I’ve begun to like the Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati. No, she’s not my ideal, but given the current crop of politicians our country has been cursed with, I think she has the “thing” in her. A few days ago I cringed when I read that she one days aspires to be the prime minister of India. But that was a biased, spontaneous reaction, and not prudent cogitation. I mean, once we have had Manmohan Singh as our Prime Minister, and people like Sonia Gandhi and Arjun Singh lurking in the corridors of power, how low could we go, socio-politically? Considering that, I want to see Mayawati as our PM.
Most of our politicians are evil, and they are stupid. No one has political acumen. They are manipulative, they are cunning, they are worse then the mafia, but when it comes to politics, they know nothing. Even if some have good intentions, they don’t know how to show those intentions. Mayawati knows her politics. She has shown all signs of political and ideological evolution. She is not stuck with her own views of the world.
There was a time when she hated all the castes above the scheduled castes, and hence the slogan tilak, tarazu or talwar inko maro jute char (thrash the Brahmin, the Bania and the Rajput). She wanted to eliminate the Manuwadi mentality the country is dominated by. And now, adapting to the new political milieu (Jitni jinki sankhya bhari, Utni unki hissedari — you get the share according to your number), she is embracing the same Manuwadis to further her political ambitions, and I think, for our caste and religion-ridden country, this is a good sign. In the ongoing UP elections her party gave 139 tickets to the upper castes, making a dent into the BJP vote bank. If the trend goes on, very soon she’ll be including the Muslims too.
Although the axe of the Taj corridor project controversy hangs low over her, sooner or later she is going to form a government in UP, and a time might come when all the communities from all the religions and castes might work together.
And they say there was some semblance of governance when she was the chief minister of UP.
[tags]mayawati, up elections, bsp, manuwadi[/tags]
