Monumental Obsession of Mayawati.....

Mayawati  sworn in as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh State of Indis for the fourth time on 13 May 2007 announced an agenda that focused on providing social justice to the weaker sections of society and providing employment instead of distributing money to the unemployed. Her slogan was to make "Uttar Pradesh" ("Northern Province") into "Uttam Pradesh" ("Excellent Province")

 Her 2007 election campaign was accompanied by a colourful slogan: Haathi nahin, Ganesh hain, Brahma, Vishnu Mahesh Hain: "The elephant (BSP Logo) is really the Lord Ganesha, the trinity of gods rolled into one". Her new slogan invited everyone, including the higher castes, to "come ride the elephant", her party's election symbol.Mayawati's rise from humble beginnings has been called a "miracle of democracy" by P. V. Narasimha Rao, former Prime Minister of India .

A Dalit woman , known for her birthdays which are major media events, where she appears laden with diamonds, her birthdays declared as Jan Kalyankari Diwas (People's Welfare Day). In 2009 the day was marked by the announcement of welfare schemes targeted towards poor and downtrodden people of the state.Her  disproportionate  assets to her known source of income run into millions of dollars, with several properties to her name. In the 2007–08 assessment year, Mayawati;s ranking was among the top 20 taxpayers in the country

  Mayawati  often referred to as Behen-ji, which means 'sister',to me she appears to be a self obsessed woman or either she is suffering from some kind of OCD.In one of her interviews she is believed to have said "  that she has no time for family life or romantic relationships because she wants to focus on her political career and this is why she remains unmarried ' and i do belive her but her marriage  and romance to her obsession of erecting statues which she probably  forgot to mention is known to every one .In. In her tenures as a Chief Minister, Mayawati erected number of statues and her claims that the expenditure on statues and symbols of Dalit Icons was required because the past governments did not show respect towards Dalit icons, in whose memory nothing was ever built sound bizarre to me. She exp of over Rs 2,500 crore on projects of five parks and memorials  in Lucknow between 2007 and 2009. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India reported that Rs. 15 Crore was spent on memorials. In October 2011 Mayawati inaugurated the Rashtriya Dalit Prerna Sthal and Green Garden, built at a cost of  685 crores. The  memorial also features her own statues, a sheer waste the tax-payers' money but he BSP dismissal of allegations is quite understandable, but the explaination that her statues were erected because Kanshi Ram's will requested that his statues should be constructed next to those of the current President of BSP. " is quite emotional. 

 Her obsession does confirm middle-class Indians’ worst fears about her as megalomaniac and venal. But among many dalit voters, unapologetic ostentation is part of her appeal, and the statue scandal may actually play to her advantage. “The more she’s demonised by the chattering classes,” says her biographer, Ajay Bose, “the more popular among dalit voters she becomes…although it would be good if she did something more useful for her constituency too.” Statues of o a stout woman clutching a handbag, sometimes surrounded by elephants, dot Lucknow, capital of Uttar Pradesh (UP).. Does she ever realise that the amt spent on these statues and memorials which is more than $500m , during her four stints as chief minister, could have been put to better use for up bringing Dalits or is her self obsession instincts too dominent on her wisdom or she thinks her eventual goal  to gain power in the centre will come through her statue riding an elephant.