In a veiled attack on Bhim army chief Chandrasekhar Azad Ravan, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Sunday said people with vested interests were playing into the hands of rival political parties and claimed that they had nothing to do with Dr BR Ambedkar, his legacy and his movement.
“Even now, people with vested interests are playing into the hands of rival political parties. They have nothing to do with Babasaheb Ambedkar and his movement. Nor they have anything to do with Manyavar Kanshi Ram’s sacrifice and austerity,” Mayawati said without naming the Bhim Army chief.
“The truth is that these people are only using the names of the Dalit icons (Ambedkar and Kanshi Ram) to realise their vested interests,” she said in a statement on Sunday.
Mayawati’s statement assumes significance as it comes on the birth anniversary of BSP founder and her mentor Kanshi Ram and amid reports of Azad floating a new political party.
Sharpening her attack, Mayawati said, “Kanshi Ram had written a book Chamcha Yug to alert the gullible Dalits, tribals, people from backward castes and from other oppressed sections from selfish and bikaau (saleable) people like these.”
Mayawati also said, “Formation of new parties or organisations will not benefit these people, but it will lead to success of the policy of divide and rule of the casteist parties and people opposing these sections, thereby making these people helpless, and then they will never be able to stand on their feet.”
The BSP chief urged all the followers of Kanshi Ram to work hard to fulfill the dreams of Ambedkar, the statement said, adding the birth anniversary of the party founder was celebrated in a simple manner.