NOW that the whole country is aghast over the lynching of an engineer who refused to cough up Rs 50 lakh for BehenMayawatiji’s birthday bash, the Uttar Pradesh residents are in a “we told you so” sulk. They had been living this nightmare for long. It was not only PWD engineer Manoj Kumar Gupta who was being coerced to pay “birthday hafta”, but there are also thousands who have suffered this way, and for many years.
There are instances of BSP functionaries sitting right there at police stations to conduct such an extortion. The outsiders may wonder why the police does not stop them. They should know that in the Mayawati land where the police does not take action against MLA Shekhar Tewari even when he dumps the body of the slain engineer in front of the police station, how can they stop mere loot?
Now that Tewari and other office-bearers of the party have been exposed thoroughly, they are being proceeded against so that Ms Mayawati can distance herself from his shocking deed. But earlier, the police used to even refuse to entertain a complaint against him as he went about terrorising people. Her denials about the engineer being killed because he refused to pay for the January 15 birthday festivities – which have been downgraded this year fearing public outcry but normally cost nothing less than Rs 10 crore — carry only about as much conviction as her assertions that her self-declared assets rose from about Rs 1.3 core in 2004 to more than Rs 52 crore in 2007 thanks to the “donations of 5 or 10 rupees” made by her admirers out of “affection for her”. In 2007-8, she shelled out Rs 26. 26 crore as income tax alone.
There are many Tewaris in her party who think that they are a law unto themselves whose brief is to let loose a reign of terror. A non-bailable warrant has been issued against another BSP MLA, Dhananjay Singh from Rari in Jaunpur, in connection with the sensational murder of Dr Bachi Lal, the then Director-General of Family Welfare, in 2000. Dhananjay Singh’s name figures in at least 25 criminal cases.
A case has been registered against a former Chairman of the Uttar Pradesh Fisheries Development Corporation, Ram Mohan Garg, by a woman at the Khair police station in Aligarh district on charges of sexually exploiting and blackmailing her since 2003. The BSP is washing its hands off him also, saying that he had resigned from his post in 2008 and was not a member of the party. In June last, UP minister Jamuna Nishad was arrested for killing a policeman.
The list of such heinous crimes committed by the high and mighty of the BSP is so long that it can be narrated till cows come home. The point is that she and her party have taken a mafia-like hold on the god forsaken state and anybody who dares to speak against them can have to pay with his life, like engineer Gupta.
And to think that she rode to power on the promise of ending the goonda raj by Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav’s henchmen. The BSP slogan at that time was: “Chadhgoondon ki chhati par, mohar lagaohaathi par” (stamp out the goondas by voting for the BSP’s elephant symbol). Now the slogan that is heard all over Uttar Pradesh is: “Goondechadhehaathi par, golimaarenchhati par” (Goondas riding elephants pump bullets into people). Her advent was indeed the fulfilment of aspirations of millions of dalits. But she has frittered away the advantage by actively patronising corrupt and criminal elements.
It would have been some saving grace if the queen bee herself had a clean reputation. But she not only acquiesces in such activities, she is also an active participant. The video cassette in which she exhorted her MLAs to divert money from their respective area development funds to the party’s kitty is still fresh in public memory, as is her role in the infamous Taj Heritage corridor. There has been no improvement in her style of functioning since then. Rather, there has been a noticeable deterioration.
Much is being made in some quarters of her “social engineering” under which she has been fielding candidates belonging to castes other than dalits. Make no mistake about it. There is more to it than meets the eye. Insiders tell darkly about how tickets are virtually sold to the highest bidders. As long as the money is good, nobody bothers whether the person is a saint or a sinner or a murderer.
The same holds true of transfers and postings. One has to pay for getting a suitable posting and also to stall an undesirable transfer. Large-scale movement of officials every now and then is connected with that spinoff.
As far as social indices go, Uttar Pradesh is one of the worst. But that has not stopped the Chief Minister from splurging money on parks in memory of “legendary figures”. Now who can be more “legendary” than Ms Mayawati herself? So, she has become perhaps the first Chief Minister to inaugurate her own statues. Lucknow is set to have nearly half a dozen of them. The larger the better. By a rough estimate, over Rs 60 crore is being spent on such statues. One 50-ft-high statue is to be modelled after one of Queen Victoria in Kolkata’s Victoria Memorial. For the Rs 100-crore Ambedkar Park, she diverted Rs 25 crore from the Contingency Fund, inviting criticism from the CAG.
The distinction line between the party and Ms Mayawati has been obliterated. Any criticism of her atrocities is branded as an affront to the dalits, the same way as the houses or riches which were originally shown to be “donated” to the BSP later became the personal property of Behenji. Who says “I am the state” died with the kings?
By her own admission, she possesses 5,000 silver crowns (mukuts), 787 diamond mukuts and 10,000 gold mukuts. These have been gifted to her by “avid admirers”. Then she has diamond solitaires, including nosepins, worth Rs 8.5 crore and diamond “jadau” jewellery worth Rs 6 crore.
She loathes the superior airs of “Manuwadi higher-castes” but does not mind having her own nose in the air. No MLA can dare sit in front of her, let alone speak up without getting prior permission. Even senior-most officials can get a tongue-lashing in the choicest of words at the drop of a hat.
What such megalomania is doing to Uttar Pradesh is bad enough. But what is all the more worrying is that she has her eyes set firmly on the Red Fort. Vagaries of coalition politics being what they are, there are many who are willing to ignore all her queen-sized faults to make sure that she becomes the Prime Minister one day. What that will do to the country is anybody’s guess.
The argument of her backers is that it will be a victory of the entire dalit community if a “dalit ki beti” occupies that high chair. What they totally forget is that her victory will be only about as much a triumph of the dalit cause as the Chief Ministership handed over by Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav to his wife Rabri Devi was a symbol of the empowerment of women.
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