Untouchable leader receives millions of rupees on gifts for his birthday

New Delhi, 15 Jan 2008. - The leading advocates of "Dalit" (untouchable) Mayawati, who governs the most populous region of India, Uttar Pradesh, today celebrated his birthday with a barrage of gifts ranging from ten tons of flowers to an official aircraft, a new twist on the cult of leadership.
Although the leader had asked contention this year, some estimates speak of gifts and expenditure-official and non-worth nearly $ 20 million in the northern Uttar Pradesh, where the streets are plastered with posters awoke with a smile of the leader.
Gifts of Mayawati, who turned 52 years today include, besides the flowers and the airplane, a helicopter officer, a million cupcakes, diamonds courtesy of its officials and government buildings lighting for 48 hours.
"People show respect, affection and love. Everyone should be happy, "he told the television cameras Mayawati, who added:" I have decided to celebrate my birthday with simplicity. "
The leader "Dalit", or jeweled, publicly cut a cake of 52 kilos, presented his autobiography and kicked out the highway project of the Ganges, while meditating give his final leap to national politics.
Until now, Mayawati has complied with Uttar Pradesh, a region with some 166 million-as much as the union of Spain, France, Italy and Portugal, which is among the poorest in India and succumbed for the fourth time its charms in the recent elections of 2007.
"It is very authoritarian and runs her party (Bahujan Samaj Party, BSP) with the iron hand of a dictator," said political analyst on her Sudha Pai.
Mayawati, who focused their speeches on "social justice", has managed lately to transcend caste division still present in Indian politics and has attracted the Brahmins of the region for their cause, with electoral success.
But the core of its ideology remains the "Dalit", which account for 16 percent of the population and the community is discriminated against in the rigid Hindu social scale, although the caste system was abolished by the Constitution in 1951.
Still discriminated against, the "Dalits" were traditionally denied access to holy places and had to engage in tasks considered "impure" by the other castes, who avoided contact with even his shadow "spotted".
In the case of Uttar Pradesh, the untouchables have embraced the message of the BSP and adorn it with a proverbial worship of Mayawati, in whom are the guardian of the quota system that favors the social integration of the lower castes.
"Our crops were destroyed by the last monsoon and the regional government made ​​up for it. So we believe that Mayawati will be happy to receive our gift, "said Santosh Kumar farmer with a check for 40 rupees (1 dollar) to their leader.
But Mayawati combines worship and worship leader of the untouchables as Santosh two other phenomena equally important and widespread in Indian politics: the "sicofantismo" and corruption.
With "sicofantismo" Indian analysts define the cohort of sycophants surrounding the main political leaders waiting for returns in the form of public office, a public works contract or simply a favor.
That is what explains, for example, the initiative of twelve officials have decided to collect a few rupees to buy diamonds Mayawati (worth $ 50,000), or the rush of his ministers in blue paint, the color of the untouchable-the streets of the regional capital, Lucknow.
Besides, Mayawati, charged with the disappearance of 44 million dollars in an infrastructure project, illustrates the corruption and crime that permeate the political class of the country's poorest regions, such as Uttar Pradesh itself.
In the 2002 elections, no less than 206 of the 403 deputies elected in the region had criminal records, the absolute majority of the Regional Chamber.
In 2007, this percentage was reduced to 25 percent of the House, although the elections threw anecdotes like the six candidates who campaigned from prison and gave speeches live via mobile phone black market.
While Mayawati has always denied the charges of corruption, the data revealed by the press in India are the business means being a politician in India: in five years, the untouchable leader has increased 4,600 percent a fortune declared.
The jeweled queen of the untouchables has to Santosh Santosh, thirteen million dollars.

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