The ambivalence of the Samajwadi Party president about the controversial remarks on verses of Ramcharitmanas by party MLC Swami Prasad Maurya has confused the rank and file of the party. The opinion of the SP leaders is divided whether the party should go for a no holds barred battle on caste lines and stand behind Swami Prasad Maurya or go for a middle path.
Several upper caste leaders of the SP, such as Brahmins and Thakurs, have even voiced unhappiness over Maurya’s remarks and made it clear that they expect action against him.
So far no senior leader of the SP has endorsed the controversial remark of Swami Prasad Maurya. The SP leaders maintain that the comments made by him are his personal opinion and it is not the official line of the party. A senior party leader said, “The party is weighing its options and a clear picture will emerge only during the budget session of the UP assembly if leader of opposition Akhilesh Yadav decides to raise this issue in the House.”
The SP, having suffered crushing consecutive defeats at the hands of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the last two Lok Sabha elections in 2014, 2019 and two assembly elections in 2017 and 2022, is desperate to retrieve the ground it has lost to the ruling party. Though the SP significantly improved its tally to 111 seats in 2022 UP assembly elections, the BJP remains a formidable foe and a major claimant of the vote bank of non-Yadav Other Backward Classes.
However, a section of leaders favour aggressive stand by the party with the objective of reasserting the caste identity of the SP. They argue that hard line caste politics is the only way to counter the rapid inroads being made by the party among the OBCs and SCs. This section of SP leaders maintains that the row over Ramcharitmanas is playing out in interesting ways in battleground Uttar Pradesh.
“Far from being defensive over remarks by Swami Prasad Maurya questioning portions of Tulsidas’ composition for its remarks on castes, it has provided us an opportunity to project as the sole party which can champion the cause of the Most Backward Classes (MBCs),” said a SP leader.
Swami Prasad Maurya is from MBC.
The leader argued that by putting its weight behind Maurya, the SP was also adding to his muscle as a leader who can counter Om Prakash Rajbhar as a prominent MBC voice, also from eastern UP.
“Akhilesh Yadav is making the right kind of noise, accusing the BJP of treating the backward classes – including OBCs like himself and Dalits – as shudras. He also elevated Swami Prasad Maurya as national general secretary. He also claimed that he would ask the UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath about the meaning of “tadan” – punishment – in the verse referred to by his party colleague, but he is yet to categorically endorse the controversial comments by Maurya on Ramcharitmanas,” said a political analyst.