Mayawati as the Next PM ???

A recent opinion poll stated that the urban youth are petrified of one result of the forthcoming elections. Mayawati as PM. The scorn that Mayawati draws from the urban youths is unparalleled in India. No other political leader has been as much hated as Mayawati is one amongst the many candidates in the race for PM. Mayawati’s chances of being the PM are very outside one and not realistic. But then we have often seen her pulling a rabbit out of the hat. So I thought it might be worthwhile to look at the possible reasons for her being hated so much.

Following were the reasons that seemed to be the reasons for it.

1. She is a dalit.

2. She is corrupt…the Taj corridor.

3. Her lavish birthday bash and life style.

4. Her lack of sophistication and typical bhenji image.

5. She is power hungry.

Apart from this no other reason seems very obvious to me. Of course I may have skipped out some and hence if there are any left out, readers are requested to tell. I would really like to examine them as well.

Now let us examine each of the reason closely to pin-point where exactly is the origin of this hatred. 

1. She is a Dalit: As a dalit sympathizer, I almost wanted to believe that this is the reason why she is hated. I wanted to believe this because it is very convenient for me to put the blame on the so called upper caste and accuse them of caste discrimination. But if I even attempt to say this, there would be no bigger liar than me. Look at the past..we have had some, though very few but still we have had some dalit leaders like Babu Jagjivan Ram, K R Narayanan, Sushil kumar Shinde all of them Dalits and yet not hated for their castes. So the accusation that Mayawati is hated just for being a dalit can not hold many waters. If the Indian public could accept the above 3 with dignity then why wouldn’t they do the same to Mayawati? So this isn’t the prime reason.
2. She is corrupt : But then who isn’t? Even the first family of Indian politics, the Gandhi family is having bofors case. I remember once George Fernandis was asked when BJP and the allies came to power, that could he saw with absolute guarantee that their Govt is a corruption-free govt. George replied, “Corruption is like a beauty of women. All women are beautiful, its just that some are more beautiful”. All govt are corrupt, its just that some are more corrupt.And yet if one were to compare the Taj case with the other cases that our country has seen, the Taj case doesn’t even raise one’s eyebrows. This country has seen worse corruptions…corruption in coffins, guns and other defense mechanism of the very soldiers who protect us, we have seen frauds in the stamp papers, stock markets and many things like that which have made millions of mens go from riches to rags. What impact did the Taj matter have on common man? None in comparison to them. So even this reason has to be ruled out.
3. Her lavish birthday bash and lifestyle : While it is true that many people wouldn’t be exactly ecstatic by seeing her squander so much wealth over nothing, still it is a strictly personal affair. If she earns she spends. After all she is the highest tax payer politician of this nation. And yet again in her lavish lifestyle she isn’t alone.Amma Jayalalita spends far more than Mayawati. The count of her sarees, chappals and watches wouldn’t even be necessary to talk about Amma’s lifestyle. And yet Amma doesn’t even draw half the wrath as much as Mayawati does. If  there were no choices and Mayawati and Jayalalita are the only two option left for the PM’s post there is no doubt that Jayalalita would be the uban people’s choce. People actually get amused when one talk about Amma’s birthday bash and are disconnected towards her. But when one speaks about Mayawati, the attitude is of passionate hatred .So even lavish lifestyle can be safely ruled out as the sole reason for hating Mayawati.
4. Lack of Sophistication and the typical bhenji image : Now just compare her with Laloo !!!Laloo has been carrying this typical Unpad image for so long in politics. Rabri’s image is even worse when it comes to sophistication in comparison to Laloo or Mayawati…yet they are not only not hated, but you would even find some urban youths adoring them. And looks in it self can not be accepted as the sole reason for political hatred. After all it is politics and not any beauty contest.
5. She is power hungry : But then again who isn’t? We see Advani almost begging the voters to vote BJP into power so that he can be PM at least once before he calls it a day from politics. Modi is knocking on the doors vigorously. Here we have Pawar making his intentions very clear. And there we see Rahul as the PM in waiting. Every party is fighting the elections for that seat of PM. And may leaders have made their intentions very clear as well. So can Mayawati be singled out for the power hungry attitude? This also can not be accepted as the reason for hating her.

 So if none of the above qualifies as the reason for hating her then why is she hated?

 Well the reason lies in her mandate. Mayawati has given her full frontal face to the age old caste discrimination problem of the country. Caste discrimination is still alive in this country. Mayawati has made no secrete that she is going to tackle that problem as well. In fact Mayawati is the only one who has admitted very openly that caste is still a problem. This has not struck very well the youth of urban India. While many of the youths want caste problems to be hushed about there are still a score of men who want Caste system to be alive and still see the dalits as their slaves.

But the biggest reason for hating Mayawati doesn’t come from her, but it comes from the educated minds of the people themselves.

The moment any one utters the word Dalit, (Sadly) the next word that pops up in the mind of these youths is Reservations. They just can not seem to separate these two issues. Reservations and Dalits have become synonyms for them. So when Mayawati speaks about Dalits the immediate thought in these minds is that if she comes to power, there will be rise in Reservations. And this is the biggest reason for hating her. The inability of separating Dalit issues from Reservations by the educated youth is the reason why Mayawati is so abhorred in the urban area. And this is despite the fact that Mayawati’s party is the only party which has attempted to integrate the Brahmins and the dalits. All other parties till date have been (successfully) creating a rift between different castes. But then if one looks at the situation the only solution for this problem lies in acceptance….Dalits accepting Brahmins as leaders and Brahmins accepting Dalits as leaders. Mayawati’s BSP has attempted to do just that. She might have taken that step this step for very selfish reasons…for her lust for power, but yet this is a step in right direction. And one must adore it…but alas…the educated youth…will they be able to separate caste discrimination from Reservations???

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