Hope the Congress has learnt a lesson in who to support next time. A corrupt Mayawati is known to stoop to unimaginable levels for political gains. It is the same ungrateful Mayawati whose prosecution was averted by Congress through a pliant Governor of Uttar Pradesh. Wrong thing to do in the first place! The Congress has no one else to blame for the Mayawati attack on Rahul Gandhi. Its own sins have returned to haunt it in uglier forms than the act of preventing a corrupt politician from being put behind bars.
Income Tax raids at the residences of Mayawati's sister Munni Devi, her brothers Subhash and Anand and brother-in-law Narendra Pal Gautam, have failed to deter Mayawati in any way from openly demanding more money from her Party MLAs. Mayawati is so confident about the loyalty of her 'vote bank' that in public meetings she has accepted that she takes money from Thakur-Brahmin candidates to run her party. For the first time, she audaciously gave tickets to 89 Brahmins. It is indeed unprecedented in the caste-ridden society where social prejudices and identities are at the very core of political action-reactions. She doesn't care for niceties and sophistication and is openly contemptuous of middle class sensitivities over issues like corruption. Accused of converting the mission initiated by the Late Kanshi Ram into a Machinery to print currency, she is under investigation for her past misdeeds of corruption, continues to accumulate unaccountable wealth and, ofcourse, power.
On 20 May 2007, Behenji issued a Government notification under which out of 22 offences covered under the Prevention of Atrocities on AC/ST Act, on which legal action is required to be taken under this Act, only two offences,viz. murder and rape have been retained and the rest of the twenty offences have been excluded. The rest of the offences like derogatory remarks against Dalits,forcible occupation of their lands, bonded labour, false evidence against Dalits, eve teasing, will be tried under the ordinary law of the land. Paradoxically, in 1999, Mayawati had alleged that BJP Government supported atrocities on Dalits. So much for her claim of being the champion of the down trodden!
Even as she accuses Rahul Gandhi of purifying himself after meeting ‘Dalits’, she cannot avoid acknowledging the contribution made by Nehru family that opened up chances for those like her. Her big drawback is that she has formed the government twice in the past with the help of Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP). Both times she stabbed Bhartiya Janata Party in the back. Her credibility on issues like secularism, corruption, democratic norms and the constitutional rights of backward classes is less than inspiring.
With her track record, it is amazing that the Congress put itself, and its reputation, on line to prevent Mayawati’s prosecution for corruption. Guess its payback time, Mayawati style!
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