UP Chief minister demands Rs 500 crore plus for more statues and monuments even as 47 drought hit districts in UP are earmaked a paltry Rs 250 crores for drought relief

Obsessions can be life long. For Mayawati, the UP Chief Minister they certainly seem to be and the same for me. And so while it is no longer a secret that she has a penchant for statues and parks I seem to be fast developing a similar strain of obsession: to expose and write everytime she does something that overrides public welfare and states development at large.

Elsewhere too reams of newsprint and precious space on blogosphere has been consumed by this ‘kink’ of hers. However, the lady seems to be unruffled by all the legal scrutiny and social criticism that has been heaped on her.

She insensitively ordered the cutting of thousands of trees in and around sector 16 A, Noida to make way for her statues and that of other Dalit icons in India. But yesterday she transcended all limits of properiety and political obligations when her government, while presenting the budget for the current financial year, gave a shameful go by to the drought-like situation in many parts of the state and instead sought Rs 528.20 crores for erecting more statues and creating more parks!

This sounds even more absurd as the government is looking towards the union government for money and funds to tackle the drought and has just allocated Rs 250 crores for drought relief measures. Political observers are stunned into silence on the shameless extension of one’s own dreams at the cost of a larger electorate’s welfare. If one goes through the draft paper of demands in the Budget document, it details how mandarins in the government are pursuing an agenda of pleasing the Dalit Diva even as the drought stares right into the eyes of the state.

With below rainfall in almost every part of the state, the state government has declared more than 40 districts including Deoria, Ambedkarnagar, Jaunpur, Mau, Unnao, Ballia, Sant Kabirnagar, Basti, Hardoi, Sultanpur, Fatehpur, Rai Bareily, Ghazipur, Kannauj, Bareilly, Mainpuri, Farrukhabad, Kanpur Dehat, Kanshiramnagar and Hathras.

THE government however seems unruffled. Sample this: in the budget she has raised a fresh demand for Rs 528 crore for more statues in the Rs 7,559 crore supplementary budget tabled before the state assembly here. Rs 19.56 crores has been sought for construction of the Kanshiram memrial near the Jail road in Lucknow, Rs 35.73 crores for petty works around the memorial, Rs 57.80 crore for development and beautification of Kashiram Memorial park and its adjoining areas, Rs 57.67 crores for “permanent longetivity” of the Dr BR Ambedkar Social Change site at Gomtinagar, Rs 200 crores for an eco park around the memorial at Jail road, RS 56.30 crores for development of the Ramabai Ambedkar park park and Rs 20 crore for overall development of the state capital (read rerection of more statues, stone, denuding green).

And the ‘Hall of Shame’ does not end here. Read on: The state Culture department has sought Rs 26.75 crores separately for more statues and murals at Kanshiram memorial. The said memorial has been redone twice in the last four years or less. The state government armed with a SC ruling has since consumed what was once the ‘Model Jail’ of Lucknow. The story of plundering of states exchequer ad blatant extravagance still goes on. After the new plane she acquired for herself early this year she wants another chopper for self - this time the state has been asked to take a Rs 10 crore bill for it!

In one of his highly inspired observations, writer Khushwant Singh had called all this ” delusions of grandeur” and “vulgar worship”. I would for one agree totally with the ageing writer. Most people, many who do not seem to stand her personally, had seen her rise in Indian politics as some sort of a hope for the oppressed Dalits in the state and country. Three years down the line, our hopes have been cruelly belied.

Electoral success and the brute majority handed over to her by the state electorate seemed to have an intoxicating effect on her and she began to indulge in delusions like the one when she said: “If I can become chief minister of the largest state in the country, nothing can stop me from becoming the prime minister of India.” Then followed a calculated and brazen move to amass real estate in the state and union capitals, deck herself up in expensive tiaras and diamond jewellery, have a fleet of aircraft, including a helicopter, for her personal use - all this at the cost of public money?

Her lopsided and skewed priorities have further triggere her downfall in the mindset of a common UPite. And so in a state where crime against Dalits is high, drought has arrived he priorities still remain aprks, monuments and statues. She seems to have a silly fetish for marble statues of Baba Sahib Ambedkar, Kanshi Ram and herself. Erecting one’s own statues is nothing less than self-worship of the most vulgar form.

She needs to understand that belying her dreams “that such places would emerge as places of pilgrimage which would inspire people” the money put in their creations could have lit a bulb in thousands of Dalit homes, fed many a empty tummies and brought smiles on many a parched souls!

But for her and her self-seeking advisors madam (aka Behenji) does not wrong. Be it erecting hopelss monuments or mocking at Congress general secretary Rahul and abusing the Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi, calling him a ‘natakbaaz’. As a resident of Uttar Pradesh who has been following her advent into the state politics, I can say with authority that the Czarina on UP is not only loosing her grip on the state electorate but is also squandering a life time opportunity to change the state from a (U)lta (P)radesh to (U)ttam (P)radesh!!