Why Akhilesh Yadav is invoking Mahabharata in UP with a Krishna statue
The BJP's embarassing defeat in the Gorakhpur and Phulphur by-elections has triggered several explanations. Whatever be the reason this time, it is hard to deny that the by-poll results have taken the sheen off the BJP's victory in the Northeast.
I have earlier argued that the win in Tripura was like the proverbial icing on the cake because it was an ideological victory as well. But now the saffron party is at palpable risk of cutting a sorry figure in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. It may keep the icing, but lose the cake. The BJP has managed a meagre win in the Gujarat Assembly elections. It has lost parliamentary seats in Ajmer and Alwar by-polls in Rajasthan. It has lost in Araria in Bihar too. In poll-bound Madhya Pradesh, the BJP faces serious anti-incumbency. So the saffron party may be spreading itself thin.
Yet praise must be heaped on Akhilesh Yadav. The young man hawked like David to upstage Goliath. His win has reactivated efforts towards a "mahagathbandhan" or grand alliance against the BJP. His strategy to tie-up with arch-rival BSP reminds that Uttar Pradesh is the literary playground of the Mahabharata too. It is not just sweet home to the Ramayana as the BJP likes to believe.
In terms of allying, Krishna and Rama are as different as chalk and cheese because the two characters differ in their understandings of "dharma". So it is no coincidence that the Mahabharata offers a dharmic discourse which is interpretive and complex. But the Ramayana offers one that is prescriptive and dangerously simple.
Last November witnessed a crucial statement in Saifai - the birthplace of SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh. His son Akhilesh Yadav was reported to have commissioned a 50-foot-tall statue of Krishna in the Rathangapani pose. It was further reported that the plan is to unveil the mammoth idol before the next Lok Sabha elections.
Such a symbol is replete with meanings in cultural India. First, the statue of Krishna with the chariot-wheel-in-hand (Rathangapani - "rath" or chariot plus "anga" or part plus "pani" or hand) is an allusion to the only instance in Kurukshetra when the superhuman took up weapon to challenge the invincible Bhishma.
Akhilesh has made his intention towards the BJP clear with the selection of Krishna in the chariot-wheel-in-hand posture instead of the flute-in-hand form. Second, it is to (re)introduce an alternate narrative in the Hindi heartland which is routinely bombarded with the Ram temple-in-Ayodhya obsession. Third, it is to assert lineage to the mighty Krishna - divine star of the Yadav clan. Fourth, it is to signal truce between father and son. Few will disagree that the bitter feud between Mulayam and Akhilesh allowed the BJP to post a spectacular victory in the Uttar Pradesh election just a year back. That the senior Yadav did not veto the alliance with Mayawati is hint that the gesture has yielded result.
At the heart of such entente is a Mahabharata-inspired understanding of dharma. Dharma is still translated as "religion" in India, thanks to the continued colonisation of culture and mind. But dharma is best translated as "contextual duty", that is, circumstantial action.
Dharma is undertaken after the actor has interpreted it as appropriate to the occasion. So inherent in dharma is a high degree of flexibility. This is why it is complex and makes for hair-splitting analysis. For instance: the alliance between Krishna, Drupada and the Pandava (minus the singular case of Arjuna); and that between Bhishma, Dronacharya, Kripacharya, Vidur, Shalya, Karna, Aswathama, Shakuni and the Kaurava are not naturally given. Each pact is based on cumulative circumstances and their unique interpretation by the actor who enters into it.
War creates unlikely proximities in the Mahabharata and they remain open to criticism. Although Kurukshetra is now in neighbouring Haryana yet fabled Hastinapur - where it all began - is very much in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh.
Akhilesh and Mayawati know that their alliance too is a case study of "necessity is the mother of invention". The SP and the BSP have social bases that are antagonistic. Yadavs are land-owning dominant castes of Uttar Pradesh and form the electoral base of the SP. On the other hand, scheduled castes form the voter base of the BSP. They are locked in a political-economic battle with the Yadavs for a fair share of the agrarian pie. Both are aware that theirs is a dharmic unity without any lasting chemistry. It is a chance romance when and where the BJP appears menacing. Just like coalition partners in Kurukshetra, it is only the dark clouds of war that keep the Bhatija-Bua unity.
Such lack of internal logic of alliance means that suspicion will be a constant in the relationship. That BSP has backtracked on vote transfer to SP in the Noorpur and Kairana by-polls is testimony to this.
Unlike the dharmic suppleness that Akhilesh has exhibited, the BJP suffers from an authoritarian understanding of dharma. It comprehends dharma as a standard which Rama erects via his exploits in the dominant version of Ramayana. The televised Ramayana of the late 1980s is a rough equivalent of this oversimplified narrative. Lord Rama is "maryada purushottam" here and his conduct is prescribed duty across space-time.
So associates of such omnipotent authority can only be vassals like Sugriva and Vibhishana. And vassals in the Ramayana cannot question the hero unlike allies in the Mahabharata. This has obvious repercussions.
The Modi-Shah duo in the BJP operates as an authoritarian combine much to the chagrin of allies. As my first editor Rajdeep Sardesai pointed out, "Today, it isn’t the Hindutva tag of the BJP which is leading to its isolation, but the anxiety in the Opposition that a Modi-Shah-led BJP is a ruthless election machine that will eventually devour every other political party. That even the Shiv Sena, the original Hindutva ally, has perhaps been the most vociferous in criticising the BJP leadership, is further evidence of the fact that battlelines are being drawn this time over personalities rather than ideology."
The problem may aggravate if the BJP continues to falter in the Hindu-Hindi hinterland and no SOS call for help is returned. The saffron party will benefit if it follows Akhilesh and takes to the Mahabharata. Another section which will benefit from the great epic is Anglophone India. This club should note that the ethnocentric binary of reason-dharma since "civilising mission" cannot fashion the Trojan key to outsmart the BJP. The device is already there in the cultural memory of India.
A warning is must, however. Narendra Modi and Amit Shah are excellent strategists. Time and again they have done a Virat Kohli on the electoral pitch and stayed ahead of analysts.