What is likable about Mayawati?
She is a gutsy woman. Second, her political success does not lie in some horrendous killing, violent movement, demolition of a mosque, anti-Sikh riots etc.
This woman's success is a result of hard work. Politics is pursuit of power, but Mayawati's pursuit of power doesn't involve violence or prejudice. What she represents is not divisive politics. Mayawati approaches politics like a business proposition. How many people have lost their lives in BSP's pursuit of power?
The BSP's politics doesn't smell of blood. It smells of democracy and the ballot. It represents the politics of the oppressed. In most other countries to attain social upheaval of this kind, quite a few throats would have been slit. The amazing success of Mayawati is the great affirmation of Indian democracy.
The very fact that a Dalit woman could rule 200 million people and actually be considered a leader of another billion people is incredible.
Is she aware of her success?
She has a huge self-image. She is driven by ambitions and ego. She is far less insecure today because she has achieved so much. She has no threat within the party. Now she feels she is on a good wicket. We will have to see it next time when she falls. Surely, she will fall, we will have to see how she handles her fall.
She is a street-fighter. She doesn't pretend that she is poor when she goes to a Dalit home but she makes sure that she tells them that she is one of them.
Also read: The teacher makes history
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