The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Bahujan Samaj Party president, Mayawati on Saturday announced a day-long dharna and demonstration programme on April 14 – the birth anniversary of Baba Saheb Bhimrao Ambedkar – to expose the anti-Ambedkar line of the Congress and other parties.
On that day, the BSP will also register its protest against the Women’s Reservation Bill.
The country-wide protests would be staged at all the district headquarters, Ms. Mayawati said while addressing a meeting of ministers, BSP MPs, MLAs and office-bearers at her 5, Kalidas Marg official residence on Saturday.
Stating that the polices and programmes of the Congress reflected its anti-Ambedkar stand, Ms. Mayawati said Dr. Ambedkar had been coerced to conclude the “Poona Pact” and later he had been denied the Bharat Ratna by the Congress governments at the Centre. It was after about 43 years of the country’s independence that Dr. Ambedkar was conferred with the Bharat Ratna by the National Front Government of Vishwanath Pratap Singh in 1990, Ms. Mayawati said.
According to a release issued by the state unit of the BSP, the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister assailed the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre and the then Samajwadi Party government in the State for not declaring national and state mourning on the BSP founder, Kanshi Ram’s death on October 9, 2006. It was Mr. Kanshi Ram who resurrected Dr. Ambedkar’s movement and he too had been ignored by the Congress and other parties, she added.
In a reference to the construction of monuments, memorials, parks and statues of Dalit icons by the BSP Government, Ms. Mayawati slammed the Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party and the Samajwadi Party for opposing them.
Reiterating that the BSP is not against women’s reservation , Ms. Mayawati, however, said that the Women’s Reservation Bill would not benefit the women belonging to the Scheduled Castes/Tribes, OBCs, religious minorities and the poor from the Upper Castes. She favoured separate quota for the women of these classes in the legislation.
The Bill has several shortcomings, Ms. Mayawati said.
