A POWERFUL Indian politician, known as the “Dalit Queen,” opened on Friday (October 14) a huge memorial complex to herself and other low-caste icons as opponents slammed her extravagance.
The grandiose memorial containing towering statues of heroes of those on the bottom rung of India’s ancient Hindu caste hierarchy was the latest opened by Mayawati, who calls the projects an inspirational “lighthouse” for the poor.
At the sunset ceremony, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state and one of the country’s most deprived, struck back at critics who accused her of self-glorification.
“All the parties have got together to conspire against me and malign me and my party’s image,” the populist leader who styles herself as a saviour of the poor, told thousands of supporters at the televised ceremony.
Mayawati, 55, arrived by helicopter and was surrounded by heavy security at the “statue park” in Noida outside the national capital which has been constructed on a sprawling scale to rival monuments of ancient Rome.
The vast sums Mayawati has spent on marble, granite and sandstone statue parks that are scattered around the state of poverty-hit Uttar Pradesh, according to legal suits filed against her, has appalled critics.
“This money should have been diverted to (improving) schools, health, medical care,” Renuka Chowdhury, a senior leader of the ruling national Congress party, told NDTV. “This extravagance is vintage Mayawati.”
Uttar Pradesh opposition Samajwadi Party spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary called the statue park “immoral and condemnable”.
Mayawati, who must face voters in state elections next year, told the crowd that 99 per cent of the $140m (£88.54m) cost had come from “donations” from well-wishers.
The Noida park contains over dozens of outsize statues mounted on huge plinths, including those of Mayawati’s mentor, Kanshi Ram, who brought her into politics and founded the Bahujan Samaj Party which she now leads.
There is also BR Ambedkar, the low-caste Hindu or Dalit who framed India’s constitution.
Mayawati, too, is immortalised in stone carrying her trademark handbag along with many giant statues of elephants – symbols of her party.
