Mayawati rubbishes US cables, calls Assange mad

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Calling WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange ‘mad’, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati on Tuesday rubbished US embassy cables leaked by the online whistleblower that said she had sent a special jet to Mumbai to bring in her favourite sandals.

"These reports are baselesss," Mayawati told reporters here.

She said Assange should be sent to a mental asylum. The cables that portray her as a dictator, she said, were a ploy by some vested interests to malign her image and that of her party.

"They are playing into the hands of opposition parties," she said.

Confidential US embassy cables leaked by WikiLeaks project Mayawati as a dictator who had food tasters to sample her meals and "a security entourage to rival a head of state".

A cable in October 2008 entitled "Mayawati: Portrait of a Lady" describes how she once dispatched a plane to fetch her favourite sandals from Mumbai.

"When she needed new sandals, her private jet flew empty to Mumbai to retrieve her preferred brand," the cable said.