Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Behenji: A Political Biography of Mayawati: Interview with the author
http://specials.rediff.com/news/2008/may/07sld1.htm
Friday, April 18, 2008
Aditi Phadnis: Mayajaal gets stronger
Aditi Phadnis / New Delhi April 19, 2008
The results of 5 by-elections in UP make it clear that only Mayawati counts here.
Apologies if this is blindingly obvious to everyone, but the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) led by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati is here to stay. If any proof was needed, the results of the UP by-elections declared earlier this week provide it. The BSP won all five — two Lok Sabha and three Assembly seats — wresting two from sitting incumbents. The Azamgarh and Khalilabad Lok Sabha seats were both held by it earlier. The Colonelganj Assembly seat was earlier held by the Congress. The BSP has won it this time. Murad Nagar was held by an Independent. The BSP has won that as well.
But what should worry both LK Advani and Sonia Gandhi is that in as many as four seats, the Congress and BJP candidates have lost their security deposits. This means in four seats, they were not even able to poll one-sixth of the total votes polled. In Muradnagar, this fate befell the Samajwadi Party (SP) nominee.
Although as a measure of abundant caution, the Congress chief in the state, Rita Bahuguna, had said before the election that she did not view it as a referendum of Congress popularity, the fact is that it must have come as quite a blow. The BJP wasn’t even talking of losing, so in that sense, it ends up looking even sillier than the Congress.
Basically, the by-elections tell us that in UP now, the number one and number two slots are occupied by the BSP and SP. The two biggest national parties, the Congress and the BJP, are so out of the reckoning, they can be ignored. They have become irrelevant to the politics of the state.
How has this come about? The seeds of the destruction of the Congress and the BJP lie in the immediate past, the Vidhan Sabha elections last year that brought Mayawati to power in UP.
If the SP improved its vote share by a miniscule percentage-share (0.8 per cent), Mayawati won essentially because of the annihilation of the BJP’s share of the vote. The upper castes willingly and enthusiastically joined her project of a “sarvajan samaj” (universal society), so traumatised they were from the law and order deterioration in UP and their targeting by the Yadavs.
Basically the upper castes decided they would vote for anyone who could end Mulayam Singh Yadav’s rule. He, in turn, got the reputation of an inefficient law-keeper because he packed the police force with his own caste, something Mayawati is now attempting to dismantle.
This set of by-elections was the first test of the loyalties of the upper castes: were they going to stick with Mayawati or return to the BJP ? The result is crystal clear — the upper castes have still not got over their heeby-jeebies at the prospect of the return of Mulayam Singh Yadav and will go with anyone who can defeat him, not unlike the Muslims who were in the grips of the same sort of thinking — their vote was available to anyone who could defeat the BJP.
For the upper castes in UP, neither the SP nor the Congress is capable of keeping Yadav at bay. Therefore, the same alliance that worked as a formula for Congress victory for years — upper castes-cum-Dalits — is now being leveraged by Mayawati. In her tenure as CM, she hasn’t put one foot wrong. She has, in fact, talked of economic backwardness as the criterion for reservation, not caste, something that can only come from deep-rooted confidence that her own community won’t see this as a sellout.
What does this mean in terms of UP’s regional politics? In the Vidhan Sabha elections, the biggest chunk of Mayawati’s vote came from western UP, the home of the vocal Jats but also of militant Jatavs (untouchables) and outspoken Muslims. With the Muslims already batting for her and voting along with Jatavs, the unity of the upper castes and Jats has no meaning. If anything, farmer leader Mahendra Singh Tikait’s anti-Dalit statements in a public rally, have consolidating the lower castes against the Jats. Anyone who consorts with the Jats has a snowflake’s chance in hell of getting the Dalit vote now.
True, no by-election was held in western UP this time. But Jats are anti-Congress by temperament and the BJP needed Tikait’s call for caste assertion at this point like a hole in the head. Because while Jat consolidation is a political blessing, its backlash represents the consolidation of anti-Jat forces, a development that can only bolster Mayawati’s chances.
Besides, so long as Ajit Singh was in alliance with the BJP, it was he who mopped up the Jat vote for it. Now he’s out and the BJP is neither getting the Jat vote in western UP nor the anti-Jat vote.
