New Delhi: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) founder Kanshi Ram, 72, died of heart attack in New Delhi on early Monday.

The bachelor-politician, who brought about new resurgence among Dalits, a people dismissed as untouchables for centuries, passed away after a prolonged illness at his protégé and BSP chief Mayawati's residence.



Kanshi had been suffering from numerous illnesses including diabetes and hypertension and was last seen in March this year at his 72nd birthday, confined to a wheelchair and unable to speak.



The BSP founder, whose life was never free of controversies, found himself in the middle of one even after death.



As Mayawati announced he would be cremated at the Nigambodh Ghat here, his family demanded that they be allowed to perform his last rites.



“According to Kanshi Ramji’s wishes, his mortal remains will not be immersed in any river but will be kept at the party offices in Lucknow and Delhi,” Mayawati, the former UP chief minister, told reporters.



LIKE AMBEDKAR, HE TOO EMBRACED BUDDHISM



Born on March 15, 1934, as a Raedasi Sikh, a community of Punjabi chamars (untouchables), Kanshi Ram converted to Buddhism, following in the footsteps of the legendary Dalit leader B R Ambedkar.



He was the first graduate in the family of seven children and founded the BSP in 1984 with the aim of ushering 'untouchables' into the corridors of power. The party now has 15 seats in the Lok Sabha.



TO DALITS, HE WAS A MESSIAH





Rahul Gandhi and Congress president Sonia Gandhi were among those who came to pay their last respects

“Nobody can deny it was only his efforts that made the Dalits a force to reckon with. He was solely responsible for making the BSP a ruling party in Uttar Pradesh and now a party that matters even in national politics," ardent follower Anil Shandlilya said as he watched Central ministers pay tribute to the late leader at Mayawati's home.



Amongst those who came to pay their last respects were Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and ministers Sharad Pawar, Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L K Advani.



The PM, who left for London Monday, condoled the death of the BSP leader, saying he was an important voice of the Dalits.



The growing crowds that flocked to see Kanshi Ram’s body were visible proof of what the prime minister said.



“He was our leader. He was the leader who convinced us that our voices and votes matter,” said Babu Ram, who took an early morning train from Uttar Pradesh for a last glimpse of the body.



Kanshi Ram realised early that the Dalits, who comprise 17 per cent of India's population, could be channelled into a powerful political force. He launched an organisation for protecting the interests of Dalit workers in government in 1978. In 1981, he floated a political forum — the Dalit Shoshit Sangharsh Samiti.



In 1987, three years after founding the BSP, he unsuccessfully contested parliamentary elections from Allahabad against former prime minister V P Singh. But he later won from Etawah in Uttar Pradesh 1991 and entered the Lok Sabha.



There was no looking back after that. The party catapulted to power in Uttar Pradesh in 1995 and he nominated Mayawati as chief minister of India's most populous state.



HIS HEIRESS, KIN NEVER SAW EYE TO EYE



Although his association with Mayawati gave the couple star status and their party political influence, Kanshi Ram's family was irked by the friendship. This became worse in the last two years when Kanshi Ram fell sick and was shut out from the world — and his family.



While he convalesced at Mayawati's residence, his family alleged that she was holding him captive in order to control the BSP and massive party funds.



A visibly irritated Mayawati brought the wheelchair-bound Kanshi Ram before television cameras on the occasion of her 48th birthday in January 2005 where Kanshi Ram's siblings were also present.



In December last year, when his mother passed away, Kanshi Ram's sister Bishen Kaur reiterated her complaints saying that Mayawati had not allowed the family to meet him.





HC rejects plea for Post-Mortem

The Delhi High Court on refused to order a post-mortem of the body of BSP leader Kanshi Ram, who died in the capital early Monday. Justice S N Agarwal, however, granted police protection to Harbans Singh and Swarn Kaur siblings of Kanshi Ram to attend his cremation at Nigambodh ghat.





CREMATION AMID UNSEEMLY ROW

The unseemly last-minute feud between Kanshi Ram’s family and his protege Mayawati over his mortal remains hung like a cloud at his funeral at Nigambodh Ghat in Delhi.



His brother, Dalbara Singh, moved the Delhi High Court seeking custody of the body.



BSP spokesman Sudhir Goyal said Mayawati had taken care to inform the family as soon as Kanshi Ram breathed his last, something disputed by the family members who say they came to know of his death through news on TV.



"Mayawati had duly informed Kanshi Ram's family in the middle of the night. They even came and saw the body at 8 am. It is only thereafter that they announced they would move the court,” he said.



Dalit activist-writer Chandrabhan Prasad described the hue and cry raised by the family as an attempt to get some slice of attention. “After all, Kanshi Ram is today’s Ambedkar. e gave the Dalits a taste of power, something that Ambedkar dreamt of,” he said.

- Lakshmi Iyer

India's Anti-Obama.(International Edition; ASIA)(Mayawati)

Byline: Jeremy Kahn

Unlike Obama, who transcends old divides, Mayawati has built her power on demagogic class warfare.



Shortly after Barack Obama's election last fall, a banner appeared in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state. OBAMA IS PRESIDENT OF THE U.S. NOW IT IS TIME FOR MAYAWATI TO BE PRIME MINISTER OF INDIA, it read.



Mayawati (she uses only one name) is Uttar Pradesh's chief minister. It's a big job; if U.P. were a country in its own right, its 190 million inhabitants would make it the sixth largest in the world. Yet Mayawati is now gunning for a bigger one. With national elections beginning this month, her supporters are trying to position her as India's answer to America's youthful black president. There's no chance that her party will actually win a majority of the seats in Parliament. But the likely outcome is that the two main parties, Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), will be forced to rely on coalitions. Mayawati's followers hope she'll emerge as kingmaker in the negotiations, with enough clout to grab the top job herself. Her party's aim is "to make Mayawati prime minister," as her top strategist puts it, and there's a chance it will succeed.



