Mayawati's Maya:

A morning meeting took me to Noida after a gap of six months. What could have been an hour's ride was obviously converted to two. As we strove hard to get to the meeting on time, after spending 8 minutes on each of the 7 red-lights, the consistency of Mayawatis's posters was alarming. In between all the chaos, the madness, the traffic and the labyrinth of roads crossed the pompous display of “Man-n-niya Surbhi Mayawati Ji” posters did everything to infuriate me.

Evidently her media team is doing an excellent job. The posters supported by an campaign on national TV every evening at 8:55 pm on how progressive the state has become in the glorious presence of the “biggest property-broker of the state” ( ref to “The Stinking Land Deals” as published in Tehelka July2011) brings in a sense of angst shared by a commoner like me to see public money and space go to sheer waste.

So I thought why doesn't Mayawati travel to noida not in one of the dozen Pajero's or Land Rovers but in a normal non-laal-bati car (red-light vehicle)..I mean only once she gets time off her ad campaigns and the poster-posing. I am sure even the very ugly plain outfit she poses in must be costing a hefty amount to the state, as her bills for the "official" attire must be at least 10 times their original cost. Even her cheap leather bag must be costing a poor man his year's meal.

Or even better, why doesn’t some really brave soul cover her posters with images of bad roads, hungry eyes scouting for food and plain chaotic images from every-day life?

On my way back the sight of the BR Ambedkar memorial being built on tax-payers money was an added treat to the eyes. The never–ending stretch of land worth Rs 650 crore for which nearly 6000 tress were buried dead, is nothing but a symbol of authority,power, monopoly and supreme hierarchy.

After such prodigal waste of resources while many of the country's “relevant” problems find no solution, it will only be a matter of time till Indian cities see a London situation.

But till then, how can Mayawati's Maya ever be justified??