NEW DELHI: Uttar Pradesh (UP) Chief Minxister Mayawati received a judicial nod on Friday on installation of her statues and other Dalit leaders. Refusing to restrain Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati from installing statues, the Supreme Court said on Friday: “If a democratically elected government decides to do something without misappropriating public money, there is little courts can do.” The bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan said: “If it has been approved by the government, this court cannot interfere. If the Cabinet has approved it, then we can’t do anything.”
The apex court stated this in response to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed last month by advocate Ravi Kant. The petitioner had alleged that 90 percent of Uttar Pradesh culture department’s budget was being used for installation of statues of Mayawati and other Dalit leaders. Mayawati had used around Rs 20 billion on statues Dalit leaders’ and BSP’s symbol — the elephant from the state budget for 2008-09 and 2009-10, Kant had alleged.
The petitioner had appealed to the Supreme Court to restrain Mayawati from installing of these statutes at public places with public fund. He had also demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)’s probe into misuse of state exchequer. Spending billions of rupees to “falsely glorify” leaders in a state like UP, where the human development index is among the lowest in the country, is a complete misuse of state exchequer, he had alleged.
On June 29, the apex court had issued notice to UP government and sought its reply on Kant’s petition within four weeks. Kant argued on Friday that four weeks’ time granted to UP government to reply to the June notice on his petition was being used to speed up installation of statues. Kant’s fresh application would be heard along with the main petition, the bench told the petitioner. The court also said that the petitioner should have first approached the Allahabad High Court where other matters related to installations of statues where being considered. “First, you should have gone to the High Court where some more petitions relating to it are going on,” the bench said.
With the judicial nod given to her installing statues, Mayawati is expected to carry on the work outside Lucknow, in Noida — a Delhi suburb. A major project, to be called “Central Park Plaza” would have three bronze statues of Bhimrao Ambedkar, Kanshi Ram and Mayawati inside its building. The total cost of statues, with each being 18-feet tall, would be Rs 15 million. The project is for “beautification” of the park in Noida, a state official said.
Both the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have opposed installation of statues by Mayawati. Declining to comment on the apex court verdict, Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said: “The issue is both legal and moral. The UP Chief Minister should concentrate on the drought like situation we are seeing in the state instead of wasting money on building her own statues.” BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said: “I don’t want to comment on the court’s observation but I would like to tell madam Mayawati that in no democracy leaders have erected their own statues in their lifetime, except for Saddam Hussein in Iraq.”
