A story of false concerns and true fears, as far as the statues of Mayawati are concerned.
Mayawati, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and India's most popular living Dalit leader, is currently having immense statues built of Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, Kanshi Ram and herself, in the process generating much resentment among the English-speaking public and her political adversaries. Figures ranging upwards to INR 20 billion have reportedly been allocated for these constructions, resulting in outrage among certain sections. That outrage has been expressed primarily along three lines: first, that public funds could be better utilised for development work; second, that there is an uncomfortable impropriety surrounding erecting statues to oneself during one's lifetime; and third, that doing so does nothing for the Dalits, whose cause Mayawati professes to espouse. Each of these considerations, however, leaves something larger unsaid.
There is certainly something disingenuous in the first, saying that, for instance, such sums could better be spent on improving health care, education and whatnot. In fact, these monies are coming from the budget of various ministries that have nothing to do with health or education, mostly from preset budgetary provisions of the Department of Culture. And there is more. Squandering public money is, of course, a non-casteist charge, and by bringing it up, prejudices and animosities that could otherwise have casteist origins can be presented in public discourse.
What predictably escapes scrutiny, meanwhile, is the plethora of such expenses that have been paid out over the years, and which continuing unabashedly today. Just a brief list of such costs would include the upkeep of the president's official residence (the 340-room Rashtrapati Bhavan, the world's largest for a head of state), the various governor's houses, the lavish banquets for charmed government circles, the sumptuous welcomes given to foreign dignitaries, the various 'traditions' of the armed forces including musical bands and polo clubs. These undoubtedly form the political and economic equivalent of building thousands upon thousands of statues every year. Would the same voices have been as shrill if Mayawati had merely ordered the construction of statues of deceased prime ministers of India? The sudden obsession of the chatterati (invariably in high-caste circles) with the absence of proper health care or education in Uttar Pradesh would be, possibly, quite amusing to the state's Dalits.