Mayawati Defends Building Of Statues; Tells SC They Represent 'Will Of People' [Read Affidavit]

Former UP CM and BSP Chief Maywati has filed a counter-affidavit in the Supreme Court defending the decision to spend public money on the construction of statues of herself, Kanshi Ram and BSP symbol elephant in UP.

Mayawati said in her affidavit that the building of statues represented the will of the people.

She stated that her life was dedicated to espouse the cause of dalits and that she decided to remain unmarried to pursue the goal of upliftment of downtrodden. As Chief Minister, she had launched many welfare scheme for the marginalized and her noble deeds were widely appreciated by people, she said. 

"The will of the people was expressed by the State Legislature with a proposal to install the statues of the answering respondent at the memorials to show their respect to contemporary women Dalit leader who has decided to sacrifice her life for the cause of underprivileged communities", she  said in the affidavit.

She added that the memorials and statues of herself and other leaders were "intended to promote values and ideals of various sants, gurus, social reformers and leaders among the public and not intended to promote the symbol of BSP or to glorify"

The counter affidavit is filed in opposition to a PIL filed in 2009 against the construction of statues of Mayawati, her mentor Kanshi Ram and elephants - her party Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)'s symbol - at parks in Lucknow and Noida with taxpayers' money when she was chief minister between 2007 and 2012.  The plea alleged hundreds of crores of public money was spent to "falsely glorify" the Chief Minister.

Mayawati termed the PIL as "politically motivated" and said that the petitioners had not questioned the construction of statues by other parties at other places in the country.

She said funds for construction of the memorial and installation of statues were sanctioned through budgetary allocations after approval of the budget by the state legislature. She has further said that the wisdom of the executive in utilizing the funds cannot be called into question by Court.  

While hearing the petition on February 8, the CJI-led bench had orally remarked that the Mayawati should reimburse the public money she had spent for installing statues

"Madam Mayawati, reimburse to the exchequer the public money you spent on the elephants.We are of tentative view that you (Mayawati) should pay the public money from your pocket," CJI strongly observed and asked senior advocate Rakesh Khanna, counsel for Mayawati, to convey to her the Court's view.

(Image Courtesy : Live Mint)

Read Affidavit