A fourth set of challenges comes from the unusually personal nature of political attacks on her. Mayawati has certainly not pulled her own punches in going after her opponents. Still, it is hard not to be shocked at the sordid or irrelevant nature of some of what she has had to respond to: at the physical attack at the Lucknow state guest house, at Sanjay Dutt’s tasteless “jhappi-pappi” comments, at Maneka Gandhi’s taking aim at her not being a mother, at the media fuss about her jewellery and purses. Hers is not the story of someone who could easily entertain delusions of grandeur. It is the story of someone who has constantly had to look for ways to overcome vulnerability. It is not surprising that her memoirs are titled A Travelogue of My Struggle-Ridden Life, and not “A Catalogue of my Triumphs”.

For a leader who sees herself as vulnerable, building larger-than-life statues is a way to create strength. It is a bid to claim the towering legitimacy that came easily to Nehru from his association with the nationalist movement and to Sonia Gandhi from her association with the Gandhi dynasty. Unseating the leader of the day is one thing — unseating a leader memorialised in 20 ft of stone as the sister of the oppressed quite another. It is significant also that she has chosen stone statues as her memorial of choice, rather than naming roads or universities or government programmes. Names can be changed, but it is harder to take over land and demolish statues. We know that already from the aftermath of colonialism. Queensway may have become Janpath, and Curzon Road Kasturba Gandhi Marg, but the legacy of colonialism remains intact in the buildings and monuments created by the British. It is from this perspective that the quantities in which these memorials are being built makes sense. A statue or two may be toppled by a new government. The Samajwadi Party has already promised to “bulldoze” them. But 60 statues and the sites that surround them will be hard for any government to demolish, especially when they are associated not just with Mayawati and the BSP, but with the empowerment of Dalits and subordinate caste groups more generally.

... contd.