A day after the NDA government at the Centre projected Dalit leader Ramnath Kovind as it’s Presidential candidate, BSP chief Mayawati charged the Centre of ignoring the downtrodden and poor sections of the society. Mayawati claimed that instead of ensuring welfare and jobs for the youth and poor, the Modi government was wasting public money to organise a grand International Yoga Day function in lucknow and other places. “Instead of fulfilling its prime constitutional duty towards providing jobs to crores of jobless poor, farmers, labourers and help them get two square meals, the Modi regime was using government funds and machinery on well-off people. A lavish Yoga Day function was nothing but misuse of funds, resources and time,” the BSP chief commented.
Joining issues with farmers’ outfits who opposed the Yoga Day functions, Mayawati said that their protest against the ‘anti-poor and anti-farmers’ policy was justified. lashing out at ‘wrong policies and working’ of the BJP-led government, Mayawati charged that all these have compounded the miseries of the jobless and farmers, forcing them to end their lives. Claiming dwindling job opportunities and employment crunch in IT sector too, Mayawati said that such functions should be handled by the RSS. “The RSS should have been made responsible for such functions rather than the BJP governments. Why must various government facilities and exemptions that RSS is getting be only allowed to sow seeds of hatred IJ” she asked. Mayawati charged that by doing huge publicity of International Yoga Day, which was a non-issue for the people, the Modi government and the BJP were trying to divert public attention from failure of both Union and state governments.