India's 'Dalit Queen' opens huge low-caste memorial
(AFP) – 20 hours ago
NEW DELHI — A powerful Indian politician, known as the "Dalit Queen,"
opened on Friday 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 percent of the 6.85 billion rupee ($140 million) 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 B.R. 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.
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