Statutes and statues: Mayawati gets Supreme Court nod for sprawling memorial park
Every powerful politician deliberates their legacy. For Mayawati, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh state and one of the country’s most recognizable politicians, hers will be set in stone.
Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of stone statues, to be precise. Ridiculed by some quarters of the media for her seemingly exorbitant narcissism, she was granted the right to continue construction of a 34-acre memorial park by the Supreme Court on Friday, after staring down mounting criticism over the size of the so-called ‘memorial’ budget from the coffers of one of India’s poorest and least developed states.
Dubbed the “Untouchable Queen” for her success in championing the cause of Dalits, one of India’s former backward castes, and turning their support into numbers at the ballot box, Mayawati has ruled over India’s most populous state since sweeping to power in the 2007 elections.
Mayawati was summoned by the Supreme Court in June of last year after her decision to spend a reported $425 million of state funds on statues of Dalit heroes, including herself, was challenged.
In January, after reportedly shelling out 60 billion rupees ($1.3 billion) on statues and memorials throughout the impoverished state, the chief minister tabled a state government motion to form a 1,000-officer strong statue protection force.
India’s highest court, which is currently deliberating cases pertaining to the liability of the Prime Minister in a $39 billion telecoms scandal and the extent to which the country’s privacy laws can be wielded by multi-billionaire industrialists, passed down its verdict after over 12 months of consideration.
Environmental groups have expressed their distaste for the ruling as nearby residents bemoan the “absolute waste of money”.
Mayawati’s public display of wealth or affection?
Garlands of flowers have been a standard greeting for politicians in India. Ceremonies and inaugurations with a political leader as chief guest mean more prosperity to florists than anyone else.
Most of these garlands get swept aside or badly crushed. But not the one recently presented to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati.
The several metres long garland made up of 1,000 rupee notes is now garnering scrutiny from Income Tax sleuths of the country.
Mayawati’s detractors strongly believe that this wanton display of wealth by her party subverts the tenets of the Indian Constitution.
What further stokes the anger of critics is the Uttar Pradesh government’s incapacity to look after victims of a tragedy while continuing to spend large sums of money on towering statues and party functions.
The chief minister had recently drawn flak from several quarters for being unable to provide compensation to families of as many as 65 people who died in a stampede after a temple gate collapsed in her state.
Many in the country, including leaders from opposition parties, suggest that Mayawati should be charged on count of misallocating funds from the exchequer’s coffers.
ys, so bhenji showed what is she is upto now as we can see there not so much development in UP’s villages so by wearing those garlands of notes showing as the party fund clearly shows mayawati’s boastnes about herself and her party
Is caste behind the killing in Vienna and riots in Punjab?
Why did the murder of a preacher in a Sikh temple in Vienna spark riots in the faraway Indian state of Punjab, in which thousands took to the streets to torch cars, trains and battle security forces?
The root cause may lie in India’s caste system that Sikhism officially rejects, but that still grips swathes of India’s billion-plus people, including in Sikh-dominated Punjab state in northwestern India.
“Via Vienna, Sikh caste war returns, sets Punjab aflame” ran the headline of the Hindustan Times.
The preacher, Guru Sant Rama Nand, 57, was killed in a gurdwara in the Austrian capital in an attack by six men armed with knives and a gun.
He was from the Dera Sach Khand, a religious sect separate from mainstream Sikhism that has a large support base of Indian Dalits, or “untouchables”, and other lower castes.
The leader of Dera Sach Khand, Guru Sant Niranjan Das, 68, was wounded in the attack.
The thousands who went on the rampage in Punjab on Monday were mainly Dalits. Authorities have imposed a curfew in parts of the state, in which three protesters died on Monday in clashes with security forces.
No it is not caste but it is organised terror . Certain individuals do not want peace to prevail . A handful of them are taking law into their hands and trying to blemish Sikhism , the mots tolerant of Religions .Online Books On Sikh History
Will Mayawati’s Brahmin card work this time?
Much has been written about Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati’s inventive politics that saw her forging an unlikely alliance between Dalits and Brahmins — from the two ends of the Hindu caste spectrum — to win an election in Uttar Pradesh in 2007.
She did this with a promise to widen the appeal of her party beyond her traditional Dalit voters and bring Brahmins and other upper castes into her programme of all-round development.
As proof, she gave tickets to scores of Brahmins in 2007 and appointed a Brahmin (Satish Misra) as her chief adviser and strategist.
The move paid rich dividends, securing an absolute majority for her party in a state that last saw single-party rule almost two decades ago.
It also bolstered the chances of her party in the general election. She began being spoken of as a potential prime minister.
But two years have since passed, and there is speculation that all may not be well with Mayawati’s social engineering.
A report says the alliance between Dalits and Brahmins could be fraying at the edges.
Dear Friends as I belongs to UP an I am seeing UP very nearly in past 20-30 years no development of villages as well. And only blame game is going on so at all I am not happy wit this government.and she also a dalitbrahman because she is doing same as brahmans hd done in past .she is only copying and when anybody copy and take revenge the person is not fit to rule.
She has no ideology.
And some f my friends have said that UP is developing so I would like to inform them that India’s growth rate is 7.5 % As compared to UP’s growth rate is 2.67% and it is only in western UP.
Thanks.
