Mayawati Kumari

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Mayawati Naina Kumari
23rd, 24th, 30th and 32nd Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh[1]
In office June 3, 1995 – October 18, 1995 March 21, 1997 – September 21, 1997 May 3, 2002 – August 29, 2003, May 13, 2007-
Preceded by	Mulayam Singh Yadav President's rule President's rule Mulayam Singh Yadav
Succeeded by	President's rule Kalyan Singh Mulayam Singh Yadav
Born	January 15, 1956 (1956-01-15) (age 52) New Delhi
Political party	Bahujan Samaj Party
Occupation	Politician

Mayawati Naina Kumari (Hindi: बहन मायावती) (born January 15, 1956) is a Indian politician and the current Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. Earlier, she had been the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh three times.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Political career 3 Controversies 3.1 The Heritage Corridor Scam 3.2 Fraud nomination papers 3.3 Illegal appointments 3.4 Illegal funding 3.5 Disproportionate assets 4 2007 Election 5 Mayawati as Chief Minister, 2007 6 Criticisms 7 References 8 See also 9 External links

[edit] Early life

Kumari was born in Delhi. Her father Prabhu Das was a clerk in the Telecommunications department in Delhi, and her mother is Ram Rati. She graduated from Kalindi College in Delhi and holds a Bachelor of Education degree, and was a teacher in Delhi(Inderpuri JJ Colony) until joining full time politics in 1984. At one point she also studied for the Indian Administrative Service examinations. However, after meeting Kanshi Ram in 1977, she gradually came under his patronage, and was part of his core team when he founded the BSP in 1984.

[edit] Political career

In 1984, Kanshi Ram founded the BSP as a party to represent the Dalits, and Mayawati was one of the key people in the new organization. In 2001, Kanshi Ram named her as his successor.

She was noted for her colourful and aggressive language - though she denied some of the more offensive slogans like tilak tarajo aur talwaar, inko maro joote char (the signs of the upper castes, let's beat them down with our shoes).^[2]

BSP was formed in April 1984, and fielded Mayawati for its first election campaign from the Kairana Lok Sabha seat in the Muzaffarnagar district in 1984, and then again for the Lok Sabha seats of Bijnor in 1985 and Haridwar in 1989.^[3] Although they did not win, the electoral experience led to considerable groundwork over the next five years, (working with Mahsood Ahmed and other organizers), and in 1989, the party won 9% of the popular vote, and 13 seats in 1989, and 11 in 1991. Because the Dalits are widely-spread over the state, Kanshi Ram and Mayawati then adopted a policy of attracting other groups, which continues today.

Kumari first won for the Lok Sabha elections in 1989 from Bijnor. In 1995, while a member of the Rajya Sabha, she became a Chief Minister in a short-lived coalition government, and validated her position by winning from two constituencies in 1996. She was again Chief Minister for a short period in 1997, and then for a somewhat longer term in coalition with the Bharatiya Janata Party from 2002 to 2003.

In 2003, during one of her tenures as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati was accused of corruption by the opposition, Samajwadi Party. The Samajwadi Party legislators presented a video cassette and a CD to the Governor of Uttar Pradesh, which they claimed showed Mayawati asking her MLAs to hand over money from their annual constituency fund towards BSP's party fund.^[4] Shortly thereafter, Mayawati got more than 140 cases filed against her bete noire and head of Samajwadi Party, Mulayam Singh Yadav, for alleged misuse of the Chief Minister's Discretionary Fund when he headed the government in 1995-96. She also got first information reports (FIRs) registered against other leaders of the Samajwadi Party.

In her tenures as Chief Minister, Mayawati has erected a number of monuments to Dalit heroes like Bhimrao Ambedkar, Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj, Gautam Buddha and others.^[5]

[edit] Controversies

[edit] The Heritage Corridor Scam

Main article: Taj corridor case

In 2002-2003, Mayawati was charged with corruption in the Heritage Corridor scam, a project to upgrade tourist facilities near the Taj Mahal, during her tenure as Chief Minister. It appears that some Rs. 175 crore allotted to this project may have disappeared. The case is currently under investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation. Initially, the case saw some rapid progress, when CBI conducted extensive searches on her various addresses, and claimed that though she had claimed income of only Rs. 1.1 crores during her tenure as CM, her bank balance in a single bank went up to 2.5 crore and total assets held by her were estimated at Rs.15 crore.^[6]

However, since late 2003, investigations appear to have slowed down; there are speculations in the media about political interference,^[7] and the Supreme Court has several times pulled up the CBI for its tardy progress in the case.

