This above all... Squandermania

But you, behen Mayawatiji have outdone all of them on the Silver Jubilee of the Bahujan Samaj Party. You asked your public relations department to take out full page advertisement in all newspapers of India, with half pages devoted to your own picture and the other half for vastly exaggerated claims to development under your benign rule.

And you had yourself garlanded with high denomination currency notes worth crores of rupees. You have had dozens of marble statues of yourself put up in Lucknow and other cities. Has the money collected during the Silver Jubilee been deposited in banks in the name of BSP or is it is in your personal account?

Your past does not inspire confidence. As soon as you became chief minister, you began acquiring large tracts of real estates in different cities, including Delhi. None of it was registered in the name of your party but in your own name or that of your relations. You also bought expensive jewellery to adorn yourself and explained it as gifts given to you by admirers.

As for your admirers, the less said about them the better.  They are a time-serving bunch of sycophants who will bootlick anyone in power.

Just think what you could have done with all the money you collected. Instead of marble status, if you had opened a chain of Mayawati primary and secondary schools, Mayawati free clinics for the stick, Mayawati night shelters for the homeless, etc, your name would have gone down in history as the greatest Dalit leader of India. All you need to do is instead of lending an ear to ‘khushamdi tattoos’ (flattering ponies), listen to the likes of me and the ‘avvaam’ (common people), who honestly wish to see you fulfil the dream of Baba Saheb Ambedkar and Kanshi Ram. Don’t let us down.

Maharaja Dalip singh

Dalip singh, youngest son of Maharaja Ranjit singh, is not on my list of heroes of Sikh history. His mother, Rani Jindan, was the daughter of the royal kennel keeper. I have nothing against her. She was said to have been a great beauty. As a child he was exposed to violence and cold blooded murders of relations and courtiers. That left deep scars on his psyche and warped him for life.

When the Sikh kingdom was annexed by the British in 1849, he was taken hostage and made to hand over the Kohinoor diamond and was put under the guardianship of an English cleric. He converted to christianity, cut off his long hair but kept his beard so that with a turban he could still pass of as a Sikh.

He and his mother were taken to England. He was given a large estate and a handsome pension. He became a great favourite of Queen Victoria and wore her miniature picture in a diamond necklace.

When his mother died, he was allowed to bring her ashes back to India to immerse in the holy Ganga. But, he was not permitted to visit Punjab.

On his way back to England he was shown a bevy of nubile girls in an orphanage in Egypt. He picked Bamba Muller, the illegitimate daughter of a German through an Egyptian woman. She bore him many children.

He lived an extravagant life of self-indulgence. He became a heavy drinker and a glutton, he put on weight, became paunchy and lost whatever good looks he had as a youngman. He ran into heavy debts and began to dream of the unaccountable wealth he was entitled to as Maharaja of Punjab.

He rebelled against Queen Victoria and tried to get the Tsar of Russia to help to regain his crown. Nothing came of it.  

When Bamba died, he took another wife, and moved to Paris. Ultimately he begged Queen Victoria’s pardon. She absolved him of treason, paid off his debts and allowed him to return to the state. He died a miserable death in Paris.

His progeny continued to suffer from delusions of grandeur. Once I wrote to his daughter Bamba Southerland, asking for an interview and inviting her to tea at the Ritz Hotel in London.  She regarded all Sikhs as her subjects and turned down my invitation. Her letterhead from a cottage in Buckinghamshire where she lived on a pension read ‘H R H Princess Bamba Southerland of Punjab, Kashmir and Beyond”.

Dalip Singh’s life is well recorded in ‘The Exile’ by Navtej Sarna, India’s Ambassador in Israel. No matter what the true facts of his life, many Sikhs have nostalgic memories of the rulers of the Sikh Kingdom. The latest example is the publication of ‘Sovereign, Squire, Rebel Maharajah Dalip Singh’ by Peter Bance. Peter’s real name is Bhupinder Singh Bains. Based in London, he specialises in Sikhs diaspora. His earlier book ‘The Sikhs in Britain’ was well-received. His book on Dalip Singh is about the most lavish I have seen. It will be a valuable asset in any library on Sikh history as a collector’s item.