Mayawati & Statues

SC raps Maya govt, to examine constitutional validity on VVIPs memorials
PTI 8 September 2009, 07:37pm IST

NEW DELHI: Rapping the Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh for spending a whooping Rs 2,600 crore on memorials for Kanshiram and other leaders in Lucknow city, the Supreme Court on Tuesday said it would examine the constitutional validity of such memorials for political leaders, including ex-Prime Ministers, at taxpayers' money.

A bench of Justices B N Aggrawal and Aftab Alam minced no words in chiding the Mayawati government for defending its move to construct the memorials when the country's largest state's GDP stood around a mere two per cent.

"As per the reports you are spending Rs 2,600 crore. Your state GDP is only around 2 per cent. We may ask the government as to how such a colossal expenditure can be incurred.

"We have to examine it. It (decision) cannot be arbitrary because it involves tax payers' money. You cannot spend it as you like it," the bench told senior counsel Satish Chandra Mishra appearing for the state.

Mishra, who is also a close aide of Mayawati, was at pains to explain defend the decision but drew the court's ire when he defended the move citing the memorials constructed for various national leaders including ex-Prime Ministers and four members of one family (Nehru) at an estimated cost of Rs 10,000 crore.

At this stage, the bench remarked that memorials are not there for all ex-Prime Ministers.

"There is no memorial for P V Narasimha Rao and Deve Gowda. Anyway, we are not concerned with political mileage. Court can act upon legal issues. It can be subject to judicial review because constitutional propriety is involved. It involves constitutional issues," the apex court said.

At last the Supreme Court seeems to have woken up.
I was surprised when some time back the Supreme Court had permitted mayawati to continue in her statue erecting spree as it had been planned in the state budget.
If any government has a road rolling majority doed it mean it can get to do anything it wants.
I am glad that that aberrated view is being corrected.
Mayawati's party should be made to pay from its own funds the cost of all the statues and then they can take them to their party office.
The land on which they were erected are the people's land.
That should be vacated.
I hope this is an eye opener for all those people who are in the habit of erecting statues and memorials, the Congress being the main culprit.