Garland made of money at Mayawati’s 200-crore party.

M.today

Lucknow,March 14: Already known for her lavish self-promotion, Mayawati has raised her bar to a whole new level. There she was, at a gigantic public rally, accepting a garland made of thousands of thousand-rupee notes. The net worth of just that garland a staggering few lakhs, according to her own representatives.

 

The occasion was the 25th anniversary of the Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP).  Most of those in the five-lakh-strong audience cannot afford one meal a day. That wasn’t about to get in the UP Chief Minister’s way of having a good time.

The cost of the rally is an estimate 200 crore, paid for by Mayawati’s party, and not taxpayers, clarify her representatives. Even so, the Chief Minister said, in her speech, "I thank you for your contributions and the money you have given me."

The Opposition insists this proves its claim - "The 200 crore have been spent from government money...this rally is a circus, and she is the ringmaster," says Rita Bahuguna, the president of the UP Congress.

While the source of the funds are being verified, here’s what the money was spent on. Nearly 10,000 policemen, 1600 state buses and 800 private buses, lodging and dinner for 30,000 BSP workers, a thousand quintal of flowers brought in from Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata. Wait, there’s more. 

Another 5 crore for food for the audience.  A 30-bed hospital on standby with 200 doctors and 500 paramedics on stand-by should there be a stampede or any other disaster. And 10 lakhs for endless strings of lights to tint the city in the BSP’s main colour - blue.  

For those who think this may be over the top, Mayawati points out that grand gestures have always been her style, and well, she’s worth it. Her penchant for building statues of herself, along with other Dalit icons in large memorial parks, costing the government close to 2000 crore, has been challenged in court. "From all those people criticising installation of my statues, I would like to ask that in which book of law it has been written that statues of living persons cannot be erected," Mayawati thundered, citing in her defence, the party’s founder, Kanshi Ram. "In his will, Kanshiramji has directed to install my statues along with those of him," she claims.

In Delhi, in Parliament, Mayawati was attacked repeatedly and agitatedly by Opposition leaders who say she has no business to be celebrating when the communal tension in Rae Bareilly is still unresolved. (Read: Maya’s 200-cr rally, despite Bareilly tension)

Mayawati, at her rally, was neither shaken nor stirred. She focused singularly on wooing Dalit voters, traditionally the party’s votebank, now being aggressively targeted by Rahul Gandhi.  Using the Women’s Bill, which she opposed, Mayawati said in her speech, "Congress and other political parties had always been against Dalits and this is evident from the fact that no separate quota has been carved out for SC/ST women in 33 percent reservation proposed in the Women Reservation Bill."

The scale of the celebrations did have the desired impact on many of those who came to cheer her - a leader of those who feel their voices are never heard. An old woman says, "We send 5 rupees or 10 rupees for her birthday fund from our own money every year." It’s a lot for her to afford, but she says this is the only way she knows how to participate in a celebration of a leader whose ascent to power defies generations of suppression.

Not everything went off smoothly though. Mayawati believes a swarm of bees who hovered above her as she gave her speech were part of a political conspiracy. A press release by the BSP promises an inquiry: "Today when Mayawati was addressing a rally at the Ramabai Ambedkar Maidan, someone set fire to some bushes in a nearby compound of the Kendriya Vidyalaya and that set alight the bees from the beehive. These bees then moved rapidly towards the stage and wandered around the Chief Minister for at least an hour. After which they formed a beehive on top of the stage. Without fear, the CM went ahead with her speech so that the rally doesn’t get disrupted. But an inquiry is being conducted to find out who has done this."