Mayawati

Mayawati (Hindi: मायावती, Urdu: مایاوتی) (born 15 January 1956) is an Indian politician.^[3] She is the current Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state.^[4][5] After three short tenures between 1995 and 2003, it is her fourth term in this office. Her supporters refer to her as Behen Ji, which means sister.^[6] At age 39, she became the youngest politician to be elected chief minister in Uttar Pradesh and the first Dalit-woman chief minister of any Indian state.^[6] She is regarded as a symbol of dignity and political inspiration for millions of India's Dalits who were oppressed by the Hindu upper castes for centuries.^[6] There are allegations that she has used her status to amass a large amount of personal wealth. ^[7][8][6]

Personal life

Mayawati was born in New Delhi at Shrimati Sucheta Kriplani Hospital,^[3] to Ram Rati and Prabhu Das. Her family belonged to the scheduled caste Hindu Jatav subcaste of the Chamar community. Prabhu Das, her father, retired as section head from Postal department, Government of India.^[3] Badalpur, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Uttar Pradesh is her ancestral village.^[3]

Mayawati graduated in arts from Kalindi College of the University of Delhi. She holds bachelor's degrees in Law (from Delhi University) and Education (from BMLG College, Ghaziabad, Meerut University).^[3] She worked as a teacher in Delhi (Inderpuri JJ Colony). In 1977, Dalit politician Kanshi Ram became very influential in her life resulting in her joining his core team when he founded the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in 1984. Shortly after, she changed her career path and entered politics full time.

At Kanshi Ram's funeral ceremonies in 2006, Mayawati said they had both been following Buddhist traditions and customs.^[9] Her act of performing the last rites (Hindi: दाह-संस्कार) of Kanshi Ram has set an example of her and Kanshi Ram's views against gender discrimination.^[9] She said that she will convert to Buddhism after getting an absolute majority at the Centre. ^[9][10]

Political career

In 1984^[11] Kanshi Ram founded the BSP as a party to represent the Dalits and Buddhists. Mayawati was a key member of this organization. BSP fielded Mayawati for its first election campaign from the Kairana Lok Sabha (Lower House) seat in the Muzaffarnagar district in 1984, and then again for the Lok Sabha seats of Haridwar in 1985 and Bijnor in 1989.^[12]

Although BSP did not win, the electoral experience led to considerable activity for Mayawati over the next five years, as she worked with Mahsood Ahmed and other organizers. In the 1989 election, the party won 9% of the popular vote and 13 seats. It won 11 seats in the 1991 election. Because the Dalits are widely spread over the state, Kanshi Ram and Mayawati then adopted a policy of attracting other groups, which continues today.

Mayawati won for the first time in the Lok Sabha elections of 1989 from Bijnor. In 1995, while a member of the Rajya Sabha (Upper House), she became a Chief Minister in a short-lived coalition government, and validated her position by winning from two constituencies in 1996. She was again Chief Minister for a short period in 1997, and then for a somewhat longer term in coalition with the Bharatiya Janata Party from 2002 to 2003. Before that in 2001 her mentor, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Kanshi Ram named her as his successor. Mayawati has said in an interview that she has no time for family life or romantic relationships because she wants to focus on her political career and this is why she remains unmarried.^[13]

2007 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections

Newspapers in Calcutta announce the surprise majority for Mayawati's party in the 2007 elections in Uttar Pradesh

Contrary to some poll predictions, BSP won a majority in the 2007 elections, the first such majority since 1991. Mayawati managed to attract support from Brahmins, Thakurs, Muslims and members of other backward classes. These people voted for a Dalit party for the first time, partly because BSP had offered seats to people from these communities. The campaign was accompanied by a colorful slogan: Haathi nahin, Ganesh hain, Brahma, Vishnu Mahesh Hain: "The elephant (BSP Logo) is really the Lord Ganesha, the trinity of gods rolled into one". Her new slogan invited everyone, including the higher castes, to "come ride the elephant", her party's election symbol.^[6]

Chief Minister, 2007

Mayawati was sworn in as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh for the fourth time on 13 May 2007. She announced an agenda that focused on providing social justice to the weaker sections of society and providing employment instead of distributing money to the unemployed. Her slogan is to make "Uttar Pradesh" ("Northern Province") into "Uttam Pradesh" ("Excellent Province").