What this points to is obvious: in the Lok Sabha election, while the BSP and SP will fight for number one and two place, the Congress and BJP will vie for number three and four, a cheerless prospect from the point of view of government formation after the next Lok Sabha elections.
There is another factor that has begun to have a role in UP: personality factor. Today, Mayawati and Mulayam Singh Yadav have pledged to give their all to UP. But can you think of a single person in the Congress or BJP who has said: “I am dismayed at the way UP is being governed and I’m going to make UP my karmabhumi (centre). I don’t want a role in central politics, I’m renouncing that and am going to focus on making UP a better place to live in?”
Not one. Not Rahul Gandhi, not Murli Manohar Joshi, not LK Advani. So the UP vote naturally thinks, “Well, if we’re not good enough for you, then you’re not good enough for us”. And with 40 Lok Sabha seats out of 80 (or thereabouts) under her belt, it is Mayawati who will be among those to decide who President Pratibha Patil swears in as Prime Minister of India
The results of 5 by-elections in UP make it clear that only Mayawati counts here.
Apologies if this is blindingly obvious to everyone, but the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) led by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati is here to stay. If any proof was needed, the results of the UP by-elections declared earlier this week provide it. The BSP won all five — two Lok Sabha and three Assembly seats — wresting two from sitting incumbents. The Azamgarh and Khalilabad Lok Sabha seats were both held by it earlier. The Colonelganj Assembly seat was earlier held by the Congress. The BSP has won it this time. Murad Nagar was held by an Independent. The BSP has won that as well.
But what should worry both LK Advani and Sonia Gandhi is that in as many as four seats, the Congress and BJP candidates have lost their security deposits. This means in four seats, they were not even able to poll one-sixth of the total votes polled. In Muradnagar, this fate befell the Samajwadi Party (SP) nominee.
Although as a measure of abundant caution, the Congress chief in the state, Rita Bahuguna, had said before the election that she did not view it as a referendum of Congress popularity, the fact is that it must have come as quite a blow. The BJP wasn’t even talking of losing, so in that sense, it ends up looking even sillier than the Congress.
Basically, the by-elections tell us that in UP now, the number one and number two slots are occupied by the BSP and SP. The two biggest national parties, the Congress and the BJP, are so out of the reckoning, they can be ignored. They have become irrelevant to the politics of the state.
How has this come about? The seeds of the destruction of the Congress and the BJP lie in the immediate past, the Vidhan Sabha elections last year that brought Mayawati to power in UP.
If the SP improved its vote share by a miniscule percentage-share (0.8 per cent), Mayawati won essentially because of the annihilation of the BJP’s share of the vote. The upper castes willingly and enthusiastically joined her project of a “sarvajan samaj” (universal society), so traumatised they were from the law and order deterioration in UP and their targeting by the Yadavs.
Basically the upper castes decided they would vote for anyone who could end Mulayam Singh Yadav’s rule. He, in turn, got the reputation of an inefficient law-keeper because he packed the police force with his own caste, something Mayawati is now attempting to dismantle.
This set of by-elections was the first test of the loyalties of the upper castes: were they going to stick with Mayawati or return to the BJP ? The result is crystal clear — the upper castes have still not got over their heeby-jeebies at the prospect of the return of Mulayam Singh Yadav and will go with anyone who can defeat him, not unlike the Muslims who were in the grips of the same sort of thinking — their vote was available to anyone who could defeat the BJP.
For the upper castes in UP, neither the SP nor the Congress is capable of keeping Yadav at bay. Therefore, the same alliance that worked as a formula for Congress victory for years — upper castes-cum-Dalits — is now being leveraged by Mayawati. In her tenure as CM, she hasn’t put one foot wrong. She has, in fact, talked of economic backwardness as the criterion for reservation, not caste, something that can only come from deep-rooted confidence that her own community won’t see this as a sellout.
