New Delhi:
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati possibly finds the state police not qualified to protect Dalit memorials and statues on which she has spent over Rs 20,000 crore.
So, she has moved the State Special Zone Security Force bill in the Assembly to create an elite force for the job - one that will cost the state exchequer another Rs 67 crore.
The move evoked sharp reactions from the Opposition. "What is the need for protecting her statues? Will they lose height or weight? Is someone planning to disfigure them?" said Samajwadi Party leader Ambika Chaudhury.
The Opposition may call this yet another wasteful expenditure, but there is really nothing that it can do to stall this bill because in both the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council, Mayawati's BSP has a clear majority.
The creation of this force is replete with ironies:
Headed by the state's Director General of Police (DGP), it will recruit 1,000 constables on priority though the state police force is struggling with 26,000 vacancies.
The new force will secure 10 of the biggest monuments in the state, which includes Mayawati's private residence - one she possibly considers an important Dalit landmark.
The expensive elite force, understandably, will guard the expensive memorials. What's not clear is why it has to guard even the toilets at these venues.
Work on Mayawati's many Dalit memorials stopped after the Supreme Court snubbed the chief minister and started monitoring the sites. Now, she has found a way to continue her obsessive spending on these.