'Statue!' says Election Commission to Maya

There’s trouble brewing for Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati over installation of her statues and those of the Bahujan Party’s (BSP) elephant symbol all over the state, including in Noida and Lucknow.

Updated on: Aug 4, 2009, 23:36:51 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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There’s trouble brewing for Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati over installation of her statues and those of the Bahujan Party’s (BSP) elephant symbol all over the state, including in Noida and Lucknow.

The Election Commission has asked the BSP to explain why Mayawati should not be debarred from contesting elections and the party symbol frozen for putting up statues of BSP leaders and the party symbol at public places.

The Commission on Monday sought a reply from the BSP on a complaint by civil society group Common Cause alleging that installing of statues with the BSP symbol and those of the UP chief minister was against the spirit of the Constitution, which provides for a level playing field for all political parties.

UP assembly on Tuesday gave its nod to the state government’s demand for a budgetary allocation of Rs 453.95 crore for installation of statues and development and beautification of various memorials and an ecological park in Lucknow.

The UP government had on Monday sought a budgetary allocation of Rs 453 crore for setting up statues, memorials and parks.

The supplementary demands presented in the assembly by parliamentary affairs minister Lalji Verma sought Rs 55 crore for setting up a memorial on Lucknow’s Jail Road for the late BSP founder Kanshi Ram, Rs 57.80 crore for developing a park named after him and Rs 200 crore for an Eco park in Lucknow.

Common Cause said in its complaint that if the structures are allowed to continue. it will violate Article 14 of the Constitution that provides for the Right to Equality to all political parties during elections.

“These statues will mean disadvantage to all political parties vis-à-vis the BSP,” the complaint said.

The NGO has also asked the election symbol of the BSP be frozen as it has been installed in public places.

Action against Mayawati by way of debarring her from contesting polls should be taken as she will continue to create an unequal playing field for her political opponents, the complaint said.

It has also been alleged that the UP government has “favoured a particular political party (BSP) by having its statues installed at various places”.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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