As Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi fights a legal battle for having made derogatory remarks against Chief Minister Mayawati, her colleagues are wondering aloud why she said what she did. A doctorate in history who became a professor at Allahabad University, this 60-year-old daughter of the late Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna enjoyed the image of a soft-spoken and suave politician.

After the death of her father, when she decided to join the Congress, it was an unexpected move. Soon she was to leave the Congress to join hands with Mulayam Singh Yadav. She contested the Allahabad Municipal Corporation election as an Independent supported by the SP and went on to become Mayor in 1995. She returned to the Congress and became the All India Mahila Congress president in 2003. It was as surprising as her anointment as UP PCC chief four years later.

?Frankly, I have no idea why she was appointed UP PCC chief. I can only guess that it was because she was a Brahmin,? said a party functionary from UP.

She had no dearth of detractors in the party. When her appointment as PCC chief was under consideration, there surfaced at Congress headquarters a book on her father?s life, co-authored by her. In the book, Joshi wrote of how Indira Gandhi had started becoming ?an autocrat and dictator?.

Joshi survived the controversy over her book. But her nomination as Congress candidate for the Lucknow Lok Sabha seat in the last parliamentary polls had also come as a surprise. Joshi, who unsuccessfully contested the 1999 election, was seeking a ticket from Allahabad this time.

While the credit for the change in the party?s fortunes in the last Lok Sabha election went to Rahul Gandhi, it also appeared to have sown the first seeds of ambition in Joshi in state politics, according to party sources. With Rahul set for the top job at the Centre in future, she could also fancy her chances in the state if the Congress were to replicate its LS performance in Assembly polls, said sources.

While Joshi has apologised for her remarks ? which legal luminaries in the party believe was a mistake as it could amount to an admission of guilt ? and the Congress has expressed ?regret? to calm frayed tempers in the Dalit community, Congress leaders are of the view that the party would come out unscathed from this controversy.

Sources pointed out that the party was not banking on the Dalit vote bank in UP to revive its fortune. With a Thakur as AICC general secretary and both PCC chief and CLP leader being Brahmins ?with the former PCC chief, a Muslim, elevated as Minister of State with Independent charge at the Centre ? it did not require much imagination to see the party?s blueprint of revival in UP.

Crime and Punishment: SC/ST Act, 1989

Apart from sections of the IPC, UPCC president Rita Bahaguna Joshi has been booked under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. A very strict law, the Act aims at preventing atrocities on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Maneesh Chhibber explains.

* When did the Act come into force and why was it enacted?

Enacted in 1989, the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, was aimed at preventing commission of crimes and atrocities against SCs and STs, especially by influential persons belonging to the upper castes. It also provides for setting up of Special Courts for speedy trial of cases under the Act and for relief and rehabilitation of the victims of offences under the Act. However, members of the SCs and STs can?t be booked under the Act.

* What are the kinds of offences that a person can be booked for under the Act?

Any person, either an individual or a government servant, can be booked under the Act if he threatens, humiliates, injures, abuses verbally or physically, wrongfully confines or calls by his caste a member of the SCs or the STs notified under the Constitution. Forcing an SC/ST citizen to work for free or vote in favour of a candidate in an election against his choice is also an offence punishable under the Act. Government servants can be booked under the Act if they fail to discharge their duty to protect the rights of members of the SC/ST.

* Has the Act achieved the desired result?

As per the annual report of the ministry of social jJustice and Empowerment for 2002, of the total cases filed, only 21.72% were disposed of. Of these, 2.31% ended in conviction. Even the Supreme Court has pointed to this anomaly. UP has the highest number of cases under the Act.