There are indeed parallels between Mayawati and Obama. Like America's president, Mayawati is young--just 53 in a country where most political leaders are in their 70s. She is also an outsider who comes from a long-oppressed segment of society: the Dalits, the politically correct term for India's Untouchable caste. The lowest of the low in the traditional Hindu social order, Dalits were long consigned to jobs such as waste collection and considered so impure they were denied education and other basic rights. India's Constitution outlaws caste discrimination, but the age-old hierarchies continue to play an outsize role in life there. In fact, the gulf between high and low caste in India is arguably bigger than that between black and white in America. And the political impact of low castes is potentially larger: they represent 60 percent of the Indian electorate by some estimates, with Dalits alone making up nearly 20 percent. Blacks, by contrast, represent just 12 percent of U.S. voters.



So Mayawati is both a bigger underdog and a potentially bigger threat to the established order than Obama was. While he benefited from a first-class education, she grew up in a shantytown with eight brothers and sisters and attended poor state schools. Obama enjoyed the backing of a long-established party, while Mayawati's organization, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), has been built up largely by Mayawati herself--and in a part of the world where women have made it to the pinnacle of power only as wives, widows or daughters of beloved male leaders.



But unlike Obama, who promised a new politics that …

The challenge of being Mayawati (BHARAT CHRNIOCALE)

Vidya Subrahmaniam


Mayawati’s 2007 victory was a result of mature, sensible politics. She must reclaim these qualities if she is to recover the ground lost in 2009.

In the summer of 2007, as the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party galloped towards an absolute majority in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, a bureaucrat in the outgoing regime took a bet on the fourth-time Chief Minister’s career trajectory. “You will see a very different Mayawati this time,” he told journalists. “Her goal is Delhi, not Uttar Pradesh, and she will want the world to see a forward-looking, mature leader capable of running a large and diverse country.”



There was no reason to doubt his words. Ms Mayawati’s implausible journey from a Dalit background of deprivation and discrimination to Chief Minister on her own strength was a story without precedent. (Barack Obama came later.) It had been made possible as much by grit, struggle and courage as by strategy, craft and a keen understanding of what to do when. Ms Mayawati plotted her victory with precision, making a gradual but astute shift from the exclusivist, strident Dalit-centred agenda of the past to a pragmatic politics of inclusion and reaching out.



The dividend came in the form of what U.P. referred to as the “plus” votes — votes of castes and communities other than Dalits. The plus voters were the key to winning an electoral majority but they were also the hardest to get because of their historical prejudices against Dalits. It did not help that the BSP was itself born in fierce opposition to the manuwadis. That in the end she breached these barriers is a tribute to Ms Mayawati’s perseverance, intelligence and willingness to adapt to the demands of changing times. In the hands of new-age Mayawati, bahujan (depressed classes) became sarvajan (all classes), while an innovative new jingle — haathi nahi Ganesh hai, Brahma Vishnu Mahesh hai (not elephant but Ganesh; Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh) — displaced the rabble-rousing slogans of a previous era. Who could miss the symbolism in the transformation of the aggressive BSP elephant into a genteel, universal God?



The embrace of conciliatory, sensible politics had expanded Ms Mayawati’s support base and placed her at the head of U.P.’s first majority government in 16 years, and it stood to reason that she would go along on the same path — both to consolidate her position in the State and to extend her appeal beyond it.



Rashness

However, in office, she showed a rashness that turned on its head the very logic of her recent makeover. Having worked so hard to achieve the most important milestone of her career, Ms Mayawati seemed to have wantonly squandered it all — the goodwill, the votes, the respect, the admiration. Even without the extraordinary significance of her ascent to power, the slide would have seemed too quick, too apparent. But this government had come with high expectations; its historic import was acclaimed internationally. Indeed, from the vantage point of where Ms Mayawati stood in May 2007, it seemed entirely in order that the next stop in this incredible odyssey should be the Indian prime ministership.



And yet as one travelled in the State for an assessment of the voter mood prior to the Lok Sabha election, it was impossible to miss the disillusionment. The two-year-old Mayawati government carried a heavier burden of anti-incumbency than Manmohan Singh’s government of five years at the Centre. Nothing the Chief Minister had done since assuming office seemed designed for any great future role. What was evident on the ground was quite the opposite of the responsible politics that pundits prophesied would take her to the high seat of power in Delhi.



Ms Mayawati’s 2007 victory was the result of an accommodative politics whose key elements were prudence and moderation. In office, these were dumped for a self-obsession that was excessive even allowing for the exigencies of history. Her unique position as a self-made Dalit woman politician allowed Ms Mayawati liberties not granted to others. In a country where dynasties habitually came to power, she had single-handedly overcome debilitating discrimination to reach where she had. That in the India of Ms Mayawati Dalits continued to be subjected to unspeakable crimes might have seemed an unacceptable paradox, but surely the fact was also a pointer to her own struggles en route to power.



Viewed from this perspective, many things acquired clarity, be it the admiration she evoked in her community or her own urge to embark on a grand celebration of Dalit power. In her previous three terms, Ms Mayawati had devoted considerable time and energy to erecting memorials and statues to Dalit icons — which was small compensation for the entrenched institutional prejudices against the community. The gesture went down well with her core voters who saw it as sweet revenge for centuries of exclusion and humiliation. Ms Mayawati also afforded a measure of security to Dalits by strictly enforcing the Scheduled Castes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. However, significantly, she also earned a reputation for running a tight, disciplined administration that many in U.P. would later cite as the reason to have voted her to power in 2007.