In 2007 Mayawati's government began a major crackdown on irregularities in the recruitment process of police officers recruited during the previous Mulayam Singh government. So far 17,868 policemen have lost their jobs for irregularities in the recruitment process and 25 IPS officers were suspended for their involvement in corruption while recruiting the police constables.^[14][15] Mayawati is instituting reforms to introduce transparency into the recruiting process, including posting results of selection exams online.^[16]

As part of her social reform plans she advocates reservation for the poor among upper castes in addition to reservation for weaker sections of society. Reservation in India is a system whereby a percentage of government positions and seats in all universities are reserved for persons in backward classes and scheduled castes and tribes.^[17]

2009 parliamentary elections

Mayawati's BSP did not meet expectations in the 2009 general elections. The BSP, which was expected to win more than 35 seats in Lok Sabha from the state of Uttar Pradesh, succeeded in winning only 20 seats. The BSP obtained the highest percentage (27. 42%) of votes in Uttar Pradesh for any one political party. It was in third position in terms of national polling percentage (6. 17%).^[18]

Political reaction

In her tenures as a Chief Minister, Mayawati erected number of statues of Buddhist and Dalit icons like Bhimrao Ambedkar, Shahuji Maharaj, Gautam Buddha, BSP founder Kanshi Ram and of herself.^[19] The statues and the memorial parks in which they are erected are said to have cost the state Rs. 2000 Crore.^[20] The Supreme Court of India admitted a Public Interest Litigation questioning this expenditure. She maintains that the statues are symbols of Dalit assertion and the expenditure was required because the past governments did not show respect towards Dalit icons in whose memory nothing was ever built.^[21] In February 2010, Mayawati's government approved a plan for a special police force to protect the statues. She feared that her political opponents might demolish the statues.^[22] There are incidents of vandalism of statues of Dalit icon Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar in India.^{[23][24][25][26]}

Mayawati's past birthdays have been major media events where she appeared laden with diamonds.^[6] Her supporters have declared her birthday as Jan Kalyankari Diwas (People's Welfare Day). The day is to be marked by the announcement of welfare schemes targeted towards poor and downtrodden people of the state. ^[27] Her 2010 birthday was marked by the launch of programmes to the tune of over Rs 7,312 crores.^[28]

In spite of her humble origins, Mayawati's assets run into millions of dollars with several properties to her name.^[6] In 2007-08 assessment year, Mayawati paid an income tax of Rupees 26 crores, ranking among the top 20 taxpayers in the country. Earlier the CBI had filed a case against her for owning assets disproportionate to her known sources of income. Mayawati described the CBI investigation against her as illegal.^[29] Her party asserts that her income comes as gifts and small contributions from party workers and supporters.^[30][31]

Kanshi Ram, head of the Bahujan Samaj Party, praised Mayawati at her 47th birthday celebrations for her fundraising activities on behalf of the party. He stated that the party's eventual goal is to gain power in Delhi, and that Mayawati's efforts help in that quest.^[32]

Mayawati's public meetings are attended by large audiences, using slogans such as "Kanshi Ram ka mission Adhoora; karegi Behen Mayawati poora" (Kanshi Ram's unfulfilled mission will be completed by Mayawati), "Behenji tum sangharsh karo; hum tumhare saath hain" (Sister, go ahead with your struggle; we are with you).^[33]

See also

• Bahujan Samaj Party
• Ambedkar Samajik Parivarthan Sthal
• Taj corridor case

References

External links

• Official biodata
• Bahujan Samaj Party
• "Untouchable" seeks power in Indian election

Timeline