Elephant Statues Part of Indian Culture: BSP to EC

Refuting allegations that elephant statues installed in Uttar Pradesh resembled its election symbol, the BSP today told the Election Commission the statue of a pachyderm in a welcome posture was “not a violation” of the model code of conduct.

“These elephants standing in welcome posture are an inalienable part of Indian culture and no parallel could be drawn between the statues standing in welcome posture and the party symbol,” it said in its submission before the EC. Earlier, three petitions filed before the EC alleged that Mayawati government had deliberately installed several statues of elephants at various memorials for Dalit icons in the state. The party in its reply also took a dig at the Congress, saying the leaders of the party with its election symbol of ‘hand’ embraces everyone by waving hands.

“Now, the waving hands are nothing but waving hands for the purpose of misappropriation of the national resources for the benefit of political party Congress at the cost of public exchequer,” it charged. It argued that if its ‘elephant’ is being objected to, then by those standards “the BJP being a national political party cannot be permitted to use ‘lotus’ as its political symbol so as to directly connect it with the religious mythology and affect the mind of the electorate on a permanent basis”.

Talking to reporters after submitting the reply to the EC, BSP general secretary S C Mishra said the petitions seeking to freeze the election symbol of the party was “not maintainable as the points raised by the petitioners are baseless”. Mishra alleged that “the petitions were not in public interest and were motivated by political parties which were feeling insecure due to BSP’s growing stature”.

He said the EC listened to arguments and has given two weeks time to all the parties involved in the case to file their submissions. The party submitted that the petition against it should be rejected. BSP had filed a similar reply before the poll panel in August 2009. In its reply, BSP said the installation of statues was “not in violation” of the model code of conduct as it comes into force from the date the elections are announced by the EC and is operational till the electoral process is completed. On erection of statues of BSP president and UP Chief Minister Mayawati, Mishra said statues of late Prime Ministers like Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi have also been installed at various places. “Therefore the installation of Mayawati’s statues does not make any difference”.

The BSP pointed out that statues of elephants were being installed as welcome arches since ancient times. “That is why statues of elephants stand installed in the Rashtrapati Bhavan and even in Lok Sabha.”

The reply also said the Mayawati government is not the first one to install statues of elephants in the state. It said the Congress government had developed a ‘Haathi park’ in Lucknow in 1979 where a “huge statue” of elephant was installed and it still existed. Mishra pointed out that Congress has named several Central and state government projects and institutions after three members of the Nehru-Gandhi family — Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.

“Has this not given undue advantage to Congress party for many years at the cost of public money? Do all principles of fair play apply to only non-Congress parties?”, he asked. K K Jaswal of Common Cause, the NGO which was one of the petitioners, said after the hearing that BSP’s stand that statues of elephants were installed by various ancient rulers is “immaterial” as at that time BSP was not in existence and the pachyderm was not its election symbol. While advocate Ravi Kant’s (one of the petitioners) petition against BSP in the Supreme Court was referred to the EC, ‘Common Cause’ and another petitioner Manohar Atey had filed their petitions before the poll panel.