Not one political party worth its name has so far objected to the grotesquely expensive Ambedkar Samajik Parivartan Sthal (Ambedkar memorial), BSP chief Mayawati’s colossal dream-project that’s under construction in Lucknow. As political analyst Uday Yadav explained, “Opposition parties can’t risk taking on Mayawati on this project because whichever party raises its voice against anything being built in the name of Ambedkar would be seen as ‘anti-Dalit’. Now which party would want to lose such a big chunk of voters?”

So all political outfits drew parallels between Ambedkar and their respective party icons. But no party objected to the way the ruling party lavished money on a concrete structure. The few voices that were raised were so low and weak that the government pretended not to hear them.

But a written petition by a nondescript local Resident Welfare Society, the Jan Kalyan Samiti, succeeded in putting the construction work on hold, at least for the time being, and did what Opposition parties could not. The High Court took cognisance of the petitioner’s complaint and directed the government to stop any further construction. The matter was so grave that even the Supreme Court refused to give any relief to the Mayawati government. Instead, it asked the government to make only temporary arrangements for the Ambedkar Jayanti celebrations on April 14, which Mayawati did with much fanfare.

Mayawati also thought she was perfectly justified in having her own statue along with that of her mentor Kanshiram and Dalit leader Ambedkar and his wife Ramadevi. She said, “The monument will now stand tall for centuries and work as an inspiration for Dalits.” She also hit out at the Congress, “When they spend crores on Rajghat, no one said anything but when a similar honour is being given to a Dalit leader, everyone is against it”.

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