Aishwarya Devi
Aishwarya Devi | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Minister of Resource and Land Administration of Gylias | |
| In office 1 February 1990 – 1 February 2012 | |
| Prime Minister | Mathilde Vieira Kaori Kawashima |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 6 June 1960 Kanedras, Kausania, Gylias |
| Political party | Democratic Communist Party |
| Alma mater | University of Mişeyáke |
| Occupation | Actress |
Aishwarya Devi (Gylic transcription: Aişuária Devi; born 6 June 1960) is a Gylian actress, model, and politician. She was Gylias' resource minister in the Mathilde Vieira government and Kaori Kawashima government. Renowned as the most influential resource minister since Neelie op het Mensink, she successfully carried out a difficult policy of reducing consumption for sustainability purposes.
Early life
Aishwarya Devi was born on 6 June 1960 in Kanedras. She came from a family of Tennaiite immigrants; her father worked as a biologist, and her mother worked as a flight attendant for Gyliair. She has an older brother, who works as a naval engineer.
The family moved to Mişeyáke when she was young, where she attended primary and secondary school.
She trained in Tennaiite classical music and dance in her teenage years. She initially considered a career in medicine, as her favourite subject was zoology, but ultimately studied architecture at the University of Mişeyáke, completing a degree.
Artistic career
Aishwarya began working as a model while in university, for additional income. She continued to model after graduating.
She made her acting debut in 1984. Initially, she worked mainly with Tennaiite directors, and traveled frequently to Tennai for work. She said that "Gylian directors saw me as Tennaiite, and Tennaiite directors saw me as Gylian", a quality that was advantageous for her career.
One of her early roles received a negative review from a Tennaiite magazine, which wrote, "All she does is cry and smile and look pretty." She was amused by the review, and cut out a copy of it to display at home, and later in her office.
In parallel with her artistic career, she also found an administrative job at a charitable organisation. The role mainly involved auditing the organisation and ensuring its funding was spent effectively. It was this work that later formed the basis of her appointment to the cabinet.
Enters politics
Aishwarya grew interested in politics in her twenties. She joined the Democratic Communist Party, influenced by the strong left-wing tilt of her native Kausania and adopted Mişeyáke.
She stood as a DCP candidate for a Mişeyáke circonscription in 1985, but was not elected. Despite the setback, she remembered her final position was better than she expected, considering the ongoing struggles of the Progressive Alliance and the wretched decade.
She ran again in 1990, this time for a Kanedras circonscription. Although the PA performed worse overall due to the Non-inscrits' surge, she ran a stronger campaign and finished 4th, managing to get elected.
Minister of Resource and Land Administration
Aishwarya was appointed Minister of Resource and Land Administration in the Mathilde Vieira government, taking office on 1 February 1990. She was an unusual appointment: one of two DCP ministers (alongside Sakura Kusatsu), although the PA was not formally part of the "plural coalition".
She was considered by Mathilde herself to have "one of the toughest and thankless jobs in the cabinet": pursuing a policy of reducing consumption for sustainability purposes, without jeopardising the economic recovery after the wretched decade.
One of her first actions in the cabinet, crucial to her success, was forming a close friendship with finance minister Mireille Boulanger, ensuring that they worked towards the same goal rather than being at odds. Equally important was forming a close collaboration with General Council of Workers' Unions and Associations Secretary-General Patsy Reilly, which secured the partnership of organised labour.
Aishwarya sought to engender a shift towards collaborative consumption and a spirit of mottainai. She studied the career of Neelie op het Mensink for guidance.
With an explicit reintroduction of rationing out of the question after the National Obligation period, Aishwarya used the considerable powers of the Minstry of Resource and Land Administration to achieve similar effects.
She and environment minister Turur Sati spearheaded a range of ecotaxes and stronger regulation to minimise environmental impact, including laws that banned disposable products and a reform of economics studies to emphasise negative externalities, which spread from federal universities to regional and municipal ones.
She coupled her campaign against waste with an emphasis on public luxury, stressing that "individualism is the enemy of the environment". She introduced various tax incentives and breaks to encourage repairable products, repair cafés, carsharing and carpooling, and similar acts of collaborative consumption.
She used the Office of Industrial Production Coordination to consolidate heavy industry and reorient it towards clean technology, assisted by influential partners like Miyashita Industries.
She was retained in the Kaori Kawashima government, before choosing to step down in 2012. Over her two decades in office, she achieved a significant reduction and reorganisation of Gylian domestic consumption, with significant increases in product lifespan, repair, reuse, and recycling. Her work marks one of the high points of the Gylian environmental movement's impact, and served as a foundation for the efforts of the Toni Vallas and Lena Haidynraix governments to achieve a completely circular economy.
Public image
Aishwarya's public image was essential to her success in office. She was relatively obscure when she joined the cabinet, allowing her a "blank slate" to create a complementary image. She joked that Mathilde Vieira "brought me into the cabinet like I was cast in a movie".
She was famous for her extravagant appearance, her trademark being a silver outfit with a large black picture hat. In constructing her public image, she drew inspiration from Neelie op het Mensink, whose similarly flamboyant appearance and jovial personality were crucial to her work as resource minister.
She discussed the logic of her public image in many interviews, such as the following with bavarde:
"Nobody likes a prudish scold — absolutely nobody. I knew when I accepted the portfolio that everything hinged on not coming across like one. I studied how Neelie managed it — she made herself larger than life, came across like the cheerful old aunt. She radiated an energy that said, 'I know it's tough, but we can do it!'. Nobody was ever rude enough to contradict her in public."
"Simply put, my job was to tighten Gylians' belts with a smile…and make them like it, as Neelie would say. Dressing the way I did strengthened the message, odd as it sounds. I basically put myself forward as a hypocrite, not some role model from on high. People sympathise more with hypocrisy — the vice that pays tribute to virtue. It's a bit like helping someone through an addiction: complete abstinence is setting the bar too high, it's totalitarian. Bringing it under control, giving yourself more room is more helpful. Seeing me as I was made it clear to people they wouldn't have to give up beauty or good things completely, just be more careful and thoughtful about how they organised them."
Her public image also took advantage of traditional Gylian impressions of Tennai; she joked that "it's an unpleasant message, but coming from a beautiful Tennaiite woman means Gylians will listen closely."
After politics
Aishwarya retired from parliament in 2012, and returned to her film career.
Private life
She is married, with one child.
She is a practitioner of Hahtta and has been described as "deeply religious". During her term as minister, her rhetoric frequently drew on concepts from Jainism and Buddhism to criticise waste and promote sustainable living.
She has commented on her popular nicknames "Ash" and "Aish": "I don't like being called that, but if I say that too loud it'll make people do it even more. It is what it is."