India: Mayawati halts statue-building spree

INDIA: India's Supreme Court has forced low-caste political icon Mayawati to halt her statue-construction spree aimed at celebrating the heroes on the lowest rung of the country's social ladder.

Mayawati, who leads the poverty-ridden northern state of Uttar Pradesh, has stirred huge controversy by spending hundreds of millions of dollars to build "statue parks" she says will boost the status of India's lowest castes.

The pugnacious politician initially defied the court's order last month to stop construction of Greek Parthenon-style memorials to political icons of the Dalits. The court censured Mayawati for spending an estimated 26 billion rupees on what critics have dubbed her "obsession" with building statues.

New Delhi, AFP