What does this mean in terms of UP’s regional politics? In the Vidhan Sabha elections, the biggest chunk of Mayawati’s vote came from western UP, the home of the vocal Jats but also of militant Jatavs (untouchables) and outspoken Muslims. With the Muslims already batting for her and voting along with Jatavs, the unity of the upper castes and Jats has no meaning. If anything, farmer leader Mahendra Singh Tikait’s anti-Dalit statements in a public rally, have consolidating the lower castes against the Jats. Anyone who consorts with the Jats has a snowflake’s chance in hell of getting the Dalit vote now.
True, no by-election was held in western UP this time. But Jats are anti-Congress by temperament and the BJP needed Tikait’s call for caste assertion at this point like a hole in the head. Because while Jat consolidation is a political blessing, its backlash represents the consolidation of anti-Jat forces, a development that can only bolster Mayawati’s chances.
Besides, so long as Ajit Singh was in alliance with the BJP, it was he who mopped up the Jat vote for it. Now he’s out and the BJP is neither getting the Jat vote in western UP nor the anti-Jat vote.
What this points to is obvious: in the Lok Sabha election, while the BSP and SP will fight for number one and two place, the Congress and BJP will vie for number three and four, a cheerless prospect from the point of view of government formation after the next Lok Sabha elections.
There is another factor that has begun to have a role in UP: personality factor. Today, Mayawati and Mulayam Singh Yadav have pledged to give their all to UP. But can you think of a single person in the Congress or BJP who has said: “I am dismayed at the way UP is being governed and I’m going to make UP my karmabhumi (centre). I don’t want a role in central politics, I’m renouncing that and am going to focus on making UP a better place to live in?”
Not one. Not Rahul Gandhi, not Murli Manohar Joshi, not LK Advani. So the UP vote naturally thinks, “Well, if we’re not good enough for you, then you’re not good enough for us”. And with 40 Lok Sabha seats out of 80 (or thereabouts) under her belt, it is Mayawati who will be among those to decide who President Pratibha Patil swears in as Prime Minister of India
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Maya bats for upper castes after SC verdict
New Delhi, April 10: Welcoming the Supreme Court decision on OBC quotas, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, on Thursday pitched for reservation for economically backward classes among upper castes and backward classes among religious minorities.
The BSP chief also demanded that the Centre should redefine the "creamy layer" in times of the rising rate of inflation and high cost of living.
She told media that "I will be writing to the central government to extend reservation to the economically weaker upper castes and backward classes among the religious minorities".
The Centre should make an amendment in the Constitutionto ensure such quotas and her Bahujan Samaj Party would support this move in Parliament, she said.
Terming the SC judgement as "historic and important", she demanded that the Centre should ensure implementation of the quotas in higher education institutes across the country.
States where such institutes cannot implement quotas, should be provided help to do the same, Mayawati said.
"We will ensure full implementation of the OBC reservation in higher educational institutions in UP," she said.
She also said, as far as the creamy layer is concerned, Centre should have a relook at the criteria for creamy layer in view of the rising cost of living so that no deserving person from OBC category is left out.
The BSP chief also demanded that the Centre should redefine the "creamy layer" in times of the rising rate of inflation and high cost of living.
She told media that "I will be writing to the central government to extend reservation to the economically weaker upper castes and backward classes among the religious minorities".
The Centre should make an amendment in the Constitutionto ensure such quotas and her Bahujan Samaj Party would support this move in Parliament, she said.
Terming the SC judgement as "historic and important", she demanded that the Centre should ensure implementation of the quotas in higher education institutes across the country.
States where such institutes cannot implement quotas, should be provided help to do the same, Mayawati said.
"We will ensure full implementation of the OBC reservation in higher educational institutions in UP," she said.
She also said, as far as the creamy layer is concerned, Centre should have a relook at the criteria for creamy layer in view of the rising cost of living so that no deserving person from OBC category is left out.
Mayawati emerging as a national powerbroker: Report
NEW YORK: In the week gone by, she has indirectly engaged in a verbal duel with young Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, and sarcastically remarked that his meetings with Dalits or the socially underprivileged and backwards in Uttar Pradesh and in other parts of the country are followed by baths with scented soap.
But, if a first ever profile taken out by the Time magazine of her is anything to go by, there is no doubt that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, despite her low caste, is emerging as a national powerbroker, and may even be a potential Prime Minister of India.
