Indian politician hits out at 'mad' WikiLeaks boss in corruption row

A leading Indian politician has lashed out at the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, saying he is either insane or being used as a tool of her opponents for releasing US embassy cables that describe her as megalomaniac and corrupt.

An October 2008 cable called Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, a powerful leader of the nation's lowest caste "untouchables", a "virtual paranoid dictator" who once sent a private jet to Mumbai to pick up a new pair of sandals. The cable said Mayawati had institutionalised corruption throughout India's most populous state, charged potential candidates £150,000 to run for parliament on her party's ticket and was obsessed with becoming prime minister. Similar allegations have been often been made by her political opponents too, but she has consistently denied them.

Mayawati told reporters the Wikileaks accusations were "malicious, incorrect and obscene". "From this it appears that the owner of WikiLeaks has either gone mad or else this person has played into the hands of parties who oppose us and deliberately want to tarnish the image of our party and government," said Mayawati, who uses only one name. She called for Mr Assange to be sent to a mental asylum either in his home country of Australia or in Uttar Pradesh, and called news reports about the cables "dirty politics" and an attempt to besmirch India's untouchables, or dalits.

In a statement, Mr Assange replied: "Mayawati has betrayed the rational thought. The question is, has she also betrayed the dalit? The allegations within them are made by US diplomats in their private communications back to (US Secretary of State) Hillary Clinton. If Chief Minister Mayawati has a problem with the contents of these communications, she needs to take it up with Hillary. I ask that Mayawati admit her error and apologise."

Mayawati has been criticised for excessive displays of wealth and power in a state rife with poverty. Last year, she was photographed inside a gargantuan garland made of 1,000 rupee notes estimated to total more than £600,000. She has also spent millions on statues of herself and other dalit heroes, while the roads and health infrastructure of the state lie in tatters.

The US embassy cable quoted local journalists as saying that Mayawati employed nine cooks and two food tasters. She demanded personal security equivalent to a head of state and had a private road built between her home and office that was cleaned every time her extensive motorcade used it.