Aqui e lá

Como diria Ancelmo Gois : Deve ser terrível viver em um país onde os políticos das regiões mais pobres fazem estas coisas....

India’s ‘dalit queen’ in court spotlight

By Amy Kazmin in New Delhi

Published: June 29 2009 18:23 | Last updated: June 29 2009 18:23

India’s Supreme Court has asked Kumari Mayawati, chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, to justify spending an estimated $425m in public money to erect statues of herself, her political mentor, her party symbol and other monuments in one of the country’s poorest states.

In a public interest litigation presented to the court on Monday, two lawyers asked the bench to order India’s central bureau of investigation to investigate the misuse of public development money on monuments to “falsely glorify” the chief minister.

This is public money “which should be used for the public welfare”, Ravi Kant, a lawyer and one of the two petitioners, told journalists.

Uttar Pradesh is one of India’s poorest states, with some of its highest rates of infant and maternal mortality. The attorney said the state government should have spent the money on emancipation of child labourers or boosting healthcare.

Judges have given Ms Mayawati and the state government one month to respond to the allegation.

Since her landslide state election victory in May 2007, Ms Mayawati has transformed Lucknow, the state capital, with huge sandstone monuments to honour heroes of those at the bottom of Hinduism’s rigid caste ladder – once known as untouchables and now called dalits, or oppressed.

Ms Mayawati, a dalit herself and often called the dalit queen, describes the projects as part of the “politics of dignity” intended to inspire self-confidence within India’s most down-trodden community.

In India’s general election this year, Ms Mayawati was seen as one of the biggest losers. Rather than the 40-50 parliamentary seats her Bahujan Samaj party was expected to win, it secured just over a quarter of Uttar Pradesh’s 80 parliamentary seats, relegating her to the sidelines of the national scene.

As chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Ms Mayawati has squandered much of the goodwill she initially had, spending more energy chasing the premiership than governing her impoverished state.

She has been fiercely criticised for the massive scale of the projects – one of which covers 130 acres – which have employed about 25,000 mostly out of state workers. The projects include numerous statues of herself and her political mentor – Kanshi Ram, the BSP founder who died in 2006.

Uttar Pradesh state officials are cagey about the cost of the sprawling stone memorial parks. But Mr Kant, who obtained some figures through a right to information petition, estimated the government was spending more than $400m (€285m, £245m) on monument building.

The public interest lawsuit adds to the legal woes faced by Ms Mayawati, who is already under investigation for her huge wealth and a case of corruption dating back to her earlier stint as chief minister. She has always denied any wrongdoing.

Ms Mayawati, known for her autocratic style and fierce temper, is still reeling from the results of the recent parliamentary election, which suggested her self-aggrandising projects were alienating even her core constituency.