Had Ms Mayawati dedicated a few more projects to the Dalit movement in her fourth term, few would have objected. But she made building of memorials and statues the centre piece of the BSP government’s programmes. A score of gargantuan new projects aside, hundreds of crores of rupees were lavished on razing and redoing projects already executed at a huge cost in her previous stints in office. From Lucknow to Noida on the Delhi border, the pink dholpur stone was omnipresent, testifying to the culture of waste and self-indulgence made into a credo by the BSP government.



Even this excess might have passed scrutiny if the Chief Minister had not erected dozens of her own statues, obsessing over their exact dimensions, and indeed ordering that they be re-made if they were not to her satisfaction. The immaturity was evident in the treatment meted out to a bust of Rajiv Gandhi originally placed at the centre of a modest roundabout just off the chief ministerial bungalow in Lucknow. The Mayawati government banished the bust, minuscule compared to her own statuesque versions, to a far corner of the roundabout, and installed a fountain in its place.



Poetic justice for what the savarna jatis (forward castes) had done to Dalits? Not really. In Ms Mayawati’s fourth term, her supporters expected more than token gestures from a leader who had brought them out from the seclusion of their condemned Dalit existence and taught them to think independently. True, Dalit support for Ms Mayawati was undiminished, some even compared the Dalit memorials to the profusion of samadhis dedicated to the elite Nerhu-Gandhi clan, but a vast majority wanted a better standard of living, and a greater and more visible share in the power structures, which continued to be dominated by the forward castes thanks to Ms. Mayawati’s sarvajan formula.



At Baraipur, an Ambedkar village en route to Phoolpur, residents pointed to the disproportionate influence of forward castes on the Mayawati regime, and nostalgically recalled the BSP’s founding slogan, vote hamara raj tumhara nahi chalega (we will not brook a system where our votes got your rule): “It is still our vote and their rule.”



Irony

The irony was too large to miss. In its current term, the Mayawati government had gone all out to placate the Brahmins, handing them plum posts in government and allotting them a ticket share of 20 of 80 Lok Sabha seats in comparison to only 17 for Dalits. Brahmins are roughly nine per cent of U.P.’s population while Dalits form 21 per cent. But the Chief Minister’s generosity was largely wasted on the community which harped on her preoccupation with statue-building and rued the migration of goonda elements from the Samajwadi Party to the BSP. Brahmins and other forward castes saw this as a deliberate slight by a party that had made ending the “goonda raj” of the Mulayam Singh government the central plank of its 2007 election campaign.



A lot rode on the Mayawati government, which was expected to show the same enlightened vision that brought it to office with a full majority. That vision meant directing the government’s scarce resources towards larger programmes aimed at the uplift of the poor and the deprived. The many claims in the BSP government’s publicity brochures notwithstanding, in the public perception, governance under Ms Mayawati remained confined to a single agenda: promotion of the Chief Minister. The BSP chief campaigned widely outside the State, projecting herself as a potential Prime Minister. The travels did not bring the expected dividends, and the neglect of her own backyard showed up in the form of the BSP’s far from respectable performance.



Until 2009, the BSP was on the up and up; its vote and seat shares increased with every election. Election 2009 has broken that trend. But there is a message in the BSP’s 27.42 per cent vote share: That all is not lost yet, and she can recover the ground lost provided she reclaims the qualities that brought her to power two years ago.

The teacher makes political history

It has been a rugged yet eventful road to success for teacher-turned-politician Mayawati [ Images ], who is expected to assume the office of Uttar Pradesh [ Images ] Chief Minister for the fourth time.


Significantly, she will create the record of being the first woman to be UP's chief minister as many as four times.



She was also the first Dalit woman to don the UP CM's mantle the first time 12 years ago.



Mayawati has been the leading light of the Bahujan Samaj Party, a party which has steadily become a political force to reckon with in the Hindi heartland.



The death of her mentor, BSP founder Kanshi Ram, last year dealt a blow to the party, but Mayawati, who was accused in several scams during her last regime, put behind all the odds to lead the party to success in the assembly poll.



Her new social engineering -- a Dalit-Brahmin combine for the first time in UP politics -- achieved a clear distinction and defeated all competing political combinations and permutations.



Mayawati was born on January 15, 1956 in Delhi [ Images ] where her father Prabhudayal was employed as a supervisor with the Post and Telegraph department. However, the family traces its roots to Baadalpur village of the then Bulandshahar and now Ghaziabad district of UP.



The BSP president did a major part of her education in Delhi.



She did an BA and LLB from Kalindi College at Delhi University and later took a BEd degree from Delhi University. During her student life, Mayawati was an active participant in several debate competitions and student movements.



Between 1977 and 1984, Mayawati taught at various schools run by the Delhi administration. She left teaching in 1984 and joined Kanshi Ram, who had by then floated a non-political outfit, the Backward and Minority Communities Employees Federation, and the DS-4, another organisation set up to look after the interests of Dalits and Backward castes.



With the establishment of the BSP on April 14, 1984 began her political career. As a BSP candidate, she contested her first Lok Sabha election from Kairana (Muzaffarnagar) in December 1984, but could not win. She then contested the Lok Sabha by-election to Bijnor and Hardwar in 1985 and 1987 respectively. She stood second with 1.39 lakh votes in the Hardwar by-election.



She was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time in 1989 from the Bijnor seat. In 1994, she was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh.



Her party supported the Samajwadi Party in government formation in UP during 1993. But with time, their relations soured. The nadir of their mutual and lasting recrimination was reached when goons, allegedly sponsored by the Samajwadi Party, attacked Mayawati at the state guest house in Lucknow [ Images ] on June 2, 1995.



Mayawati escaped unhurt and became chief minister for the first time with the Bharatiya Janata Party's [ Images ] support on June 3, 1995. She stayed in the post only till October that year as the political alliance between the BSP and BJP came to an abrupt end.



