I
Wish To Rule India One Day,
says Mayawati
By Sharat Pradhan
07 June, 2007
Indo-Asian News Service
After creating history by becoming
chief minister of the country's largest state for the fourth time, Uttar
Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati has set new goals for herself - to rule
India some day and build a "casteless society".
"My aspiration to rise
in life has brought me here today. I must confess I do look forward
to occupying the highest chair in the country, one day," Mayawati,
51, said in her first exclusive interview to the print media.
While she is on one hand
busy establishing her credentials as an administrator in a new mould,
she also has her eyes set on the 2009 general election. "I have
started preparing my own blueprint for much larger participation of
BSP in the next Lok Sabha elections than ever before," she said
in the 50-minute interview conducted at her private residence.
Mayawati is confident that
the Dalit-Brahmin combination she forged in Uttar Pradesh would now
attract other important social groups. "While Muslims have begun
to drift towards us, a number of backward castes too are throwing their
lot behind us."
And what makes her believe
that her BSP would be in the reckoning in other states? "Well,
each time we have risen to power, our graph has gone up. Now that we
have formed our first single-party majority government in Uttar Pradesh,
the message has gone far and wide that we are here to stay and that
we have the potential to establish BSP rule in other states too,"
she added with an air of confidence.
"We are the only party
in the country with a solid base vote in every state; the question is
of tapping that vote, which in turn would attract others to forge the
BSP ahead of most other parties in several other states."
Mayawati outlines her dreams.
"I wish to achieve what my ideologues always dreamed of - establishing
a society without the traditional hierarchy, where everyone is treated
at par and where one's caste tag does not determine his status in that
social hierarchy.
"Be it Narayana Guru,
Shahuji Maharaj, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar or for that matter even
manyavar (respected) Kanshi Ram, they all talked about the need for
a casteless society but none of them could chart out a path to achieve
that goal," she pointed out.
She added: "Even Kanshi
Ramji could never imagine that upper caste Brahmin votes would ever
be transferred to a party like ours. He was always circumspect about
that and would not have easily ventured into an experiment of the kind
we tried and that worked quite successfully in Uttar Pradesh."
For Mayawati, who clearly
displays the potential of emerging as the only undisputed leader of
India's 22 per cent Dalit population, the success story of her "social
engineering" in the country's most populous state was not just
a feather in her cap. It marks the beginning of a new social era that
was inconceivable for many.
Mayawati's obvious bargain
to use her party's potential numerical strength at the forthcoming presidential
election to ensure a reprieve in what came to be known as the Taj Corridor
corruption case has amply demonstrated her skills in getting over hurdles.
Sure enough, it could not
have been any mean task to ensure that the Central Bureau of Investigation
(CBI) was denied permission by the Uttar Pradesh governor to the pursue
the charges against her.
But that is another charge
she refutes. "All that talk about the governor's refusal being
a trade-off for ensuring BSP's support to the central government is
outright false propaganda," she asserted.
Sporting her favourite beige
salwar-kameez, barefoot as she prefers to remain at her neatly manicured
home (not the official residence), Mayawati went at length to talk about
overcoming what at one point of time seemed like the most formidable
social barrier - caste - that eventually gave her party a clear majority
to rule Uttar Pradesh.
Admitting that it was a calculated
risk, she claimed: "Somehow my inner voice always told me and gave
me the confidence that I would not fail in my mission to bring about
a social change, which was now being termed by the media as social engineering."
Asked how she felt establishing
proximity to Brahmins who had traditionally been atop the 'manuvaadi'
system, which she always abhorred, Mayawati said, "Well, I still
maintain that the manuvaadi (caste hierarchy enunciated by ancient Hindu
king Manu who was said to have laid down the laws of Hinduism) was very
damaging and had harmed society in more ways than one; it was squarely
responsible for forging social divides."
She hastens to add: "But
the fact that we have succeeded in bringing down this social barrier
at least in one state has proved that we have made a good beginning
towards ridding the society of its manuvaadi shackles."
Attributing her success to
formation of bhai-chara (social harmony) committees of Brahmins and
Dalits across Uttar Pradesh, she says: "It was through these committees
that we made a beginning and we would replicate a similar exercise in
other states."
Leave
A Comment
&
Share Your Insights
Comment
Policy
Digg
it! And spread the word!
Here is a unique chance to help this article to be read by thousands
of people more. You just Digg it, and it will appear in the home page
of Digg.com and thousands more will read it. Digg is nothing but an
vote, the article with most votes will go to the top of the page. So,
as you read just give a digg and help thousands more to read this article.