Fluorescent laser beams, colourful strobes, young cheer girls dressed in skimpy dresses and flashing their pom poms, blue fairy lights..... the scene is not from any teeny poppers party or from a stadium, which is pronouncing the opening of a friendly football match at night.
It was the celebration, which marked the 54th birthday of the Indian queen of Dalits - popularly addressed as Behenji (sister).
This mild description of the gala event presents only a glimpse of the musical and colourful celebrations, which were organised by the bureaucrats to appease their master - Mayawati - the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.
The broad lane in front of her official residence was washed and fitted with temporary bomb detectors. The long fleets of white Ambassadors with blue beacon lights, made it evident that all bureaucrats of the state were on their duties - bow before the queen if you want to retain your post.
The hall where the chief minister normally holds the press conferences was ornate so garishly that it beat any fat Indian wedding. As the birthday girl makes a grand entry all cameras shift focus and so the bureaucrats vying with each other to be the first one with the best bouquet. Quite predictably, she is dressed in her favourite pink salwar kameez, the neckline of which is flashing her new gold necklace.
various troupes of girls dressed in different attires are waiting for the birthday girl to take her seat. After a formal exchange of pleasantries with a few privileged at the front row, the queen settles in her big sofa (the only sofa covered with a white towel).
The girls from a local chain of school start their singing and dancing. The girls are swaying and gyrating on birthday songs from old Hindi movies and with each song they are eulogising the wonderful schemes launched by Mayawati and the works done by her government in their last three year rule in the state.
The state which is most populous, most backward and most corrupt and which boasts to have the biggest brigade of illiterates and where poverty rules the roost. It has set the records for maximum number of children dying of diarrhoea and reporting high figures of maternal mortality and infant mortality. Women in this state are still giving births to their children on bullock carts on rickshaws and also at hospital steps.
Clean drinking water and uninterrupted power supply remains a distant dream in the state. The hospitals either do not have doctors or if by chance one is lucky to find a doctor, one should thank her/his stars if one finds medicines there. The state still tops the list with maximum number of polio cases. Death of over 300 people every year due to Japanese Encephalitis is considered normal here.
A visit to any village of the state displays that poor in this state are not only suffer from poverty but live in inhuman conditions.
Luckily, our Behenji, the Messiah and Mascot of Dalits understands the problem. That's is why she clarified that from this year her birthday would be observed as ``people-welfare day'' and not as ``party fund day''.
She gave a demonstration of her generosity and announced schemes worth Rs 7,000 crore (70 billion rupees), which included construction of bridges, fly overs, roads, power stations, hospitals and so on. This was not all - Madame exhibited her real generosity by announcing a monthly dole of Rs 300 (US$7-8) for poor people of Uttar Pradesh.
``We have this tradition of giving return gifts to the people of the state on my birthday,'' she proudly said.
Well said M'am! The poor of Uttar Pradesh must be singing - ``Happy birthday to you...'''
