Maya PSO, a gallantry medal winner, stoops to clean her sandals

LUCKNOW: A President's gallantry medal winner, posted on Mayawati's security detail, was captured on camera stooping to wipe the dust off her sandals. The opposition tried to make an issue out of this but the state cabinet secretary said the officer was only performing his duty.
Mayawati had just landed in Auraiya on Sunday from her chopper on a routine inspection when deputy superintendent of police Padam Singh took out his handkerchief and cleaned the chief minister's footwear.The incident took place in Naunipur village just as Mayawati began talking to district officials. Padam Singh is Mayawati's personal security officer and the sequence was captured on camera and subsequently played up by local channels.
UP cabinet secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh said, "He (Padam Singh) noticed some muck so it was his instant reaction to bow down and clean it otherwise the chief minister could have fallen while stepping on to the helicopter. It was his natural reaction and in no way sycophancy as aired by some news channels. The chief minister did not ask the security officer to clean her footwear."
Padam Singh is part of Mayawati's security team for over two decades. He retired in 2010 but was given an extension. He got the president's medal in 2004 after an Azamgarh court applauded his courage in fighting off a band of dacoits despite being shot at aboard a train on September 30, 2003. All the outlaws were arrested.
Singh's name also figures in the list of the first three senior police officers decorated with the special Utkrisht Sewa Medal instituted by Mayawati during the early days (August 2007) of her regime. He was first deputed as the part of Z category security assigned to Kanshi Ram after Mayawati first became the CM in June 1995. Since then, he has never been out of Maya's security ring and was her PSO even when she was out of power.
The opposition trained its guns on Mayawati. "It's a shame, but not surprising. It reflects her feudal attitude," said SP state president Akhilesh Singh Yadav.