Indian low-caste leader says statues of herself reflect popular will

Published April 2, 2019
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati waves to her supporters during an election campaign rally. ─ Reuters/File
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati waves to her supporters during an election campaign rally. ─ Reuters/File

A powerful leader of India's low-caste community on Tuesday told a court that setting up dozens of statues of herself reflected the will of the people to honour her and others at the bottom of the rigid Hindu caste hierarchy.

Mayawati, an icon of the Dalits and a four-time chief minister of the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, has been an aggressive campaigner for the rights of the oppressed, vowing to shake the stranglehold of India's upper castes on politics.

As leader of the state, she spent millions of dollars on memorial parks featuring life-sized marble and sandstone statues of elephants, her party symbol, Dalit icons and herself, evoking figures from history who built monuments as their legacies.

Mayawati, who ended her last term in office in 2012 but is bidding to play a key national role in general elections this month, said the statues were built with the support of lawmakers who wanted to respect a low-caste woman leader.

“Certainly I could not go contrary to the wishes of the state legislators,” she said in a signed statement to a court that is weighing a request from her critics for permission to demolish the statues as a waste of public funds.

People attend an election campaign rally of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati. ─ Reuters/File
People attend an election campaign rally of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati. ─ Reuters/File

Mayawati leads the Bahujan Samaj Party that has forged an alliance with a regional group to pose a challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Hindu nationalist party in general elections that start on April 11.

She called the case against her politically motivated and “gross abuse” of the court process, and asked why other parties' expenditure of public funds for similar causes had not prompted questions from her critics.

She cited the example of a $400-million statue of independence hero Vallabhbhai Patel that Modi inaugurated last year and which is nearly twice the height of New York's Statue of Liberty.

When she governed Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati blanketed hundreds of acres of prime real estate in Lucknow, the state capital, and elsewhere in pink marble and sandstone monuments.

The memorials are a major tourist attraction in Lucknow and entry tickets generate huge daily revenue for the state, she added in her statement.

Opinion

Editorial

Geopolitical games
Updated 18 Dec, 2024

Geopolitical games

While Assad may be gone — and not many are mourning the end of his brutal rule — Syria’s future does not look promising.
Polio’s toll
18 Dec, 2024

Polio’s toll

MONDAY’s attacks on polio workers in Karak and Bannu that martyred Constable Irfanullah and wounded two ...
Development expenditure
18 Dec, 2024

Development expenditure

PAKISTAN’S infrastructure development woes are wide and deep. The country must annually spend at least 10pc of its...
Risky slope
Updated 17 Dec, 2024

Risky slope

Inflation likely to see an upward trajectory once high base effect tapers off.
Digital ID bill
Updated 17 Dec, 2024

Digital ID bill

Without privacy safeguards, a centralised digital ID system could be misused for surveillance.
Dangerous revisionism
Updated 17 Dec, 2024

Dangerous revisionism

When hatemongers call for digging up every mosque to see what lies beneath, there is a darker agenda driving matters.