At 52, the magazine opines that Mayawati is an image dripping with symbolism, with aides and civil servants fawning over her.
On January 15 this year, the image of mostly high-caste men feeding a Dalit (formerly "Untouchable") woman was an incredibly powerful one in a country where discrimination based on caste has been banned for more than half a century but where many of the old barriers and prejudices endure.
The Time quotes Chandra Bhan Prasad, a pioneering Dalit newspaper columnist as saying that: "If you've come from nothing and then make money, it's a very understandable psychological drive to want to openly spend it."
"There is still a feeling among many in the upper-caste Hindu élite that she's (Mayawati) not acceptable," he adds.
According to the magazine, Mayawati has made clear that "she will use her popularity there (in Uttar Pradesh) to become an important player on the national stage at the next general election."
Given the fractured nature of Indian politics, that poll, due by early 2009 at the latest, is unlikely to produce any single winner.
"If Mayawati and her Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) can win 40 or 50 seats in the 552-member lower house -- a real possibility given that Uttar Pradesh's 110 million voters elect 80 of those members -- she would be well placed to decide which of India's two big parties, the Indian National Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party, should lead a new government, or perhaps even wangle the premiership for herself," says the magazine.
"The fact that Mayawati is seriously discussed as a possible next Prime Minister is evidence of how far she has come," the profile says.
From being one of nine children born to a low-level civil servant and an illiterate mother, Mayawati has used her street smarts and the affirmative-action programs designed to help India's downtrodden to study teaching and then law.
She joined the BSP in 1984 and, as the head of unstable coalitions, went on to become Uttar Pradesh's Chief Minister for three brief stints before last year's breakout victory when the party won outright.
Mayawati's master stroke has been to reach out to Brahmins
"The difference with Congress is that they were using Dalits but keeping them on a bottom level, whereas we are all on an equal platform with a Dalit leader at the top," says Satish Chandra Mishra, the BSP's secretary general.
"That is getting a tremendous response around the country," he adds.
As far as her aspiration to be a nationally recognised leader is concerned, political analysts like Swapan Dasgupta believe that she has to overcome her abrasive and arbitrary style of functioning to make the grade.
The fact that she calls herself a "living goddess," and has ordered half a dozen statues of herself and is building a 100 million dollar park to commemorate BSP founder Kanshi Ram, may appeal to her supporters, but not to other people in Indian society.
To her critics, Mayawati's projection of Dalit power and wealth is "simply evidence of her vanity and opportunities for kickbacks."
Mayawati has "disproportionate assets." She herself has filed papers with election officials indicating she owns 72 properties and has 54 bank accounts.
Those records show Mayawati's wealth increased by more than 30 times over the past four years to 13 million dollars, a fact she puts down to generous supporters who have showered her with gifts of jewellery, art and cash.
Her aides say that the gifts are all fully recorded and accounted for, and stopped the moment she became Chief Minister.
In the past couple of months, as speculation has turned to the possibility of an early election, Mayawati has held a series of rallies around the country and has begun testing her political weight, perhaps to see how far she can go.
The magazine concludes by saying that on March 31, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi criticized Mayawati for not running Uttar Pradesh properly. Yet on her birthday, both she and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was in China at the time, made sure to call her to wish her well.
"After all, they might need her support in a matter of months," it said.
But, if a first ever profile taken out by the Time magazine of her is anything to go by, there is no doubt that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, despite her low caste, is emerging as a national powerbroker, and may even be a potential Prime Minister of India.
At 52, the magazine opines that Mayawati is an image dripping with symbolism, with aides and civil servants fawning over her.
On January 15 this year, the image of mostly high-caste men feeding a Dalit (formerly "Untouchable") woman was an incredibly powerful one in a country where discrimination based on caste has been banned for more than half a century but where many of the old barriers and prejudices endure.
The Time quotes Chandra Bhan Prasad, a pioneering Dalit newspaper columnist as saying that: "If you've come from nothing and then make money, it's a very understandable psychological drive to want to openly spend it."
"There is still a feeling among many in the upper-caste Hindu élite that she's (Mayawati) not acceptable," he adds.
