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Not known to back off or bow down, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati's decision to rescind the order reserving 50 per cent of seats for SC/ST and OBCs in sports institutions across the state may have something to do with pressure from her allies.
BJP leaders in the state also believe it was another opportunity for the Bahujan Samaj Party leader to show them that she is in direct contact with national level leaders of the party.
The UP government is a coalition comprising the BSP, BJP and the Rashtriya Lok Dal of Ajit Singh.
According to the government order, 21 per cent of seats in a sports college or hostel were to be reserved for scheduled castes, 2 per cent for scheduled tribes and 27 per cent for other backward castes.
The order had drawn much flak from various sports organisations who were contemplating filing a Public Interest Litigation and planning a demonstration by sportspersons in Lucknow. They were protesting against creating divisions among sportspersons along caste lines.
"Initially, Mayawati refused to pay heed to the resentment among the BJP's UP leaders. It was only after a top leader called her from Delhi did she decide to rescind the order," a party leader told rediff.com.
However, not wanting to be seen as bowing to pressure from her allies, she claimed to have been kept in the dark about the decision, he said.
She suspended principal secretary (sports) Harish Chandra only to lend credibility to her explanation, he added.
What gives credence to this theory is an official press release issued late on Friday evening.
In the release, the chief minister admitted having given her nod, in her capacity as in-charge of the sports portfolio, to a note put up by the principal secretary (sports) on the reservation order. But she claimed to have signed on a single sheet and not on the file bearing the details and background of the case.
"The approval (signature) should have been taken on the file and then (the file should have been) put up for consideration before the cabinet before the government order was notified," the release added.
Harish Chandra was not available for comment, but other bureaucrats are unconvinced.
Mayawati often takes decisions in a hurry and does not allow sufficient time to present records on file, they complain.
A secretary, no matter how enthusiastic, would not stick his neck out by going ahead and implement an executive order on his own, that too on a policy matter like this one, said a retired IAS officer who held several key positions in the UP secretariat.
Harish Chandra is also not an officer without blemish. Opposition members had recently launched a tirade against him in the state assembly accusing the bureaucrat of grabbing land belonging to dalits.
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