Maya statue part of mega Ambedkar plan

As the statues towered over the thousands gathered for the BSP rally to mark Ambedkar’s 117th birth anniversary, the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and BSP supremo lashed out at the Opposition for using “every trick to obstruct the renovation” of her pet project.

She accused the Samajwadi Party Government of conspiring to show the project as part of the green belt, even moving to the court to “harm” it.

Earlier, the Allahabad High Court had asked the state to maintain status quo and not raise any construction at the park, notified as a green belt. Last week, after the Mayawati Government moved a special leave petition, the Supreme Court allowed it to erect only temporary structures for celebrating Ambedkar Jayanti.

Taking on political parties, particularly the Congress, for frequently talking of the money spent on the Ambedkar memorial, she said: “The Congress has constructed memorials in Delhi, worth billions of rupees, for its leaders. Other parties also have constructed a number of memorials, libraries, museums etc in different states. But nobody talks about them. When the same work is done by the BSP Government in respect of saints and great leaders who worked for the downtrodden, it is termed as wastage of public money. It clearly indicates that the casteist mentality of the Congress and others has not changed yet.”

The Chief Minister said it was the contribution of Ambedkar, and not Gandhi or Nehru, that Dalits and other backward sections of the society could move forward.

Referring to her own statue being erected in the memorial, she said that the late Kanshi Ram, in his will, had wanted the same. “That’s the reason my statues have been installed next to Kanshi Ramji’s at the Bahujan Prerna Kendra in Lucknow and Delhi. He had declared me...