Sab Maya Hai

Yesterday, I was chatting with a friend on the rise and rise of Mayawati. S, a senior MNC executive, was at the Dubai airport, waiting for his connecting flight to Jeddah, while I was nicely ensconced somewhere in Connaught Place, New Delhi.

pic courtsey: www.siliconeer.com

Here is what he had to say about M:

14:56: How could people project Mayawati as PM!!! We should now vote for a majority government…
14:57:  regional parties can exist at the regional level but at the national level they have to support one big party. She was Kanshi Ram’s mistress, right?

A second later, he admitted that the last sentence was not politically correct.

14:59: there is a huge theory on women as leaders….. as women leaders sense power they become far more corrupt and power hungry than men because they need to fight a glass ceiling battle…. so they need to prove themselves… of course this theory is made by men …

Cut to an editorial meeting at a national daily. A senior journalist said she would leave the profession if M becomes PM. “Her horrible pink silk suits and those diamonds…oh my God…”.

I guess we sneer at M because she is not one of us, the Fab India kurta-wearing types. Nevertheless, I am amazed at these reactions. I wonder whether we can dismiss an idea whose time has come; I think we are refusing to accept certain changes that are sweeping through India, the other India.

Last month, I was at a small Dalit village in Uttar Pradesh. During a discussion on politics, a young man told me that M victory has given them the courage to speak up against police atrocities and corrupt government officials. I guess this is where M’s power comes from.

A colleague (her hometown is Bareilly, UP) says that M is ‘far better’ than MY (Mulayam Singh Yadav). Why, I ask her. Her explanation is fairly simple: “See, I agree M takes bribes but at least she ensures that some of it goes to the people, even to non-Dalits. But during their regime, MY and cronies would pocket 100 per cent. Only some Yadav pockets would get something.”

I was never very much interested in UP politics but I must admit that the rise of M has changed all that. Whether I like or not, I am convinced she is the woman to watch out for. No wonder, therefore, I am reading Ajoy Bose’s new book: Behenji, A biography of Mayawati.