UP elections 2017: Mayawati plays reservation card, but is it too late and too much of a lie?

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief and former UP chief minister Mayawati said on Wednesday that the BJP would do away with all reservation if it came to power in UP. The reservation or quota issue has fetched Mayawati oodles of votes over the years, but this time that may not be the case.

Also read: UP elections 2017: Here's how Mayawati can play up non-existent Dalit undertones in SCAM jibe by PM Modi

What Mayawati said

Speaking at a rally in Faizabad, Mayawati said: "If the BJP comes to power in the elections, all reservations will go away. I have got information on this from sources." She also told the people in attendance: "You can't imagine how many Rohith Vemula or Dalit Una cases there will be if the BJP comes to power in UP."

She was referring to the suicide of the scholar in Hyderabad that resulted in widespread protests across the country. The BSP had picked up the issue because Vemula was a Dalit, a claim that has recently been refuted by a probe committee. Meanwhile, the incident in Una in Gujarat had seen upper-caste people beating Dalits for transporting cattle.

Why the reservation card will not work

The thing with reservation is everyone wants it in some form or the other, and no political party has the temerity to deny it in the face of strong-enough protests. Some may now point to Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti leader Hardik Patel and his agitation for reservation for Patels in Gujarat — the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

However, anyone with half a brain will know that to deny a community reservation — of course in light of strong and vehement protests — would be political suicide. So of course political parties want quota agitations to die down, but they can't dream of denying people quota in the face of a strong agitation.

Also, there would be no surer way of committing political hara-kiri than removing quota, especially in a state like UP. And the BJP would know that. And the people would know that the BJP knows that. Thus, whatever Mayawati said on Wednesday could be little other than a scare tactic she is using as possibly the last straw to salvage some pride in a losing battle.