Facing the growing alienation of Dalits and the coming together of the Bahujan Samaj Party and Samaj Party, the ruling BJP organized the birth anniversary on grand scale. To stem the tide of the growing hostility of the dalit towards the party the BJP celebrated the birth anniversary of Dr BR Ambedkar on 14 April with unprecedented fervour.
Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha, the youth wing of the party took out Ambedkar Shoba Yatra across the 75 districts of the states. The district units of the party organized programme in each district while the party MlAs and the MPs would camp in villages.
The state president of the BJP Mahendra Nath Pandey garlanded the statue of Dr Ambedkar at the Hazratganj here on Saturday. later addressing the meeting at the state office of the party organized to celebrate the birth anniversary Pandey said the Prime Minister Narendra Modi is relentlessly working for realizing the dream of Baba Sahab ambedkar for creating egalitarian society ensuring justice for all. He said Dr Ambedkar espoused the cause of harmony, coordination nationalism where there is no discrimination with anybody on any ground. He said Dr Ambedkar worked all his life for the emancipation and empowerment of the dalits and underprivileged class.
He said under the leadership of the prime minister Narendra Modi, the BJP government is working for creating the egalitarian society and aim and objective of all the welfare schemes launched by the Center is improvement in the lot of the schedule caste, schedule tribe and the deprived sections of the society who constitute overwhelming 85 percent of the India population. He said the interest and the empowerment of the dalits and deprived sections of the society is top on the agenda of the Yogi Adityanath government.
The BJP leader said the series of measures taken by the Yogi Adityanath government for toning up the law and order has given huge relief to the poor and the downtrodden sections of the society as they were always at the receiving ends of the anti social elements.
Claiming that the BJP government in all the 20 states are following the ideals of Dr Ambedkar. He said the Atal Bihari Vajpayee led NDA government at the Center had passed three constitution amendment bills for ensuring reservation in promotion for the schedule caste and schedule tribes. He said the BJP government had also launched a campaign for the recruitment of the SC and St for filling the backlog in the Central government departments. He reminded the people that the Samajwadi party had opposed the Constitution amendment bill and they had even tore the bill on the floor of the house.
He said during the previous Akhilesh Yadav led Samajwadi party government thousands of Sc officers and employees were demoted following the Supreme Court quashed the reservation in promotion for the SC, ST in March 2012. He said the same Samajwadi party for the first time in its history celebrated the birth anniversary of Dr Ambedkar.
The Samajwadi Party’s move to celebrate Dr Ambedkars anniversary has not gone down well with the BJP, which has termed it a big drama. The state BJP spokesman Rakesh Tripathi said, “It is a big drama...ever since the SP has made ‘elephant’ (BSP’s election symbol) its friend, it is worried for the Dalits but the people of Uttar Pradesh have not forgotten how Dalits were at the receiving end on the very day when Akhilesh Yadav had become the chief minister in 2012 and how their houses and hamlets were set ablaze.”