It looks as if the resignation of BSP chief Mayawati from the Rajya Sabha is less about the urgency of Dalit issues being addressed in Parliament and more about the marginalisation of her party in the Hindi heartland (“Mayawati quits RS, says she was muzzled”, July 19). Her calculations: resignation on live television will have a greater impact than a quiet retreat from a House where her term was, in any case, due to end in April 2018. With the BJP eyeing the Dalit vote bank and making efforts to woo the community — the latest move being its choice of Dalit leader Ram Nath Kovind for the post of President — time seems to be running out for the BSP. Ms. Mayawati’s brand of Dalit empowerment has become a thing of the past. In the name of Dalit memorials, she ‘planted’ her own statues. Instead of building leadership across the Dalit community, she projected herself as the sole leader. All these mistakes have come to haunt her.
K.S. Jayatheertha,
Bengaluru