It is nothing new. Since good old days, some elites, mostly of higher caste have made king out of commoner. As history tells, an enraged Brahmin Chanakya made the son of a low caste woman the first emperor of India in Patliputra.

And today again some are working with a missionary zeal to push Mayawati to the highest position of the country. There is nothing wrong in that, particularly in democracy. But can we evaluate Mayawati by the work done when she was the chief minister of the largest state of the country at least four times? I wish Mayawati had at least done some real grassroots level work to improve the education and skill levels of the downtrodden class too instead of just raising statues of Kansiram and making all members of her clan millionaires through her benevolence. Can she openly declare wherever she goes that all the children in the age group of 6-14 years in SC, and ST must attend school, and she will finance them till they keep on studying?

Last month’s trust vote benefited Mayawati the most. The egoist Karat with all his inferiority complex couldn’t debate and discuss the pros and cons with highly mature Man Mohan. Instead Karat with other leftists rushed to seek Mayawati on his side to defeat Man Mohan on a wrong issue. Mayawati and her sycophant lieutenants started working overtime to push her to the ultimate height. Unfortunately, by some fair and fowl means, Man Mohan won and the dream dashed.

Why is Mayawati in so much hurry? If the politics of India do not undergo some drastic restructuring, she will automatically get what she wants. Unfortunately, none of the national political parties have any charismatic leader who can hit at the core of the people’s heart and impress upon that they must make the national parties strong enough so that when in government it can take some necessary reforms to take the country ahead instead of wasting time in managing many odd allied parties headed by whimsical persons.

Advani is still not acceptable to Muslims neither to many Hindus too. Sonia’s charm is fading. Rahul is still to learn the tricks and prove. In such circumstances, Mayawati is working hard to reach her goal faster. With sarbajan she is trying to break her casteist image. Mishra, Akhilesh and now Natwar are trying to make her image transformed and acceptable to all social groups. According her enemies, Mayawati is interested in the projects such as Taj and Ganga Expressways that she can milk well. And she manipulated to choose the contractor of her choice such as JP Group. She is no more Manuwadi and aims to bring all caste Hindus in her fold. She is now kind to Krishna and has allotted Rs 250 crore to development of Mathura and Vrindavan. I wish one day she does something for Varanasi too.

Mayawati is also charming some media biggies to build her case. Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar writes, ‘The world will love Mayawati as PM‘. Prabhu Chawla has brought her on cover page of India Today and wrote the story, ‘Can She Rule India?‘

I don’t know what must be the ingredient of a prime minister? Is honesty and integrity essential or necessary? Should India go for a prime minister of Man Mohan Singh caliber who becomes victim of ultimate obedience or should India try Mayawati if she picks up the job properly and does justice by default? After all, if the country can tolerate Dev Gowda as Prime minister, why can’t it bear with Mayawati?

How does it matter if she is one with assets worth Rs 52 crores or multiple of it, all accumulated in four years, and the highest income tax payer among the politicians and that too out of the money her so-called bhaktas have donated? Will it make the politicians bolder to declare higher assets in affidavits for the next election? Will it lead to legislation by those who rule for themselves and by themselves to make them out of the reach of the judiciary?

Mayawati may be arrogant, crude, and even abusive, besides being corrupt. But who is not? Voters who matter have come from a social system where ‘uppari aamdani’ is respected and adored. She may hardly believe in internal democracy in party. But still she commands unparallel respect among her men and she will keep on getting it with a majority of deprived India. Mayawati is ambitious to the extreme. If Mulayam can build his hometown, why should Mayawati not do it better? I wish she could accommodate some great brains of India in her durbar, and they will love to do that. However, I don’t think she is comfortable with established celebrities and prefers sycophants as other politician community as whole does. Interestingly, she has now selected a successor too who is eighteen years younger to her in age.(“The name will be disclosed only when I am dead”.) But why’s that?

As Prabhu Chawla opines ‘with diminishing clout of the national parties, Mayawati may be a natural winner.’

I don’t know if I shall be able to see her ultimate rise (or political death).