[edit] Fraud nomination papers

She was accused of committing fraud & lying on her nomination papers by declaring she owned assets worth Rs 11 crore^[8] but really owning Rs 52 crore.^[9]

[edit] Illegal appointments

Breaking Indian constitution political laws by having minister in U.P. such as Shashank Shekhar Singh. Mulayam Singh Yadav charged Mayawati with "gross violation of the constitution".^[10] Many have said the appointment was illegal, including Milon Banerjee, the Indian Attorney General stated "Singh’s appointment, as cabinet secretary is unconstitutional".^[11]

[edit] Illegal funding

Many have accused her of corruption by illegal Political funding, which is an illegal offence in India. Legislators presented a video cassette and a CD to the Governor of Uttar Pradesh, which they claimed showed Mayawati asking her MLAs to hand over money from their annual constituency fund towards BSP's party fund.^[12]

Pramod Tiwari stated, "Many political leaders and ministers are known to have earned money when they were in power. But the amount of money Mayawati has made in her 10-month rule is unparalleled in the annals of UP".^[13]

Kalyan Singh stated, "If bureaucrats can have courage and disclose as how much money they had paid for their postings then it could be another Watergate scandal".^[14]

[edit] Disproportionate assets

Many have accused her of corruption due to her disproportionate assets, which is an illegal offence in India.^[15] Ramapati Ram Tripathi stated "We (BJP) demand that the Chief Minister disclose all sources- business, agriculture and others- of her income". But Mayawati claims that she got all the money from the donations her party workers have given to her affectionately.^[16]

[edit] 2007 Election

Contrary to some poll predictions, BSP won a majority, the first such majority since 1991. Mayawati managed to attract support from Brahmins, Thakurs, Muslims and OBCs voted for the first time for a Dalit party, partly because BSP had offered seats to people from these communities. As usual, this was accompanied by a colourful slogan: Haathi nahin, Ganesh hain, Brahma, Vishnu Mahesh Hain: The elephant (BSP Logo) is really the wise Ganesh, the trinity of gods rolled into one.

[edit] Mayawati as Chief Minister, 2007

Kumari was sworn in as Chief Minister of UP for the fourth time on 13 May 2007. Her announced agenda is focused on social justice through laws and other means for weaker sections, providing employment instead of distributing money to unemployed; her slogan is to make Uttar Pradesh into an Uttam (excellent) Pradesh.

Her first action was to suspend two IAS officers for non-performance to maintain the Ambedkar park in Lucknow: B.B. Singh, Vice-President (LDA), and S.K. Aggarwal (PWD Principal Sec.) and also one other lower rank officer. It is widely believed that these officers were close to the outgoing government of Mulayam Singh Yadav.^[17]

She also transferred around 100 police officers.^[18] She has also opened case files relating to land deals of the leading actor Amitabh Bachchan in Barabanki, who was close to the previous Samajwadi Party regime.

Since attracting the votes of upper castes, she now talks about a policy for poverty-based reservations rather than caste-based reservations.^[19]

While filing her nomination papers for the Vidhan Parishad after her she formed the Uttar Pradesh government, her affidavit stated she had assets worth over Rs 52 crore (Rs 52,00,00,000).^[20] While filing her papers for the Lok Sabha election in 2004, she had declared her assets at a little over Rs 11 crore (Rs 11,00,00,000). Mayawati's wealth grew by over 400% in these three years.^[21]

[edit] Criticisms

Many accuse Kumari of corruption and unfit for political office.^[22][23] She is being investigated for corruption by the Central Bureau of Investigation, Indian Courts and the Indian press & media.^[24][25] Many accuse her of fuelling caste hate and discrimination.^[26] Her committing fraud & lying on her nomination papers by declaring she owned assets worth Rs 11 crore.^[27] but really owning Rs 52 crore.^[28] She has made illegal political appointments. Mulayam Singh Yadav charged Mayawati with "gross violation of the constitution".^[29] On the question of Mayawati appointing Shahank Shekhar Singh as Cabinet Secretary, the Indian Attorney General Milon Banerjee stated "Singh’s appointment, as cabinet secretary is unconstitutional"^[30]. It is not worthy here that there is no provision of appointing a cabinet secretary in Uttar Pradesh.

Kalyan Singh stated, "If bureaucrats can have courage and disclose as how much money they had paid for their postings then it could be another Watergate scandal".^[31]

Ahmed Hasan stated to reporters "There is total anarchy in the state with atrocities being committed on all sections of society, be it farmers, students or state employees and Governor T V Rajeswar needs to dismiss the government immediately."^[32]

She has been culpable of Suppression of student dissents Sunil Singh Sajan states, In our recent campaign against the ban, the state government had put several of our colleagues behind the bars on pretext of indulging in violence.^[33]

She has been accused by many of |Gesture politics, "Farmers are dying of hunger in Bundelkhand region while the Chief Minister is busy installing statues and constructing parks".^[34][35] Her vanity is evident from the fact that she unveiled her own statue in Lucknow and asked her supporters to put up her statues alongside those of her mentor Kanshi Ram, citing Kanshi Ram's will ^[36].

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Taj corridor case

[edit] External links

• Official biodata

Preceded by Mulayam Singh Yadav	Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh 13 Jun 1995 - 18 Oct 1995	Succeeded by President's Rule
Preceded by President's Rule	Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh 21 Mar 1997 - 21 Sep 1997	Succeeded by Kalyan Singh
Preceded by President's Rule	Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh 3 May 2002 - 29 Aug 2003	Succeeded by Mulayam Singh Yadav
Preceded by Mulayam Singh Yadav	Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh 13 May 2007 - Present	Succeeded by Incumbent