'mayawati is anti-obama'

note how newsweek's judgment on mayawati so faithfully mirrors brahminized india's views on her. the international media depends, as i said in this post, very strongly on certain classes of indians to generate content on india- who were providing research and field support for jeremy kahn?

the article says: mayawati is divisive. because her secular record is clean? because she has not engineered any communal riots until now? because her party has not drawn any muslim or hindu blood until now, unlike the two major national parties? in india, the debate on secularism is a gigantic hoax, a clever collaborative effort between the two national parties. a staged debate that never moves beyond arguments on the lines of how the other party has killed more people. mayawati doesn't qualify to participate in this debate, i guess.

mayawati doesn't have an economic policy. more lower caste farmers and weavers and others have committed suicide in the last five years than in any comparable period in indian history- manmohan singh knows economic policy? or advani whose party depends as much, if not more, on astrologers as the planning commission to formulate policy, understands economic policy better?

mayawati doesn't know foreign policy. the phrase foreign policy itself is such an anachronism, redolent of the colonial era. imperial powers have foreign policies, ordinary nations try to forge friendly, on a basis of mutual benefit and on terms of equality, ties with other nations. remember, in the last ten years, the advani and manmohan singh led regimes have pushed india more than once to the brink of war with pakistan.

and if the media wishes to know about mayawati's agenda, her economic and foreign policies, why don't they use a fraction of the sweat they spend on chasing such folks as priyanka gandhi or shashi tharoor or whoever else and try and speak to her?