Mayawati beats Modi in race for dalit legacy

Nov 04, 2010 - MANISH ANAND |

New Delhi

In a race to win the dalit legacy, UP chief minister Mayawati has beaten BJP’s poster boy and Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi. Both of them were competing to have their respective tableaux during Republic Day parade on the same theme. But the panel of experts, which has been assigned to screen the states’ proposals, decided that Mayawati’s Uttar Pradesh has better claim over Modi’s Gujrat in showcasing Gautam Buddha and his legacy.

Now, the UP government’s tableaux on January 26 parade will showcase Buddha’s teachings with the subtle message of empowerment of dalits. The imprint of Ms Mayawati on UP’s tableaux is also quite apparent with the front portion showing Buddha’s first disciple Anand accepting water from an untouchable to stress the theme of dalit empowerment.
“Today, India is progressing fast towards the overall progress but a large number of people are bearing the pains of being untouchable and a great number of people are unaware of rights and duties. At such junctures, instead of showing the monuments related to Buddhism it is appropriate to project the messages that Lord Buddha wanted to convey for the betterment of the society,” the document submitted by the UP government to the panel stated.
The face off between the two states took place after Gujrat and UP presented their proposals for tableaux on Buddha. The UP government went into overdrive to prove the first claim over the legacy of Lord Buddha, as two states could not have been given a go ahead on the same theme. The panel had asked the two state governments to present 3D model of their proposals in a meeting on Wednesday where the UP government was reportedly asked to go ahead with its proposal, while Gujarat would showcase Buddhist monuments in its tableaux. Mr Laxmi Narayan Chawla, consultant for the Mayawati government for tableaux, stated that UP has the first claim over the Buddhist legacy, as two (Sarnath and Kushinagar) out of the four Buddhist sites are in UP, with the two other sites being Bodh Gaya and Lumbini.

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