New Delhi - A week of fractious politics in India
surrounding a trust motion saw Prime Minister Manmohan Singh survive,
but it also heralded the arrival of a new prime ministerial candidate
- Mayawati, 52, leader of the Dalit community and chief minister of
populous northern Uttar Pradesh state.
While parliament debated the motion on whether Singh's government
was right in going ahead with a controversial nuclear deal with the
United States, Mayawati, whose Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has a paltry
17 members of parliament, successfully rallied together the left
parties and a range of regional leaders to launch a new alliance and
prop her as a prospective prime minister.
Mayawati is a symbol of empowerment for 160 million Dalits or
former untouchables who fall below the lowest rung of India's ancient
caste system.
Everything she did was symbolic, including addressing the media in
the Indian capital while the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party's
prime ministerial candidate LK Advani gave his speech in parliament.
Becoming prime minister of India is not an ambition that has come
new to Mayawati. Soon after sweeping to power in state elections in
Uttar Pradesh with an absolute majority in 2007, she said: 'The road
to Delhi is clear.'
Political analysts say that her party, still on a honeymoon in
Uttar Pradesh, is sure to increase its numbers in parliament in the
next general election, due in 2009, with a huge votebank of Dalits
looking for empowerment as India moves forward on the economic front.
Dalits form about 16 per cent of the country's 1.1 billion
population. Not all vote on caste considerations, but having Mayawati
as a leader does make a difference.
A bureaucrat in Uttar Pradesh, who did not want to be named, put
it like this: 'She may not have achieved much for Dalits on the
ground in her past two terms as chief minister, but when she is in
power, district officials, police, everyone treats Dalits with more
respect.'
Only a small percentage of Dalits in India have posts of power or
affluence. The vast majority, despite decades of affirmative action
in their favour, still toil as manual labourers, sweepers, scavengers
and face discrimination borne of caste bias that refuses to go away.
For them Mayawati, who has risen to her position by dint of
education and politics, is the very symbol of what can be achieved -
of limitless possibilities.
Mayawati grew up in a squalid quarter of Delhi, one of eight
siblings, and faced discrimination as a girl child at home and as a
Dalit outside.
But she became a lawyer, a teacher, then a politician of the BSP
under the leadership of her mentor the late Kanshi Ram, who was the
founder and driving force of a party seeking Dalit empowerment.
In the run-up to the 2007 Uttar Pradesh elections, Mayawati
expanded the base of her party to include upper caste Brahmins and
Muslims and came up trumps.
Her party has 28 Muslim legislators and 52 upper caste Bramhins.
Her battle in Uttar Pradesh is with the other backward castes which
have cornered power for years now.
The regional parties, including some from southern India, that
rallied to Mayawati earlier this week, are hoping her Dalit votebank
will garner them that extra 2 to 4 per cent votes that can swing
seats in the next elections.
Critics say there may be pitfalls along the way with India's
federal investigation agencies probing several corruption cases
against the BSP leader who has allegedly amassed a huge fortune.
Mayawati says her wealth has come mostly as gifts from partymen
and well-wishers on occasions like her birthday which is celebrated
as swabhimaan divas or the day of self esteem by the BSP.
Journalist Ajoy Bose, who recently published a biography of the
leader, says her constituency likes seeing her in silks and diamonds.
Mayawati has been quoted as saying people point a finger at her
because she is a Dalit and has money.
Corruption is not a major issue specially in Uttar Pradesh, says
Lucknow-based political scientist AK Verma. Besides, the Uttar
Pradesh chief minister is known as someone who gets things done
though in a somewhat autocratic fashion.
She is not surrounded by family like so many Indian politicians,
and she keeps the media at a distance.
But Mayawati presented her very best to the media in the national
capital over the past few days as she called press briefings to make
statements on issues of national and international import to bolster
her image of prime minister that would be.
Maya translates as magic or powers of illusion in Hindi. India's
Dalits and her new-found political supporters are hoping Mayawati
will wield her magic in the 2009 elections.
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