Why I am Afraid of Mayawati !!!!

Mayawati's historic victory has left me speechless. And scared. Her victory tells me onceagain how I, and people like me, have no voice in Indian politics anymore. We, themiddle-class, educated, semi metro-bred, Christian-education raised, young. We, thebackbone of the knowledge, entreneurial economy. We, who have no representation.We have no voice. We have no one who speaks our language, our idiom.

We are the people who rejoice every time Manmohan Singh takes stage. He is us. He isthe success of education and middle class values rising to the top. Only, shudder, hefailed to win a poll.

We, the non-vote bank. We, who must remember that Manmohan Singh rises becauseof Sonia Gandhi. Because of loyalty to the Family. We, who form no mass base.Actually, you know, if you ask many like me, we are happy to be with the Gandhis andtheir Family-Is-All-ness than the Mayawatis and the Mulayams of the world. The Gandhisspeak our language, they, we hope have our concerns, and they, we hope express it, in our words.

All that might be untrue. But if you go by pure instinct, Rahul and Priyanka, and SheilaDikshit, and Salman Khurshid and Mani Shankar all beat the Amar Singhs of the worldanyday.

Analysts would scoff at such instincts, pundits would ridicule, but is what I'm saying anydifferent from the way people in the villages of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, in fact, in mostparts of small town and rural India vote

Why does a Raja Bhaiya, renowned for throwing bodies of his opponents in a croc-infested pond, so violent and corrupt that he is called Kunda Ka Goonda, win elections?Why does Amar Mani Tripathi, accused of murder, get votes? Because their electoratevote for one of their own. It's the same logic that kept Lalu in power, that allowed him toargue that development is nothing. He brought something more to his voters - he wasone of them, and for those who had been oppressed for centuries, to see one of them inpower, to see a CM who kept buffalos in his backyard was intoxicating. It was a realsense of power. No roads or electricity could beat that.

Mayawati, by the way, does the same. Unabashedly corrupt, one could hardly argue thatshe stands for development. Crime-fighting, yes. Afterall, she was the one who put anend to Raja Bhaiya's goondagiri. But forward planning? Infrastructure ideas? Modernity?Mayawati, alas, is the quintessential behenji.

And people like me, well, we have always disliked the behenjis, now we are scared ofthem. They rule. We have no voice.

Truly, the masses have hit back and how. In fact, in many circumstances, I am almostapologetic about by background. It is sneered at. It is also 'firang', and 'angrez-loving',my love for the world cinema and football and F1 races and the apparel I wear , and,and... and everything, shunned by the Hindi heartland. The people who rule.I have barely a handful leaders to look upon and as parties like the SP and the BSP rise,on a day when Rajdeep Sardesai was discussing if Mayawati could one day becomePM, I am conscious that I have no leader to look up too.

Priyanka Gandhi is far away. Rahul Gandhi has failed. Manmohan Singh is a puppet. Iam aware that were a Lalu or a Mayawati were ever to become PM, I would have tochoose to not to return to the country.

I, part of the first generation in India who have enough opportunities to work abroadanytime they want, and yet want to work at home for less than 1/5th the salary. We wantto do it because we believe we can push this country to great heights. For the first time,opportunities at home seem, though far less lucrative, attractive because we are buildinga nation. A confident nation that will beat the world.

And if we are to do it, we want to see a leader we can look upto. We need to see one ofus. Mayawati cannot and never will be my leader.

This is a country that prides on it English-speaking, entrepreneurial youth. We whorepresent India to the world. But we don't vote do we? And why don't we? Becausethere's no one to vote for! Where is my leader? The truth is, I don't have one. And that,as sophistication deserts our politics, means perhaps I might not return home!!!