KUMARI MAYAWATI
	• Chief Minister, Uttar Pradesh (Fourth-time) • National President, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) • Member of Uttar Pardesh Legislative Council

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	FACTS OF MY STRUGGLE AS NARRATED BY MANYAWAR KANSHI RAM JI & OTHERS
	Born as a girl in a middle class family, and that too in Dalit society, I had to wage a daily struggle. This struggle was to oppose meaningless and conservative social customs and rituals and also to acquire education to brighten my future. I could have achieved this on my own, without seeking guidance from anyone, on the strength of my dedication, hard work and a tenacious desire to achieve greatness in life. But then, it would have benefited me alone and not the society, collectively. It was at this juncture of my life that help came from God, and I was extremely fortunate in getting the guidance and leadership of Manyawar Kanshi Ram Ji. It signalled the beginning of a new and unforgettable chapter of struggle, which was geared towards improving the lot of the society and the humanity. I had to encounter a number of problems when I started working through 'BAMCEF' (All-India Backward (SCs, STs and OBCs) and Minority Communities Employees Federation) in 1977. But the problems I faced and the fight that I put up to remove the obstacles in my way are particularly significant for creating consciousness in the Bahujan Samaj and for its social transformation and economic liberation.      Hard work never goes in vain - this is axiomatic and a universal truth. The journey of my political struggle began at a relatively young age of 21. Seven years later, our political party, the Bahujan Samaj Party, came into existence on April 14, 1984. Then its ambit of struggle further expanded. Because of my untiring efforts and tremendous zeal, when I became the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh for the first time in 1995, I was merely 39 then. At that time, I was neither a member of the Legislative Assembly nor of the Legislative Council. Prior to it, I did not have also any administrative experience of running a government. Yes, I had some knowledge of the functioning and rules and procedures of the legislature as I was elected a Member of Parliament in 1989. Yet my tenure as chief minister impressed a number of people. A major section of the intelligentsia also took special note of the constitution of my government and my policy initiatives to strengthen and streamline the system of governance, and they made efforts to publicise it at the grassroots level through their books and commentaries. These are now a part of history, and I am grateful to them for this. But I don't find it implausible to point out here that my persona and my administration were not depicted in the contemporary history with the amount of accuracy and truthfulness it deserved. It rather betrayed the age-old and deep-seated animosity of the 'Manuwadi' forces ranged against the Bahujan Samaj. Elaborate efforts were made to distort my image and my style of functioning. I am grateful to renowned author Shashi Thoroor, an internationally acclaimed intellectual who was also an important official of the UN Secretary General, for making a prominent reference to me in his famous book, entitled "From Midnight to the Millennium". The book, which was published on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of India's independence, was read throughout the world. It refers to my emergence as a reckoning force in the political firmament of Uttar Pradesh, which has the dubious distinction of being an intensely conservative state. It talks about the rising tide of social transformation in the state and that the baton of the leadership of such a gigantic task has come into the hands of Ms. Mayawati, a lady belonging to the 'Dalit Samaj', which is known as 'untouchable' in the East. Shashi Thoroor, in a chapter in the book - "Scheduled Castes, Unscheduled Change - informs the world: "And 'Backward' and Dalit politicians have not just come to power in an unprecedented number of States, with an untouchable woman, Ms Mayawati, of the Bahujan Samaj Party (Majority People's Party) briefly ruling India's most populous and tradition-bound state, Uttar Pradesh, in the Gangetic heartland, but they also control the Central Government for the first time". (Page 108). This book was written in 1997 at a time when I had become the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh just once. Since then, the caravan of the social revolution under my leadership has been steadily moving forward. There is also an imperative need to take note of this development, which may help in obliterating the rampant and pervasive social and economic disparities in the society. Similarly, Mohammad Jamil Akhter, then working as a journalist with the United News of India (UNI), was so impressed with my works as chief minister that he wrote a 450-page book, "Iron Lady Kumari Mayawati". This book was launched by Bahujan Samaj Party founder, Manyawar Kanshi Ram Ji, at a grand function in Delhi on April 14, 1999 to mark the birth anniversary of Baba Saheb Dr. Ambedkar. Manyawar Kanshi Ram Ji, who is imbued with a scientific temperament, agreed to write the foreword to this book after great deliberations and weighing the pros and cons of it. In his long years of life, it was for the first time that he wrote the foreword of a book. In his foreword, Manyawar Kanshi Ram Ji has made an elaborate reference to all the problems I had to encounter in my political life. He has also mentioned how in a male-dominated society, I had to face rebellion from my own associates and colleagues and how they became jealous of me when I started delivering goods for the party. In fact, the "foreword'' gives a glimpse of my struggle against all the odds stacked up against me in my social and political life. Thus, Manyawar Kanshi Ram Ji, whom I reverentially call as "Saheb", has brought into public domain the bitter facts of my struggle in his brief foreword to the book. We all know that Manyawar Kanshi Ram Ji exercises utmost caution and restraint in lauding anyone because he gets least impressed even by tall personalities. Nonetheless, before writing the foreword to the book, "Iron Lady Kumari Mayawati", he held detailed discussions with its author Jamil Akhter, and also relied upon his own logical thinking. I can  say with a feeling of pride that the foreword he wrote - the only one in his life till death - succinctly encapsulates my life, the struggles in the early phase, the ups and downs in my political life and the spectacular successes of the party because of my untiring efforts. It is a masterly piece of writing because it has been written in a scientific manner and it also compresses the facts in a few pages. I feel myself really fortunate to continue to be associated with a mentor like him, who possesses a large heart, noble ideas, farsightedness and scientific temperament. His thought about the Bahujan Samaj was a product of his scientific thinking, which has immensely contributed in launching a sustained fight against the inhuman "Manuwad" system, the springboard of all evils in the country.
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