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Monday, Dec 03, 2007
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BSP for creating egalitarian society, says Mayawati

Special Correspondent

KOLKATA: The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mayawati, said here on Sunday that its agenda was to create an egalitarian society serving the interests of both the upper castes and the dalits.

She alleged that the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party were branding the BSP as an anti-upper caste organisation.

“If that were so why did the Congress ally with us in 1996 and the BJP associate with us for some time?” she said at a BSP rally.

Call for cooperation

“We have to bring the interests of both the upper castes and the weaker sections of society together through a process of social bonding, without which development for all in the country will not be possible,” Ms. Mayawati said.

She also charged the two parties and the Left Front in West Bengal with indirectly doing away with the system of reservation for the backward castes in the government sector through the process of privatisation.

“On the pretext of public sector undertakings turning into loss-making units, these parties are advocating their [policy of] privatisation,” Ms. Mayawati said.

Job reservation in the units to be privatised should be ensured before they are handed over to the private sector.

She appealed to party leaders to broaden the BSP’s support base to include the upper castes.

Left criticised

Ms. Mayawati came down on the Left movement in the State.

“The Communists in West Bengal have attained power with the help of funds from big capitalists and are serving the interests of big businesses,” she pointed out.

She referred to the recent incidents in Nandigram and blamed the government for being indifferent to the atrocities committed on the weaker sections of society.

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