[Reader-list] Why statues won't help Mayawati

[Aditya Raj Kaul]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ritwik Agrawal <ritwik.agrawal at gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Jul 17, 2009 at 5:41 AM
Subject: Why statues won't help Mayawati
To: mail at ritwikagrawal.com


Recently there has been a fair bit of comment on the Mayawati government’s
decision to build statues and memorials to “Dalit icons” [including herself]
at a cost of thousands of crores of taxpayer money.

While the commentary on this matter has been relatively recent, large scale
edification has been on Mayawati’s radar ever since she first assumed chief
ministership of India’s largest state, back in the mid nineties. Over the
last two decades and more, erecting statues of Ambedkar and other Dalit
icons has been seen as a potent symbol of the shift in the dynamics of
power. Like all manifestations of identity politics, Dalit leaders sought to
give their followers “pride”, as a substitute for real improvement in the
ground situation.

Much of the reporting and “analysis” regarding the latest statue building
exercise, in newspapers and on TV [between such vital topics as "dhoni ke
dhurandar" and "rakhi ka swayamwar"] hasn’t touched upon the topic of
electoral gain: will this statue building spree benefit Mayawati
electorally?

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Ritwik Agrawal
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http://www.ritwikagrawal.com