According to the magazine, Mayawati has made clear that "she will use her popularity there (in Uttar Pradesh) to become an important player on the national stage at the next general election."
Given the fractured nature of Indian politics, that poll, due by early 2009 at the latest, is unlikely to produce any single winner.
"If Mayawati and her Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) can win 40 or 50 seats in the 552-member lower house -- a real possibility given that Uttar Pradesh's 110 million voters elect 80 of those members -- she would be well placed to decide which of India's two big parties, the Indian National Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party, should lead a new government, or perhaps even wangle the premiership for herself," says the magazine.
"The fact that Mayawati is seriously discussed as a possible next Prime Minister is evidence of how far she has come," the profile says.
From being one of nine children born to a low-level civil servant and an illiterate mother, Mayawati has used her street smarts and the affirmative-action programs designed to help India's downtrodden to study teaching and then law.
She joined the BSP in 1984 and, as the head of unstable coalitions, went on to become Uttar Pradesh's Chief Minister for three brief stints before last year's breakout victory when the party won outright.
Mayawati's master stroke has been to reach out to Brahmins
"The difference with Congress is that they were using Dalits but keeping them on a bottom level, whereas we are all on an equal platform with a Dalit leader at the top," says Satish Chandra Mishra, the BSP's secretary general.
"That is getting a tremendous response around the country," he adds.
As far as her aspiration to be a nationally recognised leader is concerned, political analysts like Swapan Dasgupta believe that she has to overcome her abrasive and arbitrary style of functioning to make the grade.
The fact that she calls herself a "living goddess," and has ordered half a dozen statues of herself and is building a 100 million dollar park to commemorate BSP founder Kanshi Ram, may appeal to her supporters, but not to other people in Indian society.
To her critics, Mayawati's projection of Dalit power and wealth is "simply evidence of her vanity and opportunities for kickbacks."
Mayawati has "disproportionate assets." She herself has filed papers with election officials indicating she owns 72 properties and has 54 bank accounts.
Those records show Mayawati's wealth increased by more than 30 times over the past four years to 13 million dollars, a fact she puts down to generous supporters who have showered her with gifts of jewellery, art and cash.
Her aides say that the gifts are all fully recorded and accounted for, and stopped the moment she became Chief Minister.
In the past couple of months, as speculation has turned to the possibility of an early election, Mayawati has held a series of rallies around the country and has begun testing her political weight, perhaps to see how far she can go.
The magazine concludes by saying that on March 31, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi criticized Mayawati for not running Uttar Pradesh properly. Yet on her birthday, both she and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was in China at the time, made sure to call her to wish her well.
"After all, they might need her support in a matter of months," it said.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Monday, March 31, 2008
From lowest caste to high office in India
LUCKNOW, INDIA -- She smiles like a queen from almost every street corner here. Billboards congratulate her on her recent 52nd birthday, declaring her admirers' wish that she live for "thousands of years."Her name is Mayawati, and she has a penchant for diamonds, helicopters and power, all of which are at her disposal as the leader of Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state and home to the Taj Mahal. Elected chief minister in May, she reigns over a population more than half that of the United States.
