Shahid Siddiqui was in hospital ? he became a grandfather this morning ? when the calls began coming. They informed him of his imminent, and then actual expulsion from the Bahujan Samaj Party, the party he joined last year after crossing over from the SP.
The calls were not from the BSP, says Siddiqui, who is also the party?s general secretary, but from ?the media?. He was told that ?the party? had reacted to a report appearing in The Indian Express on Monday in which Siddiqui raised questions about the lack of transparency in the decision-making process in regional parties, including the BSP.
Speaking to The Indian Express on Monday, Siddiqui said that the BSP had still not communicated with him. There was no showcause notice, no demand made, or any opportunity given, to explain himself. ?This proves my point. This is a democracy of fear and it is becoming stronger. People blame us (individual politicians) for changing parties, but democracy cannot function in an atmosphere of fear.?
There is seldom any debate on policy issues in these parties, Siddiqui had said earlier, and ?party bosses take decisions on national issues based on their personal interests, that of their family, or of their financiers.? In the BSP, said Siddiqui, ?You receive orders from the top.?
In party meetings, Mayawati comes, speaks and goes away while ?senior leaders stand up and shout slogans?. There has been no conversation within the party, he said, on any of the big issues confronting the BSP as party or as government ? be it the sugarcane crisis in UP, or the demands for statehood from Bundelkhand or Harit Pradesh, or the political challenge forced by an apparently ascendant Congress in the state.
A press statement issued by the BSP in Lucknow in the name of its national general secretary Babu Singh Kushwaha said that Siddiqui was expelled with ?immediate effect? for his ?baseless and unfortunate? statements.
Kushwaha said the party ?gave all chances and opportunities to honest, hardworking and devoted workers? and that it had fielded Siddiqui from the Lok Sabha seat of Bijnore, which he lost because he ?continued to hobnob with his erstwhile SP colleagues?. The BSP, insisted Kushwaha, is ?the only party where there is no place for nepotism and sycophancy.? Kushwaha claimed that Siddiqui put pressure on the leadership for a Rajya Sabha seat.
Siddiqui says he has not seen the press statement. ?I?ve no idea…Unfortunately I am an academic too, which is why I had spoken of the BSP in the context of strengthening democracy in regional parties. But these people refuse to listen to even a hint of criticism.?
After the expulsion, Siddiqui says he is relieved. ?I will enjoy my freedom. Now I have a platform to raise the larger issues. I can speak my mind. I am no more a slave.?