Mayawati: Congress anti-Dalit, backwards

Lucknow, Feb 16 (UNI) Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati on Wednesday attacked Congress by terming it as ‘anti-Dalit, tribal and backwards’ and said that the party was ousted from the power at the Centre and in UP due to its ‘wrong policies’. Addressing an election rally of Lucknow division at Smriti Upvan here, Mayawati said, “After independence only Congress formed the government, but due to its policies it was ousted from power at the Centre and Uttar Pradesh. Congress has been extremely anti-Dalit, tribal and other backward castes. Congress government at the center did not confer Bharat Ratna to creator of the Constitution Baba Saheb Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar.” She said that when Kanshi Ram, who took the movement of Baba Saheb, passed away there was Congress government at the Centre, but it did not announce even a one-day national mourning. BSP supremo said, “Congress indulges into dramatics every now and then for the votes of Dalits, backwards and tribal. In reality, when Congress is in power and when its ‘achhe din’ (good days) come they neither remind of development and upliftment of these sections of the society nor will they remember participation of the women.” Attacking Samajwadi Party (SP), she alleged that during the SP government there was rule of goons and mafias. “Riots used to take place during the SP regime every now and then. Muzaffarnagar riot is the biggest example of the violence during SP government,” she said. Mayawati also accused the SP of not allowing the bill for reservation in promotion passed in Parliament. “When the bill for reservation in promotion for government came SP tore it and did not allow to get it passed, so that Dalit community could not move forward. This is the real character of SP,” she said. She alleged that the policies and working of Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) is casteism, capitalism and to implement the agenda of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The BSP chief said, “The BJP government always spreads tension and hatred in the name of religion. Dalit community and women are not at all safe in the BJP government, but this is not shown in the media.” She alleged that along with the poor, workers and unemployed, Dalits, tribal, backward, Muslims and other religious minorities were not getting the benefits of the welfare schemes of the governments properly. The former UP CM said that inflation, poverty and unemployment has increased due to the wrong policies of the BJP government. “The farmers are upset with the BJP government at the Centre,” she said. She said that the unemployed were forced to leave the state due to the wrong policies of Congress, BJP and SP. The BSP chief said that during her regime the right place for the criminal elements was behind the bars and not out of jail. “An inquiry will be conducted in cases in which people have been falsely implicated in the name of religion, caste, political vendetta or agitation and they will be closed,” she said. She asked people to be cautious of the tactics of the opposition parties. “To create an atmosphere in their favour, opposition parties misuse opinion polls and surveys of the media. People should not get misled by them,” she said. Mayawati also termed a section of the media as ‘casteist’. “A few casteist media left no effort to bring down the morale of the people of our party by stating that their leader is not seen anywhere. As soon as the outbreak of corona subsided, I shifted from Delhi to Lucknow. I have been strengthening my party from Lucknow for the last one year. During this entire one year, I went to Delhi only for two days when my mother passed away,” she clarified. She claimed that the results of the poll will be surprising and BSP will form the majority government. “Polling for two phases of UP polls has concluded and its result will be surprising. Let them show anything by managing casteist media, but the picture will be entirely different and like 2007 surprising results will come and a majority government of BSP will be formed,” she said.