Editorial: A Good Enough Smack but Public Effort Needed

The way UP government took the issue of statue installation of dalit icons including chief minister Mayawati in the court of law right since the beginning left us with little doubt that Mayawati would give in easily. To everybody’s surprise, she won the first battle when a bench of the apex court, hearing a PIL on misuse of public money, ruled that it couldn’t help, for the expenses are duly sanctioned by the state cabinet.  Only on September 8, there was a tap on Mayawati’s statue spree when the Supreme Court instructed it to discontinue continued construction activities at various memorial sites.

Despite that ruling, which the court announced saying that it would first examine the constitutional validity of such memorials for political leaders using taxpayers’ money before further decision, UP government continued the construction prompting court to issue contempt of court notice. What to speak of its previous stand that it’s wrong notion that living persons statues cannot be installed (Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Amitabh Bachchan, stars and cricketers from the West are only some examples.) Clearly, Mayawati’s ambitions have not abated.

The statue installation is a big political issue now, at least from the view point of dalits who regard it as a matter of dalit pride. They (have been made to) think as to why there should be any hue and cry about tax payers’ money only for a dalit project; there’re other failed multi-crore schemes in the country, too.

The court is still examining the legality of government’s expenses and it’s difficult to predict what the final verdict will be, but what’s sure is that it has readied much political stuff for Mayawati. If she wins the case, she wins more and more dalits; if loses, she wins still far greater dalits.

The court is still examining the legality of government’s expenses and it’s difficult to predict what the final verdict will be, but what’s sure is that it has readied much political stuff for Mayawati. If she wins the case, she wins more and more dalits; if loses, she wins still far greater dalits.

It’s good many people showed interest to file PIL in court to stop misuse of public money, but for their this fight to succeed, more people, perhaps institutions and NGOs need to come forward who can spread awareness among masses so that clutches of casteism being fastened by politicians – dalit sense, women sense, tribal sense etc – might slacken.