Chief Minister Kumari Mayawati Das of Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, reportedly paid around 260 million rupees (US$5.2 million) in income tax for the fiscal year 2007-08, making her the highest taxpayer among India’s politicians. However, she is no businesswoman. She is a politician, and her capricious rise from rags to riches speaks for the kind of democracy and politics practiced in India.

Since assuming the chief minister’s post on May 13, 2007, Mayawati and her Bahujan Samaj Party have come a long way from humble beginnings. The daughter of a clerk in the telecommunications department, she now aspires to be India’s next prime minister.

The BSP contested state elections by harnessing the votes of Dalits – people traditionally regarded as untouchables, outcastes or of low caste. Mayawati, a Dalit herself, has been claiming that her party and the Uttar Pradesh state government she leads are actively involved in meliorating the living conditions of the Dalit community.

The BSP, which claims to be working for revolutionary social and economic change to realize “the supreme principles of universal justice, liberty, equality and fraternity enunciated in the Constitution of India,” has, however, achieved nothing much on these fronts. Like most of its counterparts in the country, the party is preoccupied more with the welfare of the people who control the party than the welfare of ordinary people.

Uttar Pradesh, which covers around 243,286 square kilometers, occupies one-third of India’s highly fertile Gangetic plain. Yet it is one of the most backward states of India and home to an estimated 190 million people. The backwardness of the state owes much to its elected representatives. Individuals having criminal antecedents ranging from charges of corruption, murder, rape and robbery, occupy 100 out of the 403 seats in the state assembly.

Mayawati herself is accused of corruption involving US$40 million, in the infamous Taj Corridor case – a scam project undertaken during her tenure as chief minister to upgrade tourist facilities near the Taj Mahal.

The state underperforms on various fronts below the national average. For example, the literacy rate is 57 percent for the state, as opposed to the national average of 65 percent. India’s population stabilization solely rests on two states, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Yet, Uttar Pradesh has a population growth rate of 25.8 percent against the national average of 23.8 percent.

Even according to the state government, in terms of social development indicators like medical facilities,teacher-student ratio in primary schools, death rate, infant mortality rate, literacy, per capita income, electrification of villages and per capita power consumption, the state currently lags behind other parts of the country. Nothing tangible was achieved in the state to change the status quo after Mayawati formed the current government in May 2007.

What is visible, however, is the omnipresence of statues and decorations in urban areas, particularly in cities, where huge statues of Mayawati are erected. Criticisms against her or a member of her government is responded to with stiff resentment, claiming them to be rumors spread by the upper caste or the opposition.

It is however true that the current administration will have a tough way forward if the government is at all serious about addressing the people’s needs. The state bureaucracy has a few decades of corruption, nepotism and criminality to shed. To remove this will take time, as it is deeply rooted in the system. Of particular importance is the rampant practice of corruption. Every aspect of public life in the state is under the influence of corruption.

The BSP, like many other political parties in the country, is known to demand “donations” from the rich and the poor alike. Those who pay big amounts expect to receive favors from the government.

Corruption percolates from the top to the lowest levels of the administration. For example, it is common for the government licensees like Public Distribution System agents to sell food grains on the black market. So food grains supplied to PDS shops by the government for distribution to the poor never reach the intended population.

The effect of this form of corruption is devastating, particularly in rural areas where the poor live. The state police, an agency mandated to take action against this, are equally or even more corrupt. It is public knowledge that recruitment and promotion in the state police, particularly for the lower and middle ranks, is made after paying huge amounts in bribes. It is equally known that the majority of officers soon start recouping the money by demanding and accepting bribes.

A similar state of apathy exists in state-run health centers. Government hospitals are understaffed and ill equipped. In rural areas, public health service centers remain closed mostly throughout the year, denying health services to poor villagers. Schools are also equally understaffed. Some government schools remain closed or remain in a nonfunctional state, as the infrastructure is not safe to house children.

The poor in villages mostly face the brunt of this administrative neglect. The state has a predominantly rural population, of which an estimated 11 percent is unaccounted due to caste prejudices and errors in census data. The state is home to malnutrition, starvation and high mortality rates. A high percentage of those who face this harsh reality are members of the Dalit community.

Almost 90 percent of Dalits work as landless agricultural laborers. Yet when the central government initiated discussions on a national land reform policy and law, Mayawati’s BSP was in the forefront to oppose the move. A national land reform law with statutory limitations on individual and collective land holdings would help to improve the living conditions of the poor.

A state like Kerala, where such policies have long been in force, has proved that land reforms not only reduce poverty, but also have the potential to end caste-based discrimination.

Against this backdrop, Mayawati and her government are preparing for a statewide celebration of the government’s third year in office. An estimated 1 billion rupees (US$19.9 million) will be spent for building monuments by the state administration in the coming years. The question is whether the monuments will be remembered as the glory of a Dalit leader or as ghosts of her reckless administration?