Tamil Nadu:
Mayawati's penchant for statues, built with crores of taxpayers' money, has landed her in huge legal and political trouble. Her advice on how to handle the issue could come in handy for the chief minister of Tamil Nadu.
M Karunanidhi commissioned statues of his parents for the new bus terminus at Radhapuram in the Tirunelvelli district of Tamil Nadu. The statues, five feet high, were meant to be unveiled on Tuesday, but those plans were abruptly cancelled, after the public put its collective foot down.
The statues cost seven lakhs, but were paid for by the local MLA from Karunanidhi's DMK party. Even so, they don't belong here: that's the popular sentiment among the community here, dominated by the Nadars. Instead, they'd prefer a statue of Nadar icons. "We want the Tamil Nadu government to grant permission for statues of Kamaraj and Kakkanji," pleads Sudalaimuthu Nadar, a resident of the area.
Opposition leader Jayalalithaa had also registered her protest against the statues. So while Karunanidhi's son, MK Stalin, did inaugurate the new bus terminus as scheduled, his grandparents remain veiled in secrecy.