But Mayawati, who goes by one name, has her eye on an even bigger prize: becoming prime minister of India, an ambition that would have been unthinkable a generation ago. Mayawati is a Dalit, a member of the community formerly known as "untouchables," the lowest of the low. Her rise has shaken up Indian politics as the country gears up for national elections due by May 2009. She won her present post by stitching together an unlikely coalition of supporters from opposite, and traditionally hostile, ends of the social spectrum: the Dalits and the Brahmins, the cream of India's ancient caste system.That it was Mayawati who united elements of the two sides seems even more improbable. She first rose to power as a demagogic advocate of caste-based politics, famously urging her fellow Dalits, who make up more than a fifth of Uttar Pradesh's population, to beat higher-caste people with their shoes.The strength of the Dalit vote was enough to propel her into the chief minister's seat on three previous occasions, but always at the head of unstable coalition governments with other parties. Only one lasted longer than six months.This time, her Bahujan Samaj (Majority Society) Party, or BSP, owns an outright majority in the state assembly. About three dozen of the BSP's 206 state legislators are Brahmins, the people she once denounced as her enemies.Mayawati is trying to export her winning formula, promoting the party in other state races and then in national elections. Most analysts do not consider the BSP in a position to win a general election, but it could hold the balance of power in a hung parliament, which would give Mayawati enormous influence and the scope to continue building her profile. "Her party is a national party now. Mayawati is a recognizable figure in national politics," said Ajay Mehra, director of a public-affairs think tank near New Delhi. "Her becoming prime minister certainly is within the realm of possibility. She's trying to build herself toward that."But," Mehra said, "there are many slips between the cup and the lip."Critics accuse her of being vain, egotistical and corrupt, a woman more likely to spend state funds on herself than on the downtrodden supporters who helped elect her. Plump and combative, she routinely dismisses such criticism by saying she is being attacked for being "a Dalit's daughter." Last year, the former schoolteacher and daughter of a clerk declared her personal wealth to be more than $13 million, including $250,000 in jewelry. She flies around in a helicopter and recently ordered a fleet of armored cars. An Indian news channel reported in January that she had hired an Israeli security firm to train the commandos who protect her, which, along with other measures to enhance her personal safety, will cost the state $6 million a year.In a recent interview with the newsmagazine India Today, she said that if the central government could arrange special protections for other top leaders, "then why not for a Dalit's daughter? I am a hard-working girl."Others suspect that her riches derive from something other than just hard work. A few years ago, Mayawati came under investigation in a corruption scandal that involved a proposed development project near the Taj Mahal that she had approved during a previous stint as chief minister. Millions of dollars earmarked for the project are unaccounted for. But the investigation has sputtered, some say because of political pressure."She's always claimed that all the money she has has been given by her supporters, which amounts to hundreds of millions" of rupees, Mehra said. But many Dalits, who have historically been assigned the most menial and worst-paid jobs in Indian society, earn less than a dollar a day.Whether they resent Mayawati's extravagance is difficult to say. Some see the pageantry and trappings of power and wealth as her due, a sign that she belongs in the big league. Her political triumphs are a powerful symbol of empowerment for many Dalits, as are her publicly advertised ambitions for even higher office."That endears her in the eyes of her voters, because this is a community that has historically been denied power. When she says, 'I want to be prime minister,' she makes a larger social statement on behalf of millions and millions of people," said Yogendra Yadav of the Center for the Study of Developing Societies.Uttar Pradesh has been the breeding ground of many of India's prime ministers since the country's independence in 1947. The key for Mayawati is to hold on to her traditional base of Dalit voters, now that she has broadened the BSP to include upper-caste members. Some Dalits feel betrayed and angry that a party founded on behalf of their community has installed Brahmins in positions of leadership."How can these people who mistreated us help us now? I doubt even 25% of Brahmins want to do anything to uplift Dalits," activist Pushpa Valmiki said.Critics say that, even in her previous short-lived governments, Mayawati failed to do much to help Dalits. Aides to Mayawati have countered such criticism with a booklet listing the achievements of her government, including the expansion of a multimillion-dollar development and welfare scheme once targeting Dalit-majority villages but now available to all. Her office declined requests for an interview.Widening her appeal will be crucial if Mayawati hopes to storm the national stage and take votes from more established groups, such as the ruling Congress Party and the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.This means that a heavily pro-Dalit agenda in Uttar Pradesh is no more likely now, even with a legislative majority, than it was during her previous shaky