Last Wednesday, a day before Christmas, a PWD Engineer in Uttar Pradesh,  Manoj Gupta, was lynched to death simply because he refused to pay money towards Mayawati’s  birthday celebrations which falls on January 15^th. He was asked to pay Rs.10 lakhs

The man who is responsible for his killing is supposed to be a BSP MLA Shekhar Tiwari. Apparently he has some 12 cases against him already.

Mayawati, in turn tried to give the family some Rs.5 lakhs as a compensation as if the value of Mr.Gupta’s life was Rs. 5 lakhs. This was refused by the family, obviously.

This is not the first time that Mayawati has publicly displayed her histrionics. Sometime in May 2008 she had unveiled a statue of hers showcasing herself as the champion of the Dalit. If that was not enough, she went ahead and pulled her statue down and ordered for a new one barely 45 days after she unveiled it.

Reason-Mayawati was not happy with the quality of the sculpture. She had also expressed her displeasure over the fact that it was smaller than the statue of her political mentor Kanshi Ram.

If I do some more research, I am sure I can come up with a few dozen more examples of her histrionics. I always wonder, what is it in her that the people of Uttar Pradesh continue to elect her and Mulayam alternatively term after term.

Sure she is a woman.  And it is great to see a woman as a head of the state in a country like ours – That is what true democracy is all about.  To top it, she is a Dalit too. You couldn’t have asked for a better combination, right ?

Think again..

Do we really need such kind of identity politics in India ?”

Should being a Dalit or a member of a Minority be the criteria for becoming the supremo of a state ? Should gender be the criteria for selecting the head of the state for protecting our lives ?

Should you even consider anyone who has criminals as his/ her party workers ? How can you support someone who uses public funds to make her own statue and display in public places ?

Don’t we have better  priorities that need to be tackled ? – Terrorism, Crime, Corruption etc – These are burgeoning in almost every nook and corner of the country especially Uttar Pradesh. Most of the terrorists caught in the last one year have had some or the other UP connection. With these alarming bells, how can we have a leader of her stature ruling the state ?

Mulayam Singh is definitely not the answer, nor his sycophant (no prizes for guessing)

There has to be someone else who can lead by example- someone who has the respect of the people, is not a choice due to some mass hysteria and definitely someone who is  young, futuristic  and has the back up of a national party. Someone who is educated, convincing and a symbol of change.  Someone who will take lead to end the identity politics in India

Will we ever see that ?

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