1:16 pm
Jack
Enraged over WikiLeaks report, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati today called the website owner mad and offered to put him in Agra asylum. Dismissing the report, Mayawati said, "What WikiLeaks has said about me is baseless and the report shows anti-Dalit mindset." "I strongly condemn the politics over WikiLeaks report, the owner might be working with our opponents. With the assembly polls next year, I ask my partymen not to pay heed to such reports," she said.
They said Mayawati celebrated her birthday each year by receiving millions of dollars in gifts from "sycophantic party members, civil servants and business people" while officials vie for a chance to feed her cake.
"When she needed new sandals, her private jet flew empty to Mumbai to retrieve her preferred brand," a cable dated October 23, 2008 reported, adding she employed food tasters to guard against poisoning.
"She constructed a private road from her residence to her office, which is cleaned immediately after her multiple vehicle convoy reaches its destination," the cable said in an analysis of her "eccentricities, whims and insecurities".
It added an account of Mayawati making a state minister do sit-ups in front of her as punishment for a minor protocol error, and reported it cost $250,000 to run as a BSP parliamentary candidate due to "institutionalized corruption".