coalition governments, analysts say."In terms of any transformative agenda, any redistributive agenda, making any change for the poor and downtrodden whom she purports to represent, I don't think she'll do much," Yadav said.What she can do to reward loyalists is to exercise the powerful spoils system that permeates Indian politics. A few months after her election, her government fired 18,000 police officers hired by her predecessor, a bitter rival. Few expect replacements to be recruited impartially.To her critics, Mayawati has elevated the politics of personality and power above the norm, surrounding herself with sycophants who fawn over her as their behenji, or "honored sister."Even veteran political observers were surprised and appalled by television footage showing officials, including the state police chief, hand-feeding Mayawati morsels of the 52-kilogram (115-pound) cake that was ordered up for her 52nd birthday on Jan. 15. Short and squat, Mayawati seemed to purr like a cat, albeit one wearing a diamond necklace with matching earrings. The last time she celebrated her birthday as chief minister, in 2003, she spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in public money on a party for herself and called it "self-respect day.""My birthday is celebrated in a way that no other leader's is," she boasted in the magazine interview. "People donate money in my name. My birthday will be celebrated all over India, in each state. And on this day, we will help widows, the handicapped and the poor."Sonu Devi is still waiting for that to happen.Devi, 23, lives in the impoverished village of Gorakhpuri Bangla, not far from Mayawati's lavishly appointed personal and official homes here in Lucknow, the state capital. Children run around barefoot in the chilly winter, avoiding heaps of cow dung as they dart between mud-and-thatch homes. There is no electricity or running water.A mother of two, Devi belongs to the same Dalit group as Mayawati: the Chamars, or leather workers. She, too, knows discrimination. The Dalits of her village dare not use the water pumps of higher-caste residents, who regard the likes of her as unclean, and she has been harassed for riding a bicycle, which they consider above her station.Like 80% of Dalits in last May's state election, Devi voted for Mayawati. "She's trying, we know, but the fact remains that [benefits are] not coming down to our level," Devi said.Although she choppers from place to place in Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati has never visited Gorakhpuri Bangla, about half an hour's drive from central Lucknow. If she did, Devi said, "I'd point out all my problems to her -- that I have no income, I have no house. What she'd do, I can't say."But if she works for us, we'll vote for her in the next election."henry.chu@latimes.com
But Mayawati, who goes by one name, has her eye on an even bigger prize: becoming prime minister of India, an ambition that would have been unthinkable a generation ago. Mayawati is a Dalit, a member of the community formerly known as "untouchables," the lowest of the low. Her rise has shaken up Indian politics as the country gears up for national elections due by May 2009. She won her present post by stitching together an unlikely coalition of supporters from opposite, and traditionally hostile, ends of the social spectrum: the Dalits and the Brahmins, the cream of India's ancient caste system.That it was Mayawati who united elements of the two sides seems even more improbable. She first rose to power as a demagogic advocate of caste-based politics, famously urging her fellow Dalits, who make up more than a fifth of Uttar Pradesh's population, to beat higher-caste people with their shoes.The strength of the Dalit vote was enough to propel her into the chief minister's seat on three previous occasions, but always at the head of unstable coalition governments with other parties. Only one lasted longer than six months.This time, her Bahujan Samaj (Majority Society) Party, or BSP, owns an outright majority in the state assembly. About three dozen of the BSP's 206 state legislators are Brahmins, the people she once denounced as her enemies.Mayawati is trying to export her winning formula, promoting the party in other state races and then in national elections. Most analysts do not consider the BSP in a position to win a general election, but it could hold the balance of power in a hung parliament, which would give Mayawati enormous influence and the scope to continue building her profile. "Her party is a national party now. Mayawati is a recognizable figure in national politics," said Ajay Mehra, director of a public-affairs think tank near New Delhi. "Her becoming prime minister certainly is within the realm of possibility. She's trying to build herself toward that."But," Mehra said, "there are many slips between the cup and the lip."Critics accuse her of being vain, egotistical and corrupt, a woman more likely to spend state funds on herself than on the downtrodden supporters who helped elect her. Plump and combative, she routinely dismisses such criticism by saying she is being attacked for being "a Dalit's daughter." Last year, the former schoolteacher and daughter of a clerk declared her personal wealth to be more than $13 million, including $250,000 in jewelry. She flies around in a helicopter and recently ordered a fleet of armored cars. An Indian news channel reported in January that she had hired an Israeli security firm to train the commandos who protect her, which, along with other measures to enhance her personal safety, will cost the state $6 million a year.In a recent interview with the newsmagazine India Today, she said