The story of her political success continued as she was elected both from Bilsi (Badaun) and Haraura (Saharanpur) seats during the 1996 UP assembly election. She later resigned the Bilsi seat and retained Haraura.



A new political marriage between the BSP and the BJP was forged, which resulted in a unique government formation in 1997 with an agreement that both parties would have its own chief minister by rotation for six months each.



Under the deal, she was sworn in as chief minister on March 21, 1997, earning her the distinction of becoming a woman chief minister of the state twice.



At the end of her six-month tenure, Mayawati withdrew support from the coalition government, saying the Dalit Act had not been properly implemented in the state.



It was during this stand-off between the two parties that the infamous brickbatting case inside the UP assembly occurred on October 18, 1997.



The BSP leader won both the 1998 and 1999 Lok Sabha elections from the Akbarpur (reserved) seat in Ambedkarnagar district, UP.



Her third tenure as UP chief minister commenced on May 3, 2002 but abruptly ended on July 25, 2003 after the Taj Heritage Corridor scam surfaced.



The Supreme Court ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the controversy. Later, the apex court also ordered a probe into the alleged disproprionate assets of Mayawati and her family.



She won the Ambedkarngar seat in the 2004 Lok Sabha election, but resigned in 2005. She was later elected to the Rajya Sabha.



After she relinquished the chief minister's post, Mayawati was once again in the heart of controversy when Kanshi Ram's family fought a legal battle against her.



While the family wanted to take Kanshi Ram, then ailing in hospital, away from her, she continued to look after her mentor and did not allow his family to take his body even after his death last October.



Mayawati constructed the sprawling Ambedkar Park and Parivartan chowk in Lucknow and starting the Ambedkar Gram Vikas Yojna during her previous tenures as chief minister. However, she is recalled with apprehension by some in the media and bureaucratic circles who describe her as 'dictatorial and whimsical in nature'.



Notwithstanding the past, Mayawati, with the reins of Uttar Pradesh once again in her hands, will need to ensure much-wanted political stability and sustainable development in India's [ Images ] most populous and politically most significant state

Mayawati in the Forbes most powerful women list

The magic of Maya seems to have just begun as the BSP supremo made her debut in the Forbes' list of most powerful women in the world. The list of the hundred women includes three other Indians -- Sonia Gandhi, Indra Nooyi and Kiran Mazumdar Shaw.

MAYAWATI MAY have not quite made it to the post of the Prime Minister of India but she has definitely made it to one of the omnipotent women of the world list released by the Forbes Magazine. Mayawati made her debut at the 59th position whereas Congress chairperson Sonia Gandhi was present on the 21st position. A fall from her last year’s sixth rank. The other Indians who made it to the list include Pepsi chief executive officer (CEO), Indra Nooyi and chief of Biocon, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw. Indra Nooyi had moved two places from her last year’s fifth spot to a commendable third place this year, whereas Shaw just completed the top hundred list by coming in at the 99th position.


Mayawati’s debut into the list may not come as a surprise to many in political critics, as after gaining chief ministership of Uttar Pradesh, she has gone from strength to strength. From carrying the ambition of becoming the prime minister of the country to being the assumed head of the Third Front of Indian politics, Mayawati has made her agenda in politics very clear from the very beginning. The trust vote on the Indo-US deal may have not gone her way, but it is a known fact that her political career has risen tremendously in the past few years and who knows her ambitions of leading the country may soon be realised.



Sonia Gandhi’s position in the list seems to have fallen a bit, after she let Prime Minister Manmohan Singh take the limelight and face the contentious issue relating to the Indo-US nuclear deal while herself maintaining a low profile for sometime. But nevertheless, Sonia Gandhi continues to be strongest woman politician in our country.



The Forbes top 100 list was topped by the German chanceller, Angela Merkel, for second year running. The second position went to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp chairperson, Sheila C Bair of America. Hillary Clinton may have not been selected as the Democratic nomination for the President in America but American women have dominated the list with six of the top ten belonging to the States. Wallpoint CEO, Angela Braly and the US secretary of state, Condolezza Rice, also make it to the top ten. Hillary Clinton herself came in at the 28th place. Other notable women who can be found in the list are Oprah Winfrey at the 36th place, Melinda Gates at the 44th and Queen Elizabeth II on the 58th position.



Indian women may not be getting their due in our society, but Forbes has acknowledged the power of Indian women by including four in the top 100 list. All the women mentioned have achieved several milestones in their powerful careers. It is interesting to note that these four women come from politics and the corporate world, both of which are supposed to be dominated by men. Hence, these women represent the ambitions and the aspirations of millions of other Indian girls who too want to push the glass ceiling and reach for the sky. These women truly epitomise the Indian woman of today -- who is confident and want to reach for the stars.


Times of india

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Dalit leader Kumari Mayawati has found a place among the Forbes’ 100 Most Powerful Women in the World giving jitters to Indian National Congress President Sonia Gandhi. According to the Forbes list released on 28th Aug. 2008, Mayawati is ranked 59th just behind Queen Elizabeth of UK.




In the running to be prime minister, from her perch as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state. In 1995, at 39, she was the youngest politician elected to the post and was also the first Dalit (India’s lowest, “untouchable” caste) to head a state government. Commands a large following and goes simply by Mayawati. In 2007 she shrewdly built an alliance with Brahmins, and the Bahujan Samaj Party, which she heads, has started to increase its national presence. Some say she could trail-blaze again as India’s first Dalit prime minister. — Kate Macmillan of the Forbes says in citation for Mayawati.



Sonia Gandhi has slipped to number 21 while Pepsi Co CEO, Indra Nooyi is on number 3 on the list headed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.



