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and while she was making this statement:

In a shocking incident, a woman was on Monday allegedly raped in a moving train by its guard and his two accomplices, official sources in Firozabad said. The woman, hailing from Lucknow, was allegedly raped in the 4024 Kalindi Express between Ghaziabad and Aligarh stations (in Uttar Pradesh) by the guard Mohan Singh and his two accomplices, the sources said.


http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/apr/14rail.htm

I guess Dalit CMs don’t need to protect women.

Nope - not at all - The winning recipe is to pick a caste or a religion - bash it all you can - create divisions within people - reap the windfall of casteist and communitarian votes :(

What’s quite amusing about Mayawati’s comments is the glorification of ‘Victorian’ Buddhism—the rational, non-ritualistic, egalitarian faith projected by 19th century Brits onto the Indian past. And while some aspects of Buddhism may be (legitimately) interpreted in this manner, pukka Buddhists—clerics as well as laymen—of all eras enjoyed wallowing in all sorts of irrational, ritualistic and inegalitarian practices.

Ok, folks I don’t see the harm in this. If anything change and adaption indicates a living organic religion vs. a rigid brittle faith. Do I need to provide sorry examples of the latter?

There are evils in Hinduism. While we might debate that the positive aspects outweight the negative, but dissolution of the negatives will burnish its appeal to the masses for a long while and also bring some balance to its sense of social justice.

We know that caste based insitutions cannot be mandated away by legislating them out of existence. It took a good 100 years after the abolishing of slavery for the blacks in the this country to build grassroot awareness among whites of the unfairness of discrimination. That widespread (though not universal) grassroot support lead to the civil rights act. It was another 15 years before changes really became apparent.

The evils of caste (and I am aware there are positives too) are an societal evil. Social awareness should precde political action. If Mayawati can prod the Hindu pontiffs (whatever that means) to whack away at the evil the caste system propagates then we should be supporting her.

Sure, the style and the messenger could both use some work but are we talking about Mayawati the person or the content of the message?

K.P -
Hard to quantify - but the water buffaloes in Buddhism have taken relatively fewer rolls in the muddy pools of irrationality then any other religion. I am not aware of what role the British played (if any) in resurrecting Buddhism in India. However Buddhism hewed more to the path of rationality then most other religions did after the big daddy had gone to the pad in the sky.

JK -
Come on this is UP, one of the Bimaru-4. Rape, pillage, casteism and corruption are everyday specials in these parts. Before Mayawati were there were fewer rapes? After she is gone from power will the rate of sexual assault fall? Have other UP CMs done a better job at crime reduction then her? You are interjecting the factoid of a heinous crime to detract from the substance of the message. Sure - shoot the messenger - I will provide the bullets - but atleast hear out the message.

If Laloo pointed out the absudities of India’s Pakistan’s policy and proposed an sensible alternative (not that he will but for the hypo lets posit that he does) - will you then shoot down the message because the messenger is the biggest scamster, corrupt, nepotist, crude, loud and crass politican in India or will you listen to his message because it has some value?

Here, I think the intent matters more than the message.

Perhaps Sameer, perhaps.

Consider, however, the forces of evangelism besieging Hindu Dharma on all sides.

Evangelical christanity - loony Bible thumpin Southern Baptists to traditional Catholic charities with their seductive good works siren.

The forces of Islam every lurking beneath the undercurrent to make other people fall on the sword.

Finally, the latent potential of Buddhism. Nevermind that embracing Buddhism is more of an “fsck you” statement then an societal empowerment or embracement of the spiritual side of classical Buddhism.

Hinduism should reform. What is heartening is that reforms needed are not fundamental - we are not talking about changing the Vedas, Puranas or the Gita. We are talking about the latter day corruption of the kind introduced by Manu smriti, when the established classes used the force of religion to institutionalize their power base.

I demand that the evil that is Mayawati be removed from this planet, or I will switch to atheism.

Oh wait, I’m already there.

LOL, MadMan!

UncleDuke - all terrific points and I will not argue with them. I completely agree that there are some really bad elements in Hinduism that needs to reformed. What I find funny about Mayawati is the ultimatum. Religion and society take time to change, and I think we are already seeing some movement in the direction of reform in Inida. But when she says - “change now, or else”, who is she trying to scare? If you read a little more into the article, it says that her people were carrying banners saying “Dalits are good and Yadavas are bad” (paraphrase).

Like Sameer said, I think her intent is in no way to reform anything - she would most certainly lose her vote bank if she did. She is just using it as a rallying cry for her supporters. If she were really that interested in reform, I would challenge her to lead by example and renounce all casteist politics. I know that is too much to ask.

I agree that Mayawati is not truly interested in the ‘reform’ of Hinduism—she’s merely seeking to exploit the tensions in Indian society. Indeed, I too think she would be sorely disappointed if she could no longer exploit caste divisions for political gain.

Uncle Duke, I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree. By the index of what counts as ‘rational’ in Mayawati’s circle, there is no differnce in kind between traditional Hindusim and Buddhism [including that of Buddha]. To reiterate, Mayawati and her ilk admire a 19th century British fantasy of Buddha as a temperate, rational Victorian gent.

However, I want to underline that many Hindu [and Buddhist] practices are mistakenly labeled ‘irrational’.

Good article, UncleDuke - but then I think the current Gandhi family is as hypocritical, if not more so than Mayawati (actually, they are more hypocritical), so I guess I am an equal-opportunity hater :)

shree maan ji maine mayawati ke naam chalisha likhaa tha yab wah mukhyamantri the tabhee likhaa thaa lekin abhee tak mai maya wati ke paas nahee bhej sakaa agar aap yah chalisha uanake tak pahuchaane yah paper me chhapawane ki kirpaa karne ka katya karnaa
dhanyawaad

Note: yah chalisha webdunia.com (apanamanch) par maya chalisha ke naam se hai