I was delighted when Mayawati managed to attract people from all communities to vote for her BSP and spoke of SARVAJANA HITH (development & prosperity for all). Forget about her beinng a Dalit, she put paid to the casteist and divisive politics of both the Samajwadi Pparty of Mulayam and the BJP. The Congress of course is a spent force in UP. She is danger of losing all the support & goodwill of the people of UP if she dosent deliver results. She may argue that she had to undo a large part of the damage the corrupt Mulayam regime right from the police recruitment scam to the questionable land deals. But instead of big bashes, jumborees and tokenism like building Ambedkar parks and installing Kanshi Ram statues, she needs to focus on core issues like infrastructure development, healthcare, education, law & Order, Power, etc. The caste lobbies will otherwise come roaring back and take UP politics back to square one. She also needs to guard against sycophants who will exploit their closeness to her. She definitly holds out promise but there is a long long way to go. I pray something similar to the Mayawati phenomenon happens in Karnataka which has descended into an absolute morass of caste based politics. But the real tragedy would be if Mayawati squanders the mandate that she has been given by the people of UP. Empowerment does not come by just building monuments or entering temples. Empowerment comes from economic development, access to modern education, Transportation facilit
