UP Chief Minister Mayawati has been slammed by Union Home Minister P CHidambaram for spending Rs 1000 crore on statues of herself and other dalit leaders.
Rs 1000 crore in a country like India where millions are still under the poverty line. Apparently the cost of maintenance is estimated at around 10% of the construction cost – annually! It stumps me to think that leaders like Mayawati think that installing statues of dalit leaders and herself(?) will help improve Dalit pride – that is apparently the justification that is given! What I just cannot understand is how, she can build her own statues! Isn’t that the heights of narcissism?
Yes, we may not have the basic amenities like food, clean water or housing, but we are extremely proud because we can see umpteen statues of our ‘leaders’!!!! And this coming from one of India’s most backward states – backward in every possible form! Backward in development, education, women’s safety, but yes, I am sure that Dalits must be extremely proud of Mayawati’s statues! Wouldn’t any community prefer that their leaders spend money on developmental activities instead of statues of themselves?
Dr B R Ambedkar , on whose name, she wants to piggyback into fame, must be cursing his fate to be clubbed along with Mayawati! I am sure, had he been alive, he would have condemned this mindless statue building spree!
PS : I have been out of the blogosphere for the last 3 days. Will respond to all the comments on my previous posts and read all your posts as well – in the next few days.
Any Excuse to Write... 
that is really cheap of her.. leaders are supposed to work for the people..
this kind of money thrown away could have been used for much better causes..
I know! I don’t understand the logic behind this! Does she really think that we are all morons who will never understand that money has been spent so recklessly.
me the 2nd 😀
Yes you are 🙂
She may have the fear that whether her successor will lay a statue for her…
a statue will give pride for dalit and she must have thought its enough for them to survive not food… 😉
she was a lowly creature and can never ever be compared with a great man like Dr.Ambedkar…
a statue for herself… what kind of creature she is.. 😡
Yes, that is the most sickening part – a statue for herself!!!! How sick is that!
What a shame! Crores and Crores of tax payers money that can be spent on improving quality of life and other reforms for the poor people in India is getting spent on self gratification by these mindless politicians.
I hope people respond back during the elections and show such leaders the door. Saw another interesting post on this topic –
http://golumolu.in/blogwp/2009/06/mayawati-spends-1000-crores-on-her-statue/
Welcome here Ajay, Please do leave your blog link, if you have one 🙂
Yes, crores of our hard earned money – down the drain! There are so many ways to spend in better! Will check out the post that you have referred me to – Thanks for that!
I don’t even want to comment, cos it makes me sick- I can’t do anything but whine. I just don’t get it, how these people get voted every time 😦
I know! I makes me mad to see money wasted in this manner in our country !! And yes, it is surprising that such people get re-elected! Clearly, some people think that all this matters!
Rs 1000 crore in a country like India where millions are still under the poverty line. Apparently the cost of maintenance is estimated at around 10% of the construction cost – annually! It stumps me to think that leaders like Mayawati think that installing statues of dalit leaders and herself(?) will help improve Dalit pride – that is apparently the justification that is given! What I just cannot understand is how, she can build her own statues! Isn’t that the heights of narcissism?
arre not just narcissism (though that too in huge dollops) 😀 but also Behenji is very insecure..
HUGELY, SUPREMELY INSECURE
Yes, she is clearly very insecure! But spending so much money to feed her insecurity is just too much – in my view!
I mean seriously think about it 🙂
Who will make statues of her in her memory after she dies? 😀
If I bet on that I would be a millionaire the day someone does make a statue of her after she is dead 😀
That is true! Mulayam Singh has apparently promised that he will demolish all these statues when he comes to power! Now that is one more way of wasting money! As if it were not bad enough that money has been spent on making them – he wants to spend some more to demolish them too!!!
oh and do check out her statue 😀
http://tinyurl.com/lzocjo
(handbag and all)
Saw this in two of today;s newspapers and was reminded of the time when I saw it in Lucknow and was literally gaping 😀
Goodness! That statue! handbag and all and flowers at her feet!!! Our leaders start believing that they are gods so quickly!
backward state, dalits and misery?
phooeey!
