SP-BSP make a lethal combination. The camaraderie that the leaders display does not percolate down to the ground level. Raking up this old issue may not resonate on the ground.
3. The BJP is now the strongest party, needing the support of none to survive and thrive, unlike in the past, when they used to find an ally in the BSP.
4. Mayawati is no longer a force to reckon with as her party’s performance has dipped every election and the BSP vote bank has cracked with the BJP having taken away a chunk of Mayawati’s supporters through its welfare schemes. Her vote bank prefers a firebrand Mayawati and not someone who is rarely seen or heard.
5. While Akhilesh intensifies efforts to rebuild Bahujan Samaj, a dream of Kanshi Ram, by unveiling the statue of the late Dalit leader Kanshi Ram, a war of words between the SP and the BSP ensued. This again may fail, as the BJP tries to rope in Dalits in their Hindutva fold. It appears that the fight for caste seems to be losing its sheen, at least as long as broader religion and communal politics remain dominant themes.
In conclusion, the State Guest House incident, despite being brought back into public discourse, appears to have lost much of its political relevance. Both Lalji Prasad Nirmal (chairman of the UP Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation) and Professor Ravi Kant (Lucknow University) agree that the incident fails to evoke any significant sentiments. While Nirmal believes that Dalits are increasingly turning towards the BJP, Prof Kant suggests that Mayawati still holds a soft corner in the hearts of some Jatavs, while non-Jatavs seem to be divided between the BJP and the SP. Overall, the incident's impact on current political dynamics in UP seems to be limited.
Instead of dwelling on the past, Mayawati will do better by returning to her old firebrand style of politics.
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