As a boy from a conservative Allahabad Brahmin family, growing up in Lucknow where father Triveni Sahai Mishra was a judge (later CJ of Gauhati High Court), Satish Chandra Mishra was tall and handsome. He ran away from home and got on a train to Mumbai to find fame and fortune in Bollywood. But there he met Sunil Dutt (the actor’s wife, Nargis, was a friend of Mishra’s mother), who counselled the boy and persuaded him to return home, where he went into his father’s profession. Many years down the line, he had built a reputation as a lawyer and, when a certain woman Dalit leader of the state found herself in a legal fix, it was Mishra who was called upon to bail her out. Today, he is Chief Minister Mayawati’s most trusted Brahmin colleague in her fourth stint in power.
With a reserved manner belying a mind sharp in analysis and a tongue skilled in advancing arguments in court,Mishra is UP’s most renowned advocate. Techno-savvy, he was Lucknow’s first advocate to have a fully computerized office. He and wife Kalpana have a son and daughter as well as triplet daughters. Courts and politics are inextricably linked and play a vital role in Indian politicaldom. In his wildest dreams,Mishra would never have thought he would one day find himself in politics.But destiny decreed otherwise. The Taj Heritage Corridor scam of 2003, involving Rs 175 crore, was a severe setback for Chief Minister Mayawati.Two FIRs were filed against her. She called the issue “a well-planned move to harass me”and stated that she had been kept in the dark about the project by the then Chief Secretary, Devender Singh Bagga, and the Principal Secretary, Panna Lal Punia. The two had been her most trusted officers.
Shashank Shekhar Singh,the current Cabinet Secretary of UP,was a pilot flying the state’s planes and the friend who introduced Mishra to the beleaguered Mayawati.The first meeting was long and a chord of empathy was struck.The media and the political parties were predicting Mayawati’s end but Mishra held out legal hope and began wading through law books.The rest is history. This single case served as a stepping stone for Mishra to become Mayawati’s closest colleague and the undisputed leader of UP’s Brahmins.Thus emerged the invincible MSS trio of Mayawati, Shashank and Satish on the political hori zon of Uttar Pradesh. Within a year,in July 2004,Mayawati rewarded him with a Rajya Sabha seat.
It was the Brahmin from Allahabad and the Jat pilot from Muzaffarnagar who came up with a calculated plan to hijack the social engineering of the Congress. Mayawati agreed. The BSP welcomed the once-hated Brahmins
This has been the period – from 2003 to 2007 – that has been the toughest of Mayawati’s political life.Her mentor, Kanshi Ram,died after a prolonged illness during which his mother accused Mayawati of keeping him hostage. Struggling on all fronts,she was determined to bounce back. And it was the Brahmin from Allahabad and the Jat pilot from Muzaffarnagar who came up with a calculated plan to hijack the traditional social engineering of the Congress. Mayawati agreed and the Bahujan Samaj Party made an unexpected u-turn – welcoming the once-hated Brahmins as its partners
Mishra was entrusted with wooing the Brahmins, who account for 5-15 per cent in almost all the Assembly seg ments of the state.The MSS trio identified 86 Assembly seg ments where Brahmins constituted 15 per cent, Dalits 25 percent and Muslims 5-6 per cent. For the Muslim vote, Mayawati relied on one of her most trusted Muslim leaders Naseemuddin.
The strategy was first tested in byelections and propagated through the media by holding a series of “Brahman Sammelans” across the state. Mishra was projected as the BSP’s Brahmin face. Neglected for over a decade in UP politics, the Brahmins turned out in massive numbers in what may well be called a period of Brahmin renaissance. Mishra also advised Mayawati not to participate in municipal corporation elections, held just a couple of months before the Assembly polls.The strategy baffled her main rival, Mulayam Singh Yadav and the Samajwadi Party. He failed to gauge the strength of the emerging social engineering and to revise his electoral plans. According no importance to the municipal polls, the MSS trio kept working on the targeted voters and the Assembly elections brought the BSP back to power with an absolute majority and over 50 Brahmin MLAs.
The MSS hold over the BSP is so absolute that there is no second rung worth its salt in the party. No news filters through to the media. And Mishra is perhaps busier than the Chief Minister herself. The UP Secretariat has always had only one room for the Chief Minister. Now, however, an exception has been made and an additional room has been set up for Mishra – a Cabinet Minister without port folio. He reads every file to ensure it is legally fool-proof before the Chief Minister signs it – a fallout of the lessons learnt from the Taj corridor case In her first press conference after winning the Assembly elections, Mayawati had three people alongside her: Mishra, Singh and Naseemuddin. And, on differing occasions, she has lauded Mishra publicly – uncommon in UP politics. When the Lucknow media pointed out that his relatives were land ing plum posts, she went so far as to call a press conference at which she thundered that she could not do enough to repay Mishra for what he had done for the party, and minced no words in declaring that more power was in the offing for him.
It is true Mishra’s contribution has been enormous. Ignored for one-and-a-half decades, the Brahmin com munity is enthused by its new-found mascot. Even the BJP’s Kesri Nath Tripathi and Kalraj Mishra did not have such stature Far back in history, a man called Chanakya had chosen King Chandragupta and the Mauryan dynasty was ensconced on the throne.There is a parallel here – in reverse. Queen Mayawati has selected a Chanakya to destroy Yadav rule and the ruins of the Congress party in the state. She also has another agendum – to take her social engineering arse nal 2beyond UP’s boundaries, starting with the battlefields of the Hindi-speaking states. Once again, Mishra will be com mander-in-chief.
Brahmins from other states are already to be found in the queue of darshan-seekers at Mishra’s residence. Brahmins from Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh recently camped in Lucknow for a week. Every time they turned up at his residence, they were told he was in Delhi. On the seventh day, his staff consoled them by saying even they did not see their boss for days and persuaded them to leave. Mishra’s stand is that a minister without portfolio does not relate to the peo ple, he dictates. When not inclined to oblige a favour-seeker, he simply says the deed would incur Mayawati’s wrath. Politics is said to be a game of circumstance and possibility. The MSS focus now is on the problems of power, transport and health. Mishra is negotiating with Volvo, Sweden as well as Korean companies to alleviate UP’s transport and power problems. But the ultimate test of the MSS’ foresight and planning will be a couple of years hence, when the next general election is held. In 2009, if all goes well, even playing kingmak er at 7 Race Course is not too far to seek
Editor, gfiles