Come one Smita wouldn’t you rather have a statue of Behenji to gaze at (perhaps for eternity? ) than to have two square mals and an education?
No?
*sigh* you really need to learn to appreciate the err… ‘art’ 😀
LOL! Yes, of course, I would prefer to gaze at behenji’s statue! Very inspirational, you see!
OMG! I checked out her statue..is she even sane? Like hand bag?? We could have save 5000 Rps, if that handbag was not included!
lol! 😆 ‘We could have save 5000 Rps, if that handbag was not included!’
Rotflol… !! she gets the statue with the handbag… never knew that…
just today morning read this in the paper too and my wife wanted Mayawati to adopt her… !! lol… 😉
Now that makes sense!! Am sure it will be very useful to be adopted by people like Mayawati and Jayalalithaa 🙂
Typo ‘come on’! 🙂
“Wouldn’t any community prefer that their leaders spend money on developmental activities instead of statues of themselves?”
That is what common man thinks but of course Mayavatis and such think more statues of their kind will bring them more votes.
And sadly, they do seem to get more votes!
this is serious crap………… is she not thinking or what???
Seriously!
Where is our country going? *sigh*
I agree with Indy though. She must be hugely insecure!!
And that handbag! So much of detailing…
Such a waste really.
Yes, such a huge waste of tax payer’s money!
Question: Would we have criticised her like this had she not been a dalit?
Yes, I think, absolutely! I remember being equally mad – some years ago when Jayalalithaa spent huge amounts and literally ground the city to an halt during her adopted/foster son’s wedding! I have no idea what caste she belongs to – nor do I care – but I feel just as strongly that tax payer’s money and time should not be wasted. Her caste just does not come into it
Question: What is she doing what the Congress party has not done for the Nehru-Gandhi family?
Well, for one thing, has the Congress party spent so much on statues? I am not sure -to be honest. So I can’t really say much. I do think that the Congress has been far more clever, by naming a lot of development programmes by their departed leaders. But there is little one can say – as these are not costing the tax payer any money. In case of Mayawati’s statue mania – the most disgusting thing is that she has put up so many of her own statues! Atleast the Congress has not done that – not to my knowledge, at least!
I am not defending her, but I think the answers to these questions will be interesting.
Yes, I would have criticized her even if she had been a Brahmin…She has no business spending so much on useless statues…As far as the Congress is concerned, at least they waited till Indira Gandhi, Nehru and Rajiv Gandhi died 🙂
Frankly with due respect that is a ridiculous question….
why do we have a tendency to cover up one mistake by pointing to other mistakes…
this is nothing but just diversion of attention from the point being mentioned…… and if the Congress has done something like this… they should be criticised too…. dont we criticise them ???
Sorry Vinodji… but this is totally ridiculous.. !
The “What” after “What is she doing” should be read as “that”.
This is heights.In india status of the deceased people are made,she is still alive and putting her own statues,maybe she is not sure whether people will put her statues after her death.Sick people 😦
Yes, Saritha – I think that is the most disgusting of it all – putting up her own statues.. The money spent is another huge huge issue.
In gulf countries when they celebrate their national day,there king pictures are seen,roads are named after them,school named after them etc,but i never saw a statues of these kings.
flowers are also kept her feet,it means she is not alive ???
Exactly!! Clearly she thinks of herself as some kind of goddess!
I think she’s scared that people will forget what she looks like – as if they will 🙂 Narcissist to the core…
ROFL! That must be it! she must be paranoid that we will forget how she looks 🙂
Major delusions of grandeur.
The aim is to have one statue in every village by 2012. Hungry? No power? No roads? At least you have a statue.
Now that is such a wonderful aim!!! Talk about purpose statements!!! Am just praying that she never ever gets to be PM!
Cheers,
Quirky Indian
Aiyo!!! statue of herself…..
how insecure can one get?????
I know!
It’s so sad na Smithu, our leaders just want to be celebs…
so much money gone into a prop, how much could have been done with that!!!
