With an eye on the Dalit vote bank, the Bharatiya Janata Party staged a state-wide dharna and demanded expulsion of senior SP leader and Minority Affairs minister Azam Khan from the Akhilesh Yadav government for his objectionable remark against Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar.
Raising slogans like ‘Baba sahab ke samman mein, BJP maidan mein’, activists of the outfit protestes at all district headquarters and submitted memorandum to Governor through the repective DMs.
In lucknow, BJP workers torched an effigy of Azam Khan but were chased away by the police. later, a delegation led by stateBJP chief Keshav Prasad Maurya submitted a memorandum to Governor Ram Naik.
“The statement against Dr Ambedkar was highly objectionable and unconstitutional. In his statues, Dr Ambedkar is shown raising a finger signifying the building of one nation. But Azam Khan treated this signal for land grabbing and projected the iconic leader as a land grabber,” Maurya said.
“The person who has no respect for the Indian Constitution has no right to be a minister. He should be sacked from the state cabinet,” he said.
Without taking any name Azam Khan had said in Ghaziabad recently a statue that points finger into the distance seems to say that not only does it own the plot on which it stands but also the one towards which it is pointing the finger.
The state BJP president said that Khan’s statement has hurt the sentiments of the people. “There should be a system where a person using objectionable language against an icon should be punished,” he said.
Meanwhile, the BJP is all set to hold a conference on Dalits in lucknow on September 16 which will be attended by party chief Amit Shah.