Join us on Orkut| Our Venerated Leaders | Angry Indian on June 28, 2008 |
Mayawati - Rampant misuse of the Social Justice Cause
Mayawati has been no stranger to the person following the course of Indian politics over the last decade or so. To the uninitiated, Mayawati is the current Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and the leader of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). The BSP was established in 1984 by Kanshi Ram and Mayawati was then his protegee.
The core motto of the BSP is supposedly uplifting the backward classes in India. The BSP hit a home run with the “dalits” (backward community / downtrodden), who for centuries had been a victim of the ancient caste system in India. Mayawati, who was named as Kanshi Ram’s successor in 2001, has since then blatantly misused this social justice cause for her own benefit.
In 2002-2003 she was charged with corruption in the “Taj Heritage Corridor Scam”. The Taj Heritage Corridor had nothing to do with preserving the heritage of the Taj Mahal. Though the reasons cited were to maintain the greens on the banks of the “Yamuna” river, which flows by right next to Taj Mahal, the project was a guise to commercialize the area surrounding the monument. There were even plans for creation of an amusement park. Since then, the Rs 175 crores (around $42 mil) allotted to the project by the government has vanished mysteriously. The CVC (Central Vigilance Committee) in August 2005 submitted a report to the Supreme Court informing them there was enough evidence to prosecute Mayawati in this case. Surprisingly the CBI and the Attorney General have been of the opinion that the case against Mayawati should be closed. Since then, Mayawati has gone ahead to become the Chief Minister of UP (in 2007) and the taxpayer’s money is still missing.
As the CM of Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati’s conduct has again been questionable. Her property expansion in Lucknow has gone virtually unnoticed except certain vigilant NGOs who have been filing cases to prevent her from acquiring land using her blatant display of political muscle. Mayawati has a Type-VI bungalow in her name in Lucknow’s Mall Avenue. She was out to allegedly grab four bungalows in the neighborhood to expand her existing 33,000 square feet ex-chief minister’s bungalow into 250,000 sq feet of a virtually private estate. In late 2007, four bungalows surrounding her house were demolished citing security reasons. From the year 2004 to 2007, her disclosed assets have grown around 400% from Rs 11 crores ($2.75 mil) to Rs 52 crores ($13 mil). I am scared to even imagine what her undisclosed assets would be.
In India, corruption by politicians is not something new to us and in a sad sorry way we have grown used to it. The saddest part of the story is however that all this wealth has been accumulated using “social justice” as the cause. Mayawati has always made promises to the dalit community that the reason her party exists is to ensure the backward community does not get discriminated against and receive benefits so they can join mainstream India as equals.
As of now, there is nothing done by her to prove that this is not yet another gimmick to win votes. No improvement of living conditions has been brought to the Dalits in UP. While the Dalits continues to be ignored, Mayawati went ahead with a Rs 300 crore ($75mil) project to develop a park in the name of the dalit activist of the yesteryears Dr. B. R. Ambedkar.
All in the name of Social Justice
Related Articles
Comments
Leave a Reply