Amidst all the hoopla about UPA’s clear sweep and the BJP’s tail-between-the-legs exit from prime time TV the better news for me was the much-desired sidelining of Mayawati. I don't think I know enough dirty words to malign her to my heart's fill. But then again she has redeemed herself in the limited way of giving the Dalits of this country a public figure they can identify with. Her not-so- fashionable, cheap polyester attire and almost crude bob cut may be a downer for the urban elite but to the migrant laborer mother of five and the about to married teenage girl she does represent hope, if not promise.
Who are we really kidding? With a little money spent on a few image consultants and some accent neutralizers, would she not have been a more tolerable choice for us, given that we take corruption, incompetence and ideological obstinacy for granted in most of our politicians anyway?
If I were to think from a completely neutral standpoint, devoid of any of my 'upper class', elitist prejudices, I would be compelled to say that for a country that has a 2000 year old history of caste discrimination and related cruelty, it is absolutely fantastic that a Dalit, uneducated woman has the gall to vie for a place in national politics. That her indubitable strength as the UP Chief Minister, largely lies also in her ability to get the Brahmins support is the other part of the miracle.
Yes, it ridicules the Indian self perception of being a first world, educated democracy but, maybe maintaining that self-perception is not as important as exposing the ugly underbelly of the real India. The real India has more underprivileged Mayawatis and Laloos leading a tortured existence every single day of their lives than we think we know of. India is not just the English speaking, jean-clad, brown boy we see in Khan market. Its way more. And its this India that is inspired and dares to dream of a changed fate every time it sees the likes of Mayawati calling the shots in the political high circles. So while I don't support Mayawati's political theatrics and find it utterly nauseating that she even attempted leading an alternative front against the UPA, at some level I also think that it represents an interesting paradigm in the changing power-play of the Indian socio-political fabric.
For the untouchable jamadar in UP she is the greatest success story there has ever been after Mahatma Gandhi. Born to an ordinary clerk, Mayawati went on to acquire a law degree, a respectable job as a teacher in a government school in Delhi and eventually the limelight spot in UP caste politics. For an ordinary woman from a backward class in a deeply caste-divided small town how is this any less remarkable than Gandhi’s tales of bravado?
Obviously, this is not to say that she should be crowned the politician of the year or that she has met the expectations of the people in any significant measure as is amply clear from the latest election results. I don’t even think she deserves credit for any of UP’s relative progress in the last so many years but at the same time, rightly or wrongly, her rise to her current stature and the fact that she represents a large (howsoever trite) chunk of the most populated state does deserve some attention.
Of course one feels more secure discussing the genie that’s stuck in a bottle. To be really honest, I’m not so sure I would’ve been as generous with her had she posed a real threat to the UPA. The thought of her ever stepping out of UP towards New Delhi is despite everything I just said, unsettling to say the least. Equally unsettling is the realization of how unconnected I am from the people she represents, in the way I think, act, eat, vote and pray. It’s this “other India”, or the India that Arvind Adiga aptly refers to as the “Darkness” that doesn’t think she’s half as bad really.
If nothing else, it is this India that Mayawati lends a face and a respectable name to.
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