that if the central government could arrange special protections for other top leaders, "then why not for a Dalit's daughter? I am a hard-working girl."Others suspect that her riches derive from something other than just hard work. A few years ago, Mayawati came under investigation in a corruption scandal that involved a proposed development project near the Taj Mahal that she had approved during a previous stint as chief minister. Millions of dollars earmarked for the project are unaccounted for. But the investigation has sputtered, some say because of political pressure."She's always claimed that all the money she has has been given by her supporters, which amounts to hundreds of millions" of rupees, Mehra said. But many Dalits, who have historically been assigned the most menial and worst-paid jobs in Indian society, earn less than a dollar a day.Whether they resent Mayawati's extravagance is difficult to say. Some see the pageantry and trappings of power and wealth as her due, a sign that she belongs in the big league. Her political triumphs are a powerful symbol of empowerment for many Dalits, as are her publicly advertised ambitions for even higher office."That endears her in the eyes of her voters, because this is a community that has historically been denied power. When she says, 'I want to be prime minister,' she makes a larger social statement on behalf of millions and millions of people," said Yogendra Yadav of the Center for the Study of Developing Societies.Uttar Pradesh has been the breeding ground of many of India's prime ministers since the country's independence in 1947. The key for Mayawati is to hold on to her traditional base of Dalit voters, now that she has broadened the BSP to include upper-caste members. Some Dalits feel betrayed and angry that a party founded on behalf of their community has installed Brahmins in positions of leadership."How can these people who mistreated us help us now? I doubt even 25% of Brahmins want to do anything to uplift Dalits," activist Pushpa Valmiki said.Critics say that, even in her previous short-lived governments, Mayawati failed to do much to help Dalits. Aides to Mayawati have countered such criticism with a booklet listing the achievements of her government, including the expansion of a multimillion-dollar development and welfare scheme once targeting Dalit-majority villages but now available to all. Her office declined requests for an interview.Widening her appeal will be crucial if Mayawati hopes to storm the national stage and take votes from more established groups, such as the ruling Congress Party and the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.This means that a heavily pro-Dalit agenda in Uttar Pradesh is no more likely now, even with a legislative majority, than it was during her previous shaky coalition governments, analysts say."In terms of any transformative agenda, any redistributive agenda, making any change for the poor and downtrodden whom she purports to represent, I don't think she'll do much," Yadav said.What she can do to reward loyalists is to exercise the powerful spoils system that permeates Indian politics. A few months after her election, her government fired 18,000 police officers hired by her predecessor, a bitter rival. Few expect replacements to be recruited impartially.To her critics, Mayawati has elevated the politics of personality and power above the norm, surrounding herself with sycophants who fawn over her as their behenji, or "honored sister."Even veteran political observers were surprised and appalled by television footage showing officials, including the state police chief, hand-feeding Mayawati morsels of the 52-kilogram (115-pound) cake that was ordered up for her 52nd birthday on Jan. 15. Short and squat, Mayawati seemed to purr like a cat, albeit one wearing a diamond necklace with matching earrings. The last time she celebrated her birthday as chief minister, in 2003, she spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in public money on a party for herself and called it "self-respect day.""My birthday is celebrated in a way that no other leader's is," she boasted in the magazine interview. "People donate money in my name. My birthday will be celebrated all over India, in each state. And on this day, we will help widows, the handicapped and the poor."Sonu Devi is still waiting for that to happen.Devi, 23, lives in the impoverished village of Gorakhpuri Bangla, not far from Mayawati's lavishly appointed personal and official homes here in Lucknow, the state capital. Children run around barefoot in the chilly winter, avoiding heaps of cow dung as they dart between mud-and-thatch homes. There is no electricity or running water.A mother of two, Devi belongs to the same Dalit group as Mayawati: the Chamars, or leather workers. She, too, knows discrimination. The Dalits of her village dare not use the water pumps of higher-caste residents, who regard the likes of her as unclean, and she has been harassed for riding a bicycle, which they consider above her station.Like 80% of Dalits in last May's state election, Devi voted for Mayawati. "She's trying, we know, but the fact remains that [benefits are] not coming down to our level," Devi said.Although she choppers from place to place in Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati has never visited Gorakhpuri Bangla, about half an hour's drive from central Lucknow. If she did, Devi said, "I'd point out all my problems to her -- that I have no income, I have no house. What she'd do, I can't say."But if she works for us, we'll vote for her in the next election."henry.chu@latimes.com
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