Saffron, white and green, never say never again

The stage is set for an old drama to be played out again in the electoral theatre of Uttar Pradesh.
Friends have become foes, foes have become friends, and the inter-linked destinies of two ragged armies could put paid to the fortunes of two new lords.
One of the biggest icons of the Hindutva brigade, Kalyan Singh, walks around without a destination. His ports of call have all been sunk by the inclement weather of politics.
Maulana Mulayam, Kalyan’s greatest rival during the heady days of the Babri Masjid demolition, has finally called it quits on their ‘who could ever think of it’ friendship. Kalyan now does not know what to do. He has made the right noises about how he was always an RSS man and how Hindutva runs in his blood. But the BJP, several times bitten never shy, is reluctant to have Kalyan hop into their bed again.
However it might not be left with a lot of choice since Kalyan still has his caste card perfectly arrayed on his table.One time Hindutva cronies like Vinay Katiyar, sidelined by the party because of the like of Katiyar proving incapable of spouting anything sensible when the times demand it, are looking at Kalyan to bring back the saffron hue in a party gone pale by successive electoral defeats.
Mulayam, seething at young Rahul Gandhi taking away Fiozabad from right under his family’s nose, now wants to go back to the times when his almost bordering on anti-national Muslim appeasement earned him the sobriquet Maulana Mulayam. The first thing he wants to do is build back the Babri Masjid so that the ‘pain’ the Muslims felt when it was brought down can be lessened.
Mayawati meanwhile is proving to be a quick learner. A setback in the Lok Sabha elections meant she quickly re-arrange her caste cards and the feisty lady did just that and left Mulayam with a bloody nose.
Rahul baba and his media-heavy visits to Uttar Pradesh, especially Dalit houses - Mayawati's fiefdom, had made the UP race a two horse one.
Now with the Liberhans Report on the Babri Masjid demolition being leaked to the media, and Advani, Vajpayee and Murli Manohar Joshi, being accused of being key conspirators, the wheel has come full circle for the BJP.
It is a firm but very welcome step backwards for the saffron party, one when religion played a big part in our politics, one when Mulayam whipped up Hindutva by going crazily pro-Muslim and one when both Mulayam and BJP were the two lords of the Uttar Pradesh electoral game.
Rahul and Mayawati might have been running a two-horse race for the past few years in India's most populous state, but it suddenly seems the turf has changed and two old horses have once again got a fresh lease of life. As James Bond might have put it with a twist, in politics never say never again.