Mayawati: Difference between revisions

Kumari Mayawati (Hindi: कुमारी मायावती) (born 15 January 1956) is an Indian politician. She is the current Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state^[2][3]. It is her fourth term in this office, after three short tenures between 1995 and 2003. Her supporters refer to her as Behen Ji, which means sister.^[4] At the age of 39, Mayawati was the youngest politician to become the chief minister in Uttar Pradesh.^[4] As the first Dalit woman chief minister of any Indian state after centuries of oppression by the Hindu upper castes, Kumari Mayawati is an icon for millions of India's Dalits.^[4]

Mayawati was born in Delhi into the scheduled caste Hindu Jatav subcaste of the Chamar community to Ram Rati and Prabhu Das. Prabhu Das, her father, worked as a clerk in the telecommunications department. Mayawati graduated from Kalindi College of the University of Delhi and holds bachelor's degrees in Law and Education. 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.

In 1984^[5] Kanshi Ram founded the BSP as a party to represent the Buddhists and Dalits. 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 Bijnor in 1985 and Haridwar in 1989.^[6]

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.

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 OBCs. 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".

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 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.^[7][8] Mayawati is instituting reforms to introduce transparency into the recruiting process, including posting results of selection exams online.^[9]

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 are reserved for persons in backward classes and scheduled castes and tribes.^[10]

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%).^[11].

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.^[12]

This article appears to be slanted towards recent events. Please try to keep recent events in historical perspective and add more content related to non-recent events. (May 2010)

In her tenures as a Chief Minister, Mayawati erected number of statues of Buddhist and Dalit icons like Bhimrao Ambedkar, Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj, Gautam Buddha, BSP founder Kanshi Ram and of herself ^[13]. The statues and the memorial parks in which they are erected are said to have cost the state Rs. 2000 Crore.^[14] 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.^[15] 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.^[16] Desecration of statues of Dalit icon Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar is common in all parts of India.^{[17][18][19][20]}

Mayawati's past birthdays have been major media events where she appeared laden with diamonds.^[4] Her birthday is being observed as Jan Kalyankari Diwas (People's Welfare Day). As of 2010, her birthday will be marked by the announcement of programmes for the welfare of the poor and downtrodden people of the state, said a press release.^[21] On her recent birthday Mayawati launched various welfare schemes to the tune of over Rs 7,312 crores.^[22]

Her critics allege that despite her modest origins, she owns properties worth millions of dollars.^[4] 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. Her party asserts that her income comes as gifts and small contributions from party workers and supporters.^[23][24] A recent estimate places her assets at 87 crore INR or approximately $18.5 million USD, a 67% increase over her 2006 declarations. ^[25]

• Bahujan Samaj Party
• Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Samajik Parivarthan Sthal
• Taj corridor case

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

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