Making a two-pronged attack on the BJP, BSP chief Mayawati threatned to launch a massive stir pan India against the ruling party’s plans to ‘’end reservation and turning India into a ‘Hindu nation’.
In her first public appearance since being quizzed by the CBI in connection with NRHM scam, the BSP chief charged the Union government of trying to sully her image by ‘falsely linking her with the scam’ and misusing CBI against her to dent the party’s prospects in the 2017 Assembly polls in UP.
Addressing a meeting to mark the ninth death anniversary of the BSP founder at the Kanshi Ram Smarak Sthal, the firebrand leader attacked the ruling SP for allowing jungle raj in the state. ‘’Only the BSP can improve the law and order situation and other irregularities in UP,’’ she claimed.
Charging the BJP-RSS of making sustained efforts to convert India into a Hindu nation, Mayawati warned the dalits and tribals that they would be reduced to being ‘slaves of the upper caste’ if it indeed happened.
“Dr Ambedkar had drafted a secular Constitution to protect the dalits and tribals, Efforts were underway to convert India into a Hindu state. The BSP would not allow this to happen and would launch a nation-wide stir to protest any move by the Centre to end reservation,’’ she asserted.
Alleging that BJP and SP were hands in glove over communal flare-ups in UP, she pointed out that the recent Dadri lynching was a brazen example of this truck. Questioning the timing of the Dadri incident, she said that communal polarisation was effected to get BJP mileage in the Bihar polls.
The BSP leader warned the people of UP to remain wary of such fundamentalist games being played under the pretext of conserving Hindutva culture.
“If the people failed to read between the lines, UP will go the Bihar way and lag behind in aspects of progress and development. The BJP is out to use different means to divide Muslims in UP, It has already activated Assaddudin Owaisi from Hyderabad to use him in Bihar,” she said.
The former CM alleged that despite knowing the perpetrators of Muzaffarnagar riots and Dadri incident, the SP government has failed to act against them. She also slammed PM Narendra Modi for refusing to take action against his ministers and leaders for their hate speech.
Terming as ‘unfortunate’, the cancellation of a concert of Pakistani classical singer Gulam Ali in Mumbai due to threats from Shiv Sena, Mayawati declared that the BSP would honour the ghazal maestro.
The BSP leader also criticised state government for reverting the schedule caste employees who were given promotions earlier and condemned the state government for ‘biased in providing compensation’.
Reiterating demand for President’s Rule in UP on the issue of law and order, the BSP chief claimed that the situation is so bad that a Dalit family in Noida had to protest in the nude to seek justice from the police. She also attacked the SP government for holding the first round of Panchayat polls on the death anniversary of Kanshi Ram. Mayawati later went to Bihar where she was scheduled to address two poll meetings later in the day.