How about the small things of her life?
I wasn't privy to her inner world. But I know she writes a lot. She has written three volumes of her autobiography with the help of some writers. She doesn't have intellectual baggage. She is not getting confused by meeting Dalit intellectuals. She doesn't meet journalists but she has read enough.
She quotes Christophe Jaffrelot who has written on Hindu nationalism and Ambedkar. She likes baigan ka bhartha and spinach. Beyond that her private life is not known to me.
My book is a political book. She is a political creature. Mayawati's challenge lies in expanding her base. Will she allow the regional leaders without fear of threat to her? Let us watch.
Do you think she has actually done anything substantial for the upliftment of Dalits beyond giving them a sense of pride?
She has given some pattas -- land. But, if you are asking for any major socio-economic upliftment, the answer is no but that is unfair to ask from any leader with this kind of disrupted rule. She was CM thrice but it was for short periods. We will have to see over a period of at least five years.
I can assure you Dalits do not live on dreams alone, if Mayawati is not making any material difference to their lives she will not get their vote every time. Dalits are not fools.
When Mayawati is CM there is a difference in the villages of UP, the way district magistrates and the police handle Dalits. Don't look at Mayawati, look at the people opposing her. Dalits find local Yadavs on the other side of the spectrum. Mayawati doesn't need to be a saint, she has to be just herself.
Image: Mayawati on the occasion of her 52nd birthday. Photograph: Manav Vatsayana/AFP/Getty Images
Also read: The victory of caste arithmetic
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