Mayawati says no more statues

BSP chief Mayawati says no more statues, will focus on development

Pankaj Shah | TNN | Apr 15, 2016, 04.29 AM IST
LUCKNOW: "When I come to power, I'll not build memorials, because that has already been done. Now I'll focus only on development," BSP chief Mayawati told thousands of party workers at a gathering to mark the Ambedkar Jayanti in Lucknow on Thursday, defending the extensive drive to build memorials to Dalit icons during her previous tenure as UP CM. 
Mayawati said the opposition had criticised her government when she was erecting these memorials. "They said government money is being wasted. But now they are earning money from tickets on them. Now the criticism is that Mayawati had installed these statues so that she could put her own next to them (Dalit icons)," she said, claiming her statues were installed next to those of BSP founder Kanshi Ram because of his "modern thinking, written will and verbal instructions".

"My statue was installed next to his as his successor and for dedicating my life to realising Ambedkar's dreams and welfare of Dalits," she said. "When this memorial was being built, Kanshi Ram said had Ambedkar been alive he'd have been very happy."
The UP ex-CM also warned SP she would probe all financial decisions of the present regime if she returned as CM after the 2017 UP polls.

"We are told that the state exchequer is being looted in the election year... Now, it is time to send 'goonda' and 'mafia' elements of SP to jail. And that I shall do," she said. She also promised to reverse decisions aimed at demeaning the poor and Dalits, asking people not to fall for "inaugurations" being done by the SP regime.