\'It was the will of people’: Mayawati justifies statues in Supreme Court

New Delhi: Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Tuesday filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court justifying expenses in installation of her statues and elephants statues in Uttar Pradesh. She stated that ‘it was the will of the people’.

BSP supremo in her affidavit said, “Whether the money should have been spent on education or hospitals "is a debatable question and can't be decided by a court."

The top court is hearing the petition against the statues of herself and elephants (BSP's symbol), at parks in Lucknow and Noida, with taxpayers' money.

The statues of bronze, cement and marble had critics accusing her of self-obsession and megalomania.

In the previous hearing, the Supreme Court had said that BSP chief should reimburse the public money spent on statues.

A bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said, “We are of tentative view that you (Mayawati) should pay the public money from your pocket.”

The petition accusing her of glorifying herself, BSP chief said with statues, the state legislature had shown respect to Dalit woman leader and how can she defy the will of the legislature.

"Proper budgetary allocation was made for the statues when I was the Chief Minister of UP," Mayawati added.

Referring to statues of Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Shivaji and other leaders, she asked, "Why question only Dalit leaders' statues and not the ones erected by the Congress and the BJP using public money?"

She clarified that elephant statues were "mere architectural design" and not representative of her party's symbol.