Word: birthday
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...image dripping with symbolism - and cake crumbs. When Mayawati Kumari, Chief Minister of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, turned 52 in January, aides and civil servants took turns to finger-feed her scoops of a 115-pound (52 kg) chocolate birthday cake at a party in the state capital Lucknow. The image of mostly high-caste men feeding a Dalit (formerly "Untouchable") woman was an incredibly powerful one in a country where discrimination based on caste has been banned for more than half a century but where many of the old barriers and prejudices endure. Just in case Mayawati...
...That may have to change - and fast. Mayawati's message on her birthday, as it has been since her Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) won a clear majority in India's biggest state 10 months ago, is that she will use her popularity there to become an important player on the national stage at the next general election. Given the fractured nature of Indian politics, that poll, due by early 2009 at the latest, is unlikely to produce any single winner. If Mayawati and the BSP can win 40 or 50 seats in the 552-member lower house - a real possibility...
...founder Kanshi Ram. She also wants to spend billions of dollars on a highway running beside the Ganges and has plans for a shopping mall next to the Taj Mahal. Such huge projects appeal to her supporters not only because they provide thousands of jobs but because, like her birthday parties, they project an image of Dalit power and wealth...
...possibility of an early election, Mayawati has held a series of rallies around the country and has begun testing her political weight, perhaps to see how far she can go. On March 31, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi criticized Mayawati for not running Uttar Pradesh properly. Yet on her birthday, both Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was in China at the time, had made sure to call Mayawati to wish her well. After all, they might need her support in a matter of months...
...already were alleging voting irregularities. What's more, even if Mugabe were to lose, Zimbabwe's army commander, General Constantine Chiwenga, has vowed that the army will keep him in power. Still, before the election Mugabe and his circle sounded nervous. In an interview on state television on his birthday last month, Mugabe lashed out at Makoni, saying "a prostitute could have done better ... because she has clients." The task of overseeing the polls is being handed to 60,000 teachers in state schools, leading some to believe that the election is likely to be cleaner than in the past...