THE DANCE OF DEMOCRACY and WOMEN EMPOWERMENT

Today's Times of India termed the state elections in India as ' the dance of democracy '. It has been reported that out of the total population of 1.21 billion, with the four Chief Ministers - two incoming in the persona of Jayalalitha and Mamta Banerjee in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal respectively and two currently in position - Sheila Dikshit in Delhi and Mayawati in UP, 374.3 million people will come under the administraion in which the women would call the shorts. The forthcoming elections in UP are going to be important. It is to be seen whether Mayawati is able to retain power in the wake of all odds and pitfalls of caste politics. It will be yet another ' wonder of democracy ', as PM Narasimha Rao had put it when Maywati became the Chief Minister of UP for the first time. Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, though adversaries in their life times, would be very happy in the heavens on the changing power scenario in India through democratic ways and means. Yes, it is the dance of democracy.- good for the health of India.

It is gratifying to note that India produced, in the contemporary India, leaders like Sarojni Naidu, Sucheta Kriplani, Indira Gandhi. The threads have been picked up by Sonia , Mayawati, Jayalalitha, Mamta, Dikshit, Meira, Sushma, Shelja and many more. President of India is Pratibha Patil, the Head of State of the largest democracy of the world. It is likely that the next Vice President is also a women. I guess that it could be Meira Kumar, the Speaker of the Lok Sabha. Some of the important and coveted positions in diplomacy are occupied by women like Foreign Secretary Nriupma Rao, Ambassador to the USA Meira Shankar.

Yet another good thing to note and report is that in the Civil Services Examination, the results of which were declared a couple of days before, the first and the second positions in this arena have been snatched by women. The real empowerment is coming and coming fast and rightly so. Columnist M.J. Akbar as termed it, in one of his columns, ' a burst of feminine power not seen in India since Razia Sultan sat on the Delhi throne in the 13th century. So far so good.