INDIA: Ms Vasundhara Raje, a socialite princess, was sworn in yesterday as the first female chief minister of India's macho western Rajasthan state, where fiery Rajput warriors once traditionally burnt their women folk alive in mass cremation ceremonies before battle, to prevent them falling into enemy hands.
"I will work to empower women and to improve the lot of the poor and underprivileged," the 50-year old scion of the Scindia family, the erstwhile rulers of Gwalior of central India, told a massive gathering of tens of thousands of supporters in the state capital, Jaipur, 200 miles west of New Delhi.
They included former Rajput kings in the state capital. With an imperious wave, Ms Raje, who is also the erstwhile maharani of Dholpur, a small principality in Rajasthan, declared that she would realise the "golden dream" she had promised after her Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) scored its biggest victory to date in recent provincial elections. It won a record 120 seats in the 200-member legislative assembly, routing the incumbent Opposition Congress party.
The extremist BJP, that heads the federal coalition, also scored unexpected wins over the Congress party in assembly elections in the nearby central states of Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh, marking a turning point in the country's secular politics. The Congress managed to retain only New Delhi.
BJP insiders concede that victory in state polls would "doubtlessly" result in Party leaders advancing general elections that are due next year.
Showered by rose petals and tinsel from low flying aeroplanes, a beaming Ms Raje told the cheering crowd in her gravelly baritone that her "biggest victory" had been to "enter into" their hearts.
"She is a maharani and will work to improve our lot in the state," housewife Ms Rukumani Devi said in a region where wives became sutee or pure by immolating themselves, often forcibly, on their Rajput husband's funeral pyres until the practice was banned by the colonial administration. That is why we voted for her, she added, confirming that women votes greatly helped Ms Raje gain her spectacular victory.
Earlier, the swearing-in venue was shifted on Ms Raje's command from the usual public ground to the entrance of the imposing sandstone state assembly building that resembles an opulent palace. "She felt it [the new venue] was more in keeping with her royal stature," a local official said. The princess who is a grandmother but estranged from her Maharaja husband, took the oath of office in a ceremony dominated by priests and holy men who decreed 12.12 am as the most propitious moment for her to be sworn in.
Ms Raje, who is a deeply religious Hindu daily spending hours in prayer and meditation, consults family priests before embarking on any new initiative.
"In a feudal state like Rajasthan, Raje was packaged as a maharani and it worked brilliantly," a supporter said. "All it took was for Raje on the election trail to hug somebody, show deference or simply remember names and she was assured of getting their vote," another supporter stated.
Rajasthan's nobility - like that in the rest of India, though de-recognised by federal fiat in 1970 - comprises former maharajas and colourful thakurs or squires who invoke respect bordering on fear from locals.
Political parties exploit this sentiment during elections by fielding former royals as candidates. Around 20 of them having been elected to parliament since India's first election in 1952.
Though Ms Raje's triumph has, for the moment, muffled all criticism of her being female, party insiders said she would be under pressure to show results.
"The Rajput lobby, opposed to her initially, is waiting for her to slip up while Hindu hardliners from her party would not take long to undermine her from within should she not pursue policies to please them," a local BJP leader said.
He said her first trial would be lifting or retaining the ban imposed by the previous administration on the distribution by activists of trishuls (tridents) as a symbol of Hindu militancy to precipitate Hindu hegemony across the state. She also faces empty coffers and a statewide agitation by over one million junior state employees and pensioners to hike wages and pensions.
Ms Uma Bharti, the BJP leader who was responsible for the BJP recording a three-fourth majority in Madhya Pradesh was also sworn in as the first woman chief minister of an equally male-dominated province. Mrs Sheila Dikshit of the Congress party completed the triumvirate of women chief ministers.