Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati did not respond to a Congress offer for an alliance ahead of the recently concluded Assembly election in Uttar Pradesh, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi revealed on Saturday.
Mr. Gandhi was delivering the keynote address at the launch of the book The Dalit Truth, edited by his close aide K. Raju.
Mr. Gandhi said he was able to speak freely because there was no corruption charge against him. The CBI, ED and other enforcement agencies were controlling the political class.
“You must have seen, Mayawatiji did not open her mouth at all,” he said.
Mr. Gandhi said the Congress reached out to her for an alliance in which the BSP would have been the senior partner.
“She didn’t speak to us at all. I respect Kanshi Ramji, who with his sweat and blood, gave voice to the Dalits of Uttar Pradesh, and today Mayawati is saying that she will not fight for that voice,” Mr. Gandhi said.
Mr. Gandhi alleged Ms. Mayawati was bogged down by fear of the CBI, ED and Pegasus.
He accused the RSS of controlling all institutions.
“Constitution can be preserved only by institutions. Currently, all the institutions are under the control of the RSS,” Mr. Gandhi remarked.
“It is only the people who can raise their voice against this stranglehold of RSS on institutions. When the Constitution fails to function, then it is the downtrodden who are directly affected. It is the Dalit, the minority, the tribals, the small farmers who suffer,” Mr. Gandhi noted.
In a broadside against the ruling dispensation, Mr. Gandhi said there were people whose thought, from the minute they woke up in the morning, was to chase power.
“There are people who breathe power. I was born in the midst of power. But it is a curious infliction that I am not interested in power at all. I am only interested in understanding this country, like a lover who strives to understand his loved one better,” he added.
India was the only country, Mr. Gandhi said, where untouchability still existed.
“It confounds me that a person can pet a dog but would shrink from touching a fellow human being,” he remarked.