Gandhi, the Italian-born leader of India’s most powerful political party, the Indian National Congress Party, has by now assumed the role of elder stateswoman. Although she remains firmly at the head of the country’s ruling party, a rising star, known by the single name Mayawati, is challenging Gandhi’s position as the country’s most powerful woman. Mayawati has aligned herself with the nationalist Hindu BJP party and joined its members in vociferously opposing Gandhi’s party’s historic agreement with the U.S. on nuclear cooperation. — Heidi Brown

However, Nooyi still heads the list of businesswomen. Forbes says: At No. 3, Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo is the highest-ranked woman in business as she expands the food and beverage giant internationally to counter a decline in Americans’ preference for soda and chips



Another inclusion on the list is Kiran Mazumdar Shaw Chairman and Managing Director of the Biocan three positions behind Queen of Jordan Rania Al-Abdallah. Kiran has just scaped in to be ranked 99.



According to Forbes media release: Our annual ranking of the most powerful women in the world measures “power” as a composite of public profile–calculated using press mentions–and financial heft. The economic component of the ranking considers job title and past career accomplishments, as well as the amount of money the woman controls.

A chief executive “controls” the revenue of her business, for instance, while a head of state gets the country’s gross domestic product. The raw numbers are modified to allow comparisons across financial realms.

For the third year running Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, is the world’s most powerful woman. U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton (overall rank: 28) is the woman with the highest public profile, resulting from the intense media scrutiny of her failed presidential bid.



The list that comprises 54 businesswomen and 23 politicians, with the rest being media execs and personalities and non-profit leaders. A third are newcomers to the rankings; this reflects not only new top positions for women, such as Starcom MediaVest’s Laura Desmond (No. 55) and Enterprise’s Pamela Nicholson (No. 93), but also the increasingly global reach of this list, with more women from outside the U.S. rising to worldwide prominence.



Just under half the women ranked this year are based outside of the U.S. Top countries represented include the U.K. (five women), China (four), France, India and the Netherlands (three apiece). Morocco has its first ranked woman this year: Hynd Bouhia (No. 29), director-general of the Casablanca Stock Exchange.



Candidates for our list are globally recognized women at the top of their fields: chief executives and their highest-ranked lieutenants, elected officials, nonprofit leaders. They don’t have to be rich, but they do have to wield significant influence. This year, an architect, a war correspondent and several foundation executives all won spots on the list.



We measure power as a composite of public profile–calculated using press mentions–and financial heft. This year, for instance, the woman with the highest public profile is Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, No. 28, who garnered intense media scrutiny for her failed U.S. presidential bid.



The economic component of the ranking considers job title and past career accomplishments, as well as the amount of money a woman controls. A chief executive gets the revenue of her business, for example, while a Nobel winner receives her prize money and a U.N. agency head receives her organization’s budget. We modify the raw dollar figures to allow comparisons among the different financial realms so that the corporate revenue that an executive controls, for instance, is on the same footing as a country’s gross domestic product, ascribed to prime ministers.

