BENDING OVER BACKWARDS

Caste seems the ultimate determinant of politics in Uttar Pradesh. In the newest season of Mandal battle offensives, though, it is taking on Mandir in a bare-knuckled confrontation.

- Prashant Srivastava

Bihar education minister Chandrashekhar may have been the straw that stirred the varna drink first with cutting remarks on medieval Bhakti poet Tulsidas and his classic Ramcharitmanas, but senior Samajwadi Party leader Swami Prasad Maurya has opened up another flank in the debate-and roiled UP's political waters too in the process. While a section of his party now seems to want to make the most of it, pro-Hindutva voices are cavilling in anger. But even the BJP seems wary of letting Mandal leaders run away with the script, and has been forced into a pro-Mandal gesture on the caste census.

At recent media interactions, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav has played on the theme, calling himself a 'Shudra' and announcing his intention to ask Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to define 'Shudra' and identify them when he meets him in the assembly. Trigger? The brouhaha after Swami demanded that certain verses in Tulsidas's Ramcharitmanas, which he called derogatory and disrespectful towards women, Dalits, tribals and backward castes, be excised.