Exactly! So much of constructive work could have happened with that money! Why don’t we have a check on what the govts do? Surely, there should be a way of stopping this kind of wastage of money!
they’ll never let “Dalit Pride” die smithu…coz we know that it’s their hook to keep this majority in thier favour, and play them like puppets to enjoy more power and make more money and more statues…they will keep this division alvie…even if it exists only in their scheme of thinking, and will reinforce this thinking into the common ppl’s minds….posing like their saviour (with a handbag)
😦
Exactly! Sad, isn’t it that people seem to be gullible enough to be taken in by all this.. I just hope she never gets voted in again.
Dr. Ambedkar must be turning in his grave….
For sure!
Even I wondered like Saritha, after seeing the flowers at her feet, is she already dead or does she think she is alive.
I thought the same too! Even statues – normally are to honour the dead, aren’t they?
I am not able to understand why this news of thousand statues of hers are gaining publicity now. She has already spent the tax payers’ money to make the statues, now, what will we gain in breaking them. We are not going to get the money back. Somebody should have stopped this, as soon as this proposal came into light. Are the Dalits going to praise her for keeping when they see her statues everywhere? They will praise her if she gave them good schools, hospitals, roads and job for them. This is just dirty politics. We are just spectators/fools, watching these things.
You are right. There should be a means of stopping this at the conceptual stage it self! But since that has not happened – I think it would be great if some criminal charges are brought against her for misuse of public funds. I think politicians need to be made accountable, right now, they get away with anything and everything.
I think all of us have to stop paying taxes … look @ how all our hard-earned money is being gobbled up 😦 Whosoever wants to see her statue really? Will that lady ever be mature enuf? How on earth can anyone build their own statue n rejoice in glory. I fail to understand, rather better never try to even do that 😉
I so wish we had that option – of showing our disapproval by not paying taxes! You know, I wish there was some checking agency, which could ensure that such projects are nipped in the bud..
And how she could build her own statue – I guess, I will never, ever understand that!
LOL
I heard this in the news a couple of days back.
All these lousy politicians need a brain transplant!
LOL at brain transplant – yes thats what they need 🙂
smitha did the tag 🙂
Hopping over right away 🙂
I fail to understand why we are forced to even think about this female. and to consider her as a prime minister, bah,
I would have run away to timbuctoo..
I know!! I am so glad that she did not even come close to being PM! And I do hope that she never ever comes close either! We’ll just have her statues in every corner of India – bijli, sadak, paani will all be forgotten 🙂
CRAZY Female !!!
That she certainly is !!
I really don’t know what to say!?!
I am still laughing!
Thank God she is not the Prime Minister. I would have disowned India!
‘Thank God she is not the Prime Minister’ – yes that is something to be thankful about!
Sigh!!!!
Have u ever been to U.P??? It is one of the most backward states and imagine what the junta who can not afford one time meal must be thinking or feeling when they see their hard earned money being spent in the name of some statues of some rubbish lady!!!
Exactly my point! And she thinks it is necessary to spend money on statues instead of any development work! It makes me so mad that our elected representatives behave this way.
And the lady has the dreams of being India’s PM. God save our country
I am just thankful that she did not come close to being PM this time.. and hopefully never will
i agree, wanted to write on this..just did not get time…she has wasted precious tax payers money on some stupid things..UP deserves better, but i guess its the people of UP who need to change their mind set and select the right people when voting
Absolutely! But unless education and empowerment reaches the masses – they will continue to be swayed by such people..
There is no way one can defend this mindless-logicless-hopeless spending of public money on statues but Mayawati was also right in saying that ke Samdhis of Nehru, Rajiv gandhi and Indira Gandhi cost much more that what she has been spending .. I guess those also have been built by our money !!
All r sailing the same boat .. There is no difference ..
Exactly! They are all in the same boat! And are equally condemnable..
Seriously I dont quite understand how people vote her back into powere everytime.
Remember a few years back the newspapers had published her beauty parlour bills, which were paid out of the taxpayers money.
And her lavish birthday parties, she proudly declares how her followers pay for them:-S
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