The World's Most Powerful Women

Rank -Name -Occupation -Country


1 Angela Merkel Chancellor- Germany

2 Sheila C. Bair Chairman, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. U.S.

3 Indra K. Nooyi Chairman, chief executive, Pepsi Co U.S.

4 Angela Braly Chief executive, president, WellPoint U.S.

5 Cynthia Carroll Chief executive, Anglo American U.K.

6 Irene B. Rosenfeld Chairman, chief executive, Kraft Foods U.S.

7 Condoleezza Rice Secretary of state U.S.

8 Ho Ching Chief executive, Temasek Holdings Singapore

9 Anne Lauvergeon Chief executive, Areva France

10 Anne Mulcahy Chairman, chief executive, Xerox Corp. U.S.

11 Gail Kelly Chief executive and managing director, Westpac Bank Australia

12 Patricia A. Woertz Chairman, chief executive, president, Archer Daniels Midland U.S.

13 Cristina Fernandez President Argentina

14 Christine Lagarde Minister of economy, finance and employment France

15 Safra A. Catz President and chief financial officer, Oracle U.S.

16 Carol B. Tome Executive vice president and chief financial officer, Home Depot U.S.

17 Yulia Tymoshenko Prime minister Ukraine

18 Mary Sammons Chairman, chief executive, president, Rite Aid U.S.

19 Andrea Jung Chairman, chief executive, Avon U.S.

20 Marjorie Scardino Chief executive, Pearson PLC U.K.

21 Sonia Gandhi President, Indian National Congress Party India

22 Risa Lavizzo-Mourey Chief Executive and President, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation U.S.

23 Sri Mulyani Indrawati Coordinating minister for economic affairs and finance minister Indonesia

24 Dr. Julie Gerberding Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention U.S.

25 Michelle Bachelet President Chile

26 Ellen Alemany Chief executive, Royal Bank of Scotland Americas U.S.

27 Carol Meyrowitz Chief executive, president, The TJX Cos. U.S.

28 Hillary Rodham Clinton U.S. senator, New York U.S.

29 Hynd Bouhia Director General, Casablanca Stock Exchange Morocco

30 Anne Sweeney President, Disney-ABC Television Group U.S.

31 Valentina Matviyenko Governor, St. Petersburg region Russia

32 Nancy Tellem President, CBS Paramount Television Entertainment Group U.S.

33 Ann Livermore Executive vice president, Hewlett-Packard U.S.

34 Marina Berlusconi Chairman, Finivest Group and Mondadori Group Italy

35 Nancy Pelosi Speaker, House of Representatives U.S.

36 Oprah Winfrey Chairman, Harpo U.S.

37 Gulzhan Moldazhanova Chief Executive, Basic Element Russia

38 Aung San Suu Kyi Deposed prime minister; Nobel peace laureate Myanmar

39 Lynn Laverty Elsenhans Chief executive and president, Sunoco U.S.

40 Melinda Gates Co-founder, co-chairman, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation U.S.

41 Gloria Arroyo President Philippines

42 Jane Mendillo President and chief executive, Harvard Management Co. U.S.

43 Linda Z. Cook Executive director, gas and power, Royal Dutch Shell Netherlands

44 Laura Bush First lady U.S.

45 Brenda Barnes Chief executive, Sara Lee U.S.

46 Christine Poon Vice chairman, Johnson & Johnson U.S.

47 Neelie Kroes Competition commissioner, European Union Netherlands

48 Amy Woods Brinkley Global risk executive, Bank of America U.S.

49 Susan E. Arnold President, global business units, Procter & Gamble U.S.

50 Susan Decker President, Yahoo! U.S.

51 Ana Patricia Botin Chairman, Banesto Spain

52 Tzipora Livni Vice prime minister and minister of foreign affairs Israel

53 Dominique Senequier Chief executive officer, AXA Private Equity France

54 Amy Pascal Co-chairman, Sony Pictures Entertainment U.S.

55 Ursula Burns President, Xerox U.S.

56 Helen Clark Prime minister New Zealand

57 Laura Desmond Chief executive officer, Starcom MediaVest Group Worldwide U.S.

58 Queen Elizabeth II Queen U.K.

59 Mayawati Kumari Chief minister, Uttar Pradesh India

60 Judy McGrath Chairman and chief executive officer, MTV Networks U.S.

61 Meredith Vieira Co-anchor, Today show, NBC News U.S.

62 Katie Couric Anchor, CBS Evening News, CBS News U.S.

63 Barbara Walters Correspondent, ABC News U.S.

64 Sallie Krawcheck Chairman and chief executive, Global Wealth Management, Citigroup U.S.

65 Diane Sawyer Anchor, Good Morning America, ABC News U.S.

66 Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf President Liberia

67 Janice Fields Chief operating officer and executive vice president, McDonald's U.S.

68 Zhang Xin Chief executive officer, co-founder, Soho China

69 Zaha Hadid Founder, Zaha Hadid Architects U.K.

70 Yang Mian Mian President, Haier China

71 Tarja Halonen President Finland

72 Ruth Bader Ginsburg Justice, Supreme Court U.S.

73 Hyun Jeong-Eun Chairman, Hyundai Group South Korea

74 Mary McAleese President Ireland

75 Guler Sabanci Chairman, Sabanci Holding Turkey

76 Drew Gilpin Faust President, Harvard University U.S.

77 Lisa M. Weber President, Individual Business, MetLife U.S.

78 Dora Bakoyannis Foreign minister Greece

79 Beth Brooke Global vice chairman, Ernst & Young U.S.

80 Lee Myung-Hee Chairman, Shinsegae Group South Korea

81 Susan M. Ivey Chief executive, Reynolds American U.S.

82 Nancy McKinstry CEO, Wolters Kluwer Netherlands

83 Janet L. Robinson President and chief executive, The New York Times Co. U.S.

84 Margaret Chan Director-general, World Health Organization Switzerland

85 Clara Furse Chief executive, London Stock Exchange U.K.

86 Ellen J. Kullman Executive vice president, DuPont U.S.

87 Susan Desmond-Hellmann President, product development, Genentech U.S.

88 Eva Cheng Chief executive, Greater China and Southeast Asia, Amway China

89 Maha Al-Ghunaim Chairman, managing director, Global Investment House Kuwait

90 Christina Gold Chief executive, Western Union U.S.

91 Christiane Amanpour Chief international correspondent, CNN U.S.

92 Pamela Nicholson President, Enterprise Rent-a-Car U.S.

93 Ann Moore Chairman, chief executive, Time Inc. U.S.

94 Sharon Allen Chair, Deloitte U.S.

95 Jing Ulrich Chairman and managing director, JPMorgan Chase China Equities China

96 Queen Rania Al-Abdullah Queen Jordan

97 Virginia Rometty Senior vice president, IBM Global Business Services U.S.

98 Georgina Rinehart Owner, chairman, Hancock Prospecting Australia

99 Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw Chairman and managing director, Biocon India

100 Paula Rosput Reynolds Chief Executive, Safeco U.S.

book-Behenji: A Political Biography of Mayawati By Ajoy Bose

Well-researched, well-worded, objective and absorbing’


—Khushwant Singh



‘How did Mayawati become the iconoclastic, combative politician, universally known as ‘Behenji’ today?’ Is there a historic parallel anywhere else where a woman belonging to the most crushed community known to mankind has risen through the heat and dust of elections to rule two hundred million people and may well reach further to guide the destiny of a billion more in the not too distant future?



Mayawati has changed the face of politics in India, turning old assumptions upside down and restructuring power equations entrenched for centuries, if not millennia. The path she has blazed through the Byzantine political system of Uttar Pradesh has been a unique tour de force. Not only has she been the chief minister four times, but she has done so by overturning the established electoral traditions of a state that virtually invented modern Indian politics. With her in-your-face political style, unabashed display of accumulated wealth and mercurial nature, she is, perhaps, the most enigmatic Indian politician for decades.



Eminent journalist Ajoy Bose brings his in-depth experience of covering Indian politics for over three decades to this pioneering political biography of Mayawati. He explores the background of her meteoric rise and examines the growing national clout of this unique woman who could, quite possibly, determine the shape of the next Indian government, and even be the country’s prime minister one day

kM Mayawati

Chief Minister, 2007


Mayawati was sworn in as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh for the fourth time on 13 May 2007. She announced an agenda that focused on providing social justice to the weaker sections of society and providing employment instead of distributing money to the unemployed. Her slogan is to make "Uttar Pradesh" ("Northern Province") into "Uttam Pradesh" ("Excellent Province").



In 2007 Mayawati's government began a major crackdown on irregularities in the recruitment process of police officers recruited during the previous Mulayam Singh government. So far 17,868 policemen have lost their jobs for irregularities in the recruitment process and 25 IPS officers were suspended for their involvement in corruption while recruiting the police constables.[14][15] Mayawati is instituting reforms to introduce transparency into the recruiting process, including posting results of selection exams online.[16]



As part of her social reform plans she advocates reservation for the poor among upper castes in addition to reservation for weaker sections of society. Reservation in India is a system whereby a percentage of government positions and seats in all universities are reserved for persons in backward classes and scheduled castes and tribes.[17]



2007 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections




Newspapers in Calcutta announce the surprise majority for Mayawati's party in the 2007 elections in Uttar PradeshContrary to some poll predictions, BSP won a majority in the 2007 elections, the first such majority since 1991. Mayawati managed to attract support from Brahmins, Thakurs, Muslims and members of other backward classes. These people voted for a Dalit party for the first time, partly because BSP had offered seats to people from these communities. The campaign was accompanied by a colorful slogan: Haathi nahin, Ganesh hain, Brahma, Vishnu Mahesh Hain: "The elephant (BSP Logo) is really the Lord Ganesha, the trinity of gods rolled into one". Her new slogan invited everyone, including the higher castes, to "come ride the elephant", her party's election symbol.[6

Personal life


Mayawati (Hindi: मायावती, Urdu: مایاوتی) (born 15 January 1956) is an Indian politician.[3] She is the current Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state.[4][5] After three short tenures between 1995 and 2003, it is her fourth term in this office. Her supporters refer to her as Behen Ji, which means sister.[6] At age 39, she became the youngest politician to be elected chief minister in Uttar Pradesh and the first Dalit-woman chief minister of any Indian state.[6] She is regarded as a symbol of dignity and political inspiration for millions of India's Dalits who were oppressed by the Hindu upper castes for centuries.[6] There are allegations that she has used her status to amass a large amount of personal wealth. [7][8][6]
Mayawati was born in New Delhi at Shrimati Sucheta Kriplani Hospital,[3] to Ram Rati and Prabhu Das. Her family belonged to the scheduled caste Hindu Jatav subcaste of the Chamar community. Prabhu Das, her father, retired as section head from Postal department, Government of India.[3] Badalpur, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Uttar Pradesh is her ancestral village.[3]



Mayawati graduated in arts from Kalindi College of the University of Delhi. She holds bachelor's degrees in Law (from Delhi University) and Education (from BMLG College, Ghaziabad, Meerut University).[3] She worked as a teacher in Delhi (Inderpuri JJ Colony). In 1977, Dalit politician Kanshi Ram became very influential in her life resulting in her joining his core team when he founded the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in 1984. Shortly after, she changed her career path and entered politics full time.



At Kanshi Ram's funeral ceremonies in 2006, Mayawati said they had both been following Buddhist traditions and customs.[9] Her act of performing the last rites (Hindi: दाह-संस्कार) of Kanshi Ram has set an example of her and Kanshi Ram's views against gender discrimination.[9] She said that she will convert to Buddhism after getting an absolute majority at the Centre. [9][10]

BOOK WRITING:


1. Bahujan Samaj Aur Uski Rajniti (October 2000)

2. Bahujan Samaj Aur Uski Rajniti, English(October 2001)

3. Mere Sangarshmai Jeevan Evam Bahujan Movement Ka Safarnama, three-volume over 3300 pages book, first two part of which was released by BSP founder Manyawar Shri Kanshi Ram Ji on 15 th January, 2006 on the occasion of 50 th birth anniversary of Ms. Mayawati Ji.

4. A Travelogue of My struggle-ridden life and of Bahujan Samaj, English, two volume book released on 15 th March, 2008 on the birth anniversary of Mamnyawar Shri Kanshi Ram Ji.


Political career


In 1984[11] Kanshi Ram founded the BSP as a party to represent the Buddhists and Dalits. Mayawati was a key member of this organization. BSP fielded Mayawati for its first election campaign from the Kairana Lok Sabha (Lower House) seat in the Muzaffarnagar district in 1984, and then again for the Lok Sabha seats of Haridwar in 1985 and Bijnor in 1989.[12]



Although BSP did not win, the electoral experience led to considerable activity for Mayawati over the next five years, as she worked with Mahsood Ahmed and other organizers. In the 1989 election, the party won 9% of the popular vote and 13 seats. It won 11 seats in the 1991 election. Because the Dalits are widely spread over the state, Kanshi Ram and Mayawati then adopted a policy of attracting other groups, which continues today.



Mayawati won for the first time in the Lok Sabha elections of 1989 from Bijnor. In 1995, while a member of the Rajya Sabha (Upper House), she became a Chief Minister in a short-lived coalition government, and validated her position by winning from two constituencies in 1996. She was again Chief Minister for a short period in 1997, and then for a somewhat longer term in coalition with the Bharatiya Janata Party from 2002 to 2003. Before that in 2001 her mentor, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Kanshi Ram named her as his successor. Mayawati has said in an interview that she has no time for family life or romantic relationships because she wants to focus on her political career and this is why she remains unmarried.[13]

November 1989 : Both she and the party, the BSP made debut in Parliament. Won Bijnore (reserved) Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh in the Ninth General Elections of 1989.




April 1994 : Elected to the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh, signaling her debut, as also of the party, in the Upper House of Indian Parliament



June 1995 : In 1995, Ms. Mayawati created history be becoming Indian's first Dalit woman chief minister, heading first Bahujan Samaj Party (Majority People's Party) government in India's most-populated state of Uttar Pradesh.



Became Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, the largest state of India in terms of population 4-times:

1. 1995 : 3 June, 1995 to 18 October, 1995

2. 1997 : 21 March, 1997 to 20 September, 1997

3. 2002 : 3 May, 2002 to 26 August, 2003

4. 2007 : 13 May, 2007 till date



1996-98 : Elected as a legislator. Elected from the two different constituencies of Uttar Pradesh-Harora (reserved) in Saharanpur district and Bilsi (reserved) in Budaun district. Represented the constituency of Harora in the state assembly, resigning from Bilsi seat as per the law.



21 March, 1997 : Became Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh for the second time.



February 1998 : Elected for the second time in the 12th Lok Sabha elections from Uttar Pradesh's Akbarpur (reserved) parliamentary constituency in Ambedkar Nagar district.



February 1999 : Elected for the third time in the 13th Lok Sabha elections from Akbarpur (reserved) constituency.



14 April, 1999 : Senior journalist Mohammad Jamil Akhter's book, entitled "Iron Lady Kumari Mayawati", was released by Mr. Kanshi Ram Ji at a grand function in New Delhi on the occasion of Dr. Ambedkar's birth anniversary.



3 June, 2000 : Release of her own book book, "Bahujan Samaj Aur Uski Rajniti" (Bahujan Samaj and its Politics) by Mr. Kanshi Ram Ji at a function in New Delhi's Talkatora stadium on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the first 'Bahujan Samaj' government in Uttar Pradesh.



15 December, 2001 : BSP architect and founder, Manyawar Shri Kanshi Ram Ji, declared her as the sole heir and political successor of him and the "Bahujan Movement" at a grand rally in the Lakshman Mela ground on the bank of river Gomti in the Uttar Pradesh capital Lucknow.



February 2002 : Re-elected as a legislator in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. Was declared a winner from the two constituencies-Harora (reserved) in Saharanpur district and Jahangirganj (reserved) in Ambedkar Nagar District. Represented Harora seat and resigned from Jahangirganj seat.



March 2002 : Resigned from Akbarpur (reserved) Lok Sabha seat.



3 May, 2002 : Became Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh for the third time.



18 September, 2003 : Assumed the office of Bahujan Samaj Party's National President after Mr. Kanshi Ram Ji suddenly fell seriously ill following a brain stroke.



April-May, 2004 : Elected for the fourth time in the 14th Lok Sabha elections from Akbarpur (reserved) seat in Uttar Pradesh.



July 2004 : After resigning from the Lok Sabha, elected for the second time as a member of the Rajya Sabha for a six-year term from Uttar Pradesh.



27 August, 2006 : Re-elected as National President of the Bahujan Samaj Party unanimously in an All India Delegate Conference held at Lucknow.



13 May, 2007 : Was administered oath for the office of the Chief Minister, Uttar Pradesh fourth time after her party registered a comfortable majority win in the general elections for the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly, trouncing Samajwadi party, BJP and the Congress. 3 July, 2007 : Joined as member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council after elected unopposed in the by-election for the upper house of the state legislature. Declared that she chose to become MLC as she wish to concentrate on the development of all the 403 assembly constituencies of state assembly rather than my constituency only .... I am not Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav, who had diverted all the funds to develop his home area only.


Political reaction

In her tenures as a Chief Minister, Mayawati erected number of statues of Buddhist and Dalit icons like Bhimrao Ambedkar, Shahuji Maharaj, Gautam Buddha, BSP founder Kanshi Ram and of herself.[19] The statues and the memorial parks in which they are erected are said to have cost the state Rs. 2000 Crore.[20] The Supreme Court of India admitted a Public Interest Litigation questioning this expenditure. She maintains that the statues are symbols of Dalit assertion and the expenditure was required because the past governments did not show respect towards Dalit icons in whose memory nothing was ever built.[21] In February 2010, Mayawati's government approved a plan for a special police force to protect the statues. She feared that her political opponents might demolish the statues.[22] There are incidents of vandalism of statues of Dalit icon Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar in India.[23][24][25][26]




Mayawati's past birthdays have been major media events where she appeared laden with diamonds.[6] Her supporters have declared her birthday as Jan Kalyankari Diwas (People's Welfare Day). The day is to be marked by the announcement of welfare schemes targeted towards poor and downtrodden people of the state. [27] Her 2010 birthday was marked by the launch of programmes to the tune of over Rs 7,312 crores.[28]



In spite of her humble origins, Mayawati's assets run into millions of dollars with several properties to her name.[6] In 2007-08 assessment year, Mayawati paid an income tax of Rupees 26 crores, ranking among the top 20 taxpayers in the country. Earlier the CBI had filed a case against her for owning assets disproportionate to her known sources of income. Mayawati described the CBI investigation against her as illegal.[29] Her party asserts that her income comes as gifts and small contributions from party workers and supporters.[30][31]



Kanshi Ram, head of the Bahujan Samaj Party, praised Mayawati at her 47th birthday celebrations for her fundraising activities on behalf of the party. He stated that the party's eventual goal is to gain power in Delhi, and that Mayawati's efforts help in that quest.[32]



Mayawati's public meetings are attended by large audiences, using slogans such as "Kanshi Ram ka mission Adhoora; karegi Behen Mayawati poora" (Kanshi Ram's unfulfilled mission will be completed by Mayawati), "Behenji tum sangharsh karo; hum tumhare saath hain" (Sister, go ahead with your struggle; we are with you

http://www.bspindia.org/


http://www.bahujansamajp.com

http://www.ambedkarmemorial.com

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ambedkartimes.com%2F&h=555a7

http://www.ironladykumarimayawati.org